Businesses were still digging out of the snow. This is a familyowned business that likeso offer reliability, soso they opened every day. Me customers even using the store as a refuge when their own offices closed. Services where you could operate your business here if you need it. But all of the snow has hurt the bottom line for many businesses, eveven hardware stos. They s say the storms have cost them in other sales. For washington travel agencies and others offering wararm weather dedestinations. Bookings are up to jamaicaca 30 since the snow, and other places are busy. The dictor says ththat custome are eager to ditch d. Cfor the grgrand caymans. They were tired of being colo and uncomfortable and depressed. This week, president oba was in marlboro, maryland visiting a local Safeway Distribution Center touting the next steps in his administration multiyear goal to cut emissions and reduce oil use. But businesses be ready. He says the focus is on better fuel economy from meeting the and heavyduty trucks. If rivs like pepsico and cocacola and ups and fedex, or at t and verizon, i if they can join together on this, then maybe democrats and repuicans can do the same. Virgiamerica haalso been given the green light for something itas wanted. Announced they have 14 new slots at reagan national,al that means four additional roundtrip options. Customers of the issue of this show. Was coming when we spoke about this in 2012. A major friendit request. P in aok is buying whatsap deal worth 14 billion. The faceok a acquisition has a lot of people talking, and it is a grereat 19 million rags to riches story. One of their creatotors could nt get red by facebook or twitter, and the others a ukrainian immigra who came here at 16 and lived on food stamps but still refuses to sell it to advertisersrs, comparing thosose who stock you online to the big brother o of ukrae back at home. So what is their secret to making it big in buness, and is their model one to follow . Our next guests are expertsn the starartup world with very different persrsonashen it comes to vwing the tech glass halffull oralfempty. We are excited to have glen hellman. And i i spoke long ago in this town as being cranky,own also dubd d. C. s chief agitator. I also learned he is a very smart Angel Investor who has a lot toake teach usus. Al with us is Jonathan Aberman , known for being one othe best and brightest in the start of wor. He just launch his latestt venture, a new way to connect local launch printers to National Security agagencies. Welcome to you both. Jonathan, congratulalations your lunch. Lets talk about the newof the week, whatsapp. Im sure you have some thoughts on a 19 billionn pupurchase. It is a Great American story because you have a ukrainian immigrant now woworth an estimad 6. 7 billion, and he was on food ststamps. You have to shake your head beuse it is 42 per user. If they stay a year, ty will pay . 99 per year. And no advertising. That is a lot of yback time. I would argue that the number is based on 350 million users and growing, i in plac like. Na, where f facebook is not butt if you look at per user co, facebook paid more for instagram then ty paid for whatsapp. You have to understand the context. Are in the middlef a fight between google and amazon about who will control the internet, who we ultimately follow. Ultimately there is a model around this. At the moment it is just getting users. Is anompany, whatsapp, examplof how companies are bought and not sd. Gole w wanted to buy it, but they sold to facebook because that is ere they wanted to be. I think it wi pay off but ththe stocks will show their performance. Much for coming up with these o geniuses. We will talk about other things in the startup world. So what works and what does not if you have a greaidea for a startup . We are here with two of the best, glen hellman and jonathahn aberman. There are startups that are wildly scessful that we hear abt. Twitter, insgram, others. There are started that are wildlyly successful tt we never hear a about, and then there iss the largest catategory, startups thatat are m massive fails. Hohow do y you make sure you art in that l latter category, and talk about some in the middle category. Andou look at whatsapp, they w went stealth. You would not even know they were in mountain view, california. They d not seek money, money sought them. Really great entrepreneurs work in stealth. Theyey do not promote ththemsel, they promote when n it is time. A lot the people that make e a lot of noise are fails because theyey make noise instead of dog a lot of doing. A a company in this town that makes a lot of noise, but the problem is, customers are not in this town. They make a lot of noise in the vc techcene who are we talking about here . I would not want to speak about them but i just did. To their credit, they have a good product, but they started ramping up their pr engine in thisown before the product was ready. Because of that, many of the people who used them early fail. I am talking speak. T talk on speak. Defend that warhead onto other examples . It is a great company, there are a lot of companies that do promo. Whate have here is a general initial difference to a certn extent. Millennia is an generation y has growup digital. Natural behavior would be for baby boomers to sit down and watch television. It is just the way they are wired. Tech entrepreneurship is driven by a lot of companieses dririvey those demographics. The truth of the matter is, business do not get sold, they get bough what i mean by that is the best entrepreneurs are people whoo focus every day on lovoving ther customer and focus o on creatina Business Model to love the customer. How do you get those customers if you are not tooting your own horn . There is a role for brandg and pr in evy business. What glenn is getting at isis se people mistake pr for building and experience and a brand. The brand is what we use as shorthand. You know the value of what comes from watching washington buness report. Brand is important, but you have to have what the customers value. A friend of mine had a brilliant idea, she h has an app ready,y, building a business, a it will be busy as to when she launches. It will not be perfect, but if she waits, others may t thee idea. First of all, therare a a lot of entrepreneneurs who worry abt getting the other idea first. Your idea is not what sells. It is execution. It does not matter who has y yor idea. There are very few companies that are based on real secret sauce. To the fact that facebook wasas not the first out of the gates. We w want to have you both back on, so join us next timen the washington businesseport. And coming up, if you have a Business Plan, throw it out going against conventional wisdom, Business Plans arnot a good idea. He saysis back a and Business Plans give a false sesense of security and frankly banks to not even care about them. If ebong eka says it, we believe it. He has helped others t started and cceed in business. Now he shahares that wisdom in s new book start me up. Welcome back. Starts whenord th Business Plansre, so what isis the problem with Business Plans . It keeps people from moving forward in their process. Anytime we see resisistance, we stop. Woing with a l lot of people, they cannot get past the Business Plan ste with their ideas. Some have great executi but they felt theyeeded a Business Plan, so i it is a waste of tim. You and jonathan were talking over the break and he said venture capitalists and banks do not look at them, so they are a waste of time. I recommend this book. It is a great read. You break it dowfor anyone looking to start a business on the siside or their own busines. Four ste to succes nunumber one, structure. Find your nic, capitalize on your expertise. It ihockey week am a we have all been watchching,nd you q que the greaeat wayne gretz kee. Do not look atat where the pucuk is, lookok at ere it is going. Eveone has great ideas. Thsecret sauce is ththe execution. Onyou even say, capititalize your own expertise. Ththis is counterintuitive to m. You also give the readeders ws to bui expertise if they do not have it. I ink if you do not have it, you have picked the wrong business. Onthere is no monopoly knowledge. If you can learn as much as you can, then you become an expert inin that space. The s second part success, strategy, creating value inour product. Do not comompete w with walmaron ur pricing, make your product so valuable tha custors will have to have it no matter r the pric gonew Many Companies ve out of business trying to compete with amazon or walmart . People spend money to get a desired result or they want ril and solved. Ifif you f focus o on that aspeu can prove them with so much value where they are not worried about the money. A third part, persistence. Be productive. Do not delegate, leverage accountability. Delegation is telling people what to do and yelling at them when they do not do it. Leveraging accountability is having them buy in. Work with local universities and colleges, and five people who want to dohat you want to do and get it done. The fourth sp and to get e details, you c buy the book. Sales, the psychology of sales and influencing your customers needs. Selliling, most people find distasteful. But the reality is we are e go on anople when interview, wn we meet friends. We are all selling. You want to create ann oppoportunity to p provide peope with content and information to become an expert and two, use social media to leverage your brand by giving them information that they can use, not like a buhorn. When you u talk about marketing, there are many different ways. You should advertise and do social media do you have a preference over the other . I love twtwitter because it s easy to connect. Over the last few years, i have grown my followiwing by doing a few steps which are in the book but you can find the brand ambassadors. You have ught me a lot about twitter. You retweet a lot of the things that we say on the show. It is a great way to share the twitter love, so i learn from you always, and a lot from the book. Ebong eka, thanks for joining us. When we come back, an important industry in this town. An exclusive with the three leaders it is considerered one of the top 10 art c collectionsn the country. But there are challenges. Whe still a popular d. C. Destination,his 100 45yearold institution has faced contntroversy in the past, continuing to do with debt, and now faces an estimated 100 million in repairs and upgrades. Based with the possibility of selling works from the collection or even selling the building, instead this week, a surprise announcement. The corcoran gallery and the college of art and dign are now partnering with the National Gallery of artnd George Washington university. An idea that many say will save the corcoran and its collection, but others criticize it, saying it will fracture or dismember the museum. In an exclusive interview, we talked to the three taed with this partnership. Earl powell, stephen knapp, and peggy, president of the corcoran gallery and college of art and desi. Oining us. Fofor the business o of art is big business. A business of museums. It is a difficult business. Where is the corcoran now, why do you need a partnership . The corcoran is a 19th Century Institution that isow in the 20th century. Many things are happening with art and culture. We think this Partnership Enables the corcoran to continue the irit of the institution with two great washington, d. C. Orders who know the llection siness, education business, and our faculty and curriculum will not only be maintained but enhanced in a wonderful way. Ststudents will s still be in te building. On the collection side we have an opportunity to do additional research. E National Gallery has a beautiful study center. We hope that we can do a lot of things with the collection and with their care and stewardship of the collection. The syrgy between the two is enormously exciting. Numbersowell, go to the with me. Where is the money coming from, what are your estimates on how much the partnership could cost the National Gallery . The taxpayers are not paying for this. It is largely a transfer of collllections and eventually we will be implementining a modern and contemrary art program here which will be sustained with priva funding. The same kind of sponsorship we do it all of our exhibitions. No Government Support as far as this goes. The private sector will find what needs to be funded as far as the programming. The collections will be coming to the gallery, inart, and likewiwise that willll be undern without additional funding from the federal side. Knapp, the hardest job of a University President these days is the budget. Talk about the numbers a how you can justify it to the students, parents, and your board members. Is anst of all, it unparalllleled opportunity for r community and students. For everything we do, as the heart of the Largest University in the nationcapital. We have done preliminary work but a lot more needs to be done. I cannot give you exact numbers now. 100 million,n, is that clos . The numbers are up and dodow. Arel not be cheap, but we receiving some assets as part of this arrangement that will help to pay for a portion of that. We need to understand how that will net out, as we say, but there will be fundraising for this, similar to the National Gallery. We have already started planning for that. Thisas something that was y too good to pass up p and i thik it is an extraordinary moment for the arts and the nation. Where we are located, because of the powers of these institutions coming t together, we can create andnnovative del for ar education. Nonetheless get in the world. The transfer of assets, that is part of the quizzes a for the system. Some have described it as a dismemberment of the collection. It will remain in washington, d. C. In the greatest National Gallery you can imagine. We are not at all concerned. Giftis washington, d. C. s to the n natn and most of it will stay here. Fofor those that cannot, imamage the community that would want them. The important thing, we are not selling art. That is what is criticized when universities try to support operations and make other moves to sell collections to finance that. That is not ethical in the museum world. I would be remiss if i did not ask you, who does this belong to, and how did it end up here at the corcoran . It was purchased by sator in his newh he had york apartment for many years, eventually given to the corcoran. We are guessing that he did not pay for this with his senate salary. We will have to do a bit more research on that. Thank you all for joining us on wasngton Business Report getting into the business of museums and art. This week on Government Matters people may not realize five years ago it was not possible for r people to do. Downloading your personal health records. The program is poised to scale nationwide. It is about delivering better Weapon System that help the fighter. Rather than the war we were in 20 years ago. Approach tosimple weapons procurement. I do not think there is a Single Agency that will not be impacted. The possible impact of compreheive immigrion reform. Government matters starts right now. From abc 7 and newschannel8, this is Government Matters