hi there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg. and welcome to "your business," where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. running a small business is a full-time job, day, night, vacations, for so many of us it is really hard to turn it off. that's why sometimes even a successful small business owner may need to take a breather. that's the case for two entrepreneurs who decided to cut back on their businesses. while they each decided to do this for two different reasons, their message is the same. >> i had always wanted this business, so i decided to jump in with both feet and do it anyway. i was going to do whatever it took to have that business. >> mary leonard's decision to launch her own company was a dream come true. >> the business plan was to have an online business and also be in one store during the first year for the chocolates. i actually had four flavors. >> but that plan weekly changed before coh chocolat celeste got off the ground. plans were put on the back burner after her first plan materialized. >> i had to punt. a few months after that i had a store. the majority became retail. >> the change in plans also meant a change in leonard's daily life. >> originally my thoughts were that i was starting more of a lifestyle business than a seven-day-a-week business. but now it was a full-time effort. >> the retail buzz grew thanks to new flavors and leonard's decision to work on events like wedding. when you add the tastings in the kitchen, the experience became overwhelming. >> it became physically daunting because i was up at 7:00 in the morning and finished work at 11:00 that night. i was doing that day after day. >> so about ten years into the very comfortable life of chocolat celeste and admittedly tired woman made a decision. >> i made the decision and jumped off the cliff again and said i'm closing. >> to surprise of customers leonard halted production, sold all the inventory, aban dorred her store and took two months back. she cut back but knew she was not closing for good. >> i had to make a decision of what the business plan would be. >> during her break hurt her newly focused mission became clear. >> i need to start over and be what i want to be. >> leonard wanted more joy in her life and overhauled her company. >> the business will be transformed into what i want it to be, which is an internet business and a business that is for corporations, logo images and the like and that that will bring the true volume and true level of revenue that i want. >> she spent the summer returning to her original plan expanding her web presence and selling chocolates to corporate clients. leonard is also slowly easing out of the retail market. >> i was going to limit the number of days per week i was open and make it well-known i was the four-day chocolate store. >> leonard said it was easy to cut back and retool because she wanted to regain control of her life and her business. >> i was in a better mood every day. it gave me a new life. there was a little bit more spark in me than there was before. >> dan wedge knows a thing or two about cutting back his hours because he already is doing it. >> being in charge of your own business, that's the consume in your life. and it is nice to have something else, too. >> at the age of 62 he now closes his bookstore in albany, new york, for the first week of every month. >> i have been thinking about it for a considerable period of time and actually had warned many regular customers of the possibility. >> and he has no regrets. >> i was working 50 or 60 hours a week for 21 years. not only minding the store and people expect me to be here a lot of the time, and it is hard not to be here when you have a store, but also out buying books. so almost every weekend i would be out for at least one day, sometimes two days buying books. and when i had other time off i would collect. >> at first customers were a little worried about the future of wedge's store. >> the first response was, oh, no, you are about to close. you can't close. we need you. that is a great compliment. when people started to figure that out, the general reaction was, good for you. >> while others suggested he hire more staff, but that just didn't fit into wedge's plan to cut back. >> i would then have to work harder to get more books to pay that person, too. and that would beat the purpose. >> wedge understands his decision to spend less time on his business could affect his revenue, but that's why he's cutting back and not calling it quits. >> i'm a natural retailer, i like doing it, i like running the store and having a place to go every day. you can never predict exactly what's going to happen, but i have no intention of going back on this or of going further. >> wedge says he knows this plan may not work for other entrepreneurs but he says the an idea worth examining if you are looking to make a change. >> they want to do something else, they have to make room for that somehow, they have to make balances in their lives. and that's what i'm trying to do by doing this for myself. >> mary leonard agrees. she says sometimes you need to do things for yourself, which may actually result in a better business. >> go to the place where you have the most enjoyment and that's where you'll be successful. as we have said before on this program, sometimes less is more. so how do you know when it may be time to scale back in order to be more successful and maybe even find some balance with your business? let's turn to this week's board of directors, colleen debase is the small business editor at "the wall street journal" and author of "the wall street journal complete business guidebook." and we have an all-star team here. good to see both of you. >> good to see you. >> balance in your business, when we hear that sometimes i laugh because obviously it is something everyone strives for but it is hard. i know every night i go to put my kids to bed i'm right back there. >> it is hard because we want to get control and don't want to be working for somebody else, but it sound so good being 80 hours a week. it is an interesting problem solved. one of my favorite stories of a big company solving that problem is a friend of mine in jackson holes, and they decided it is a lifestyle thing and they cut it off. they said, we are going to have a lifestyle. so it is definitely doable on all levels but you really need to have a niche and be anchored in before you do. >> you do. look, we are hearing about so many small bookstores closing because barnes and noble, et cetera, for a small bookstore to close a couple days a week? >> i love this segment. i think it is my favorite segment because it is something we all want right now. i wish corporate america would embrace this, like any news organization would let us work less. >> the wall street journal three days a week. >> right. that's a great idea. i think this is kind of the beauty of being an entrepreneur and business owner is you can design a business however you want. that's the nice flexibility that comes with being in business. i do think though that there are a lot of -- >> you can design it. >> yeah. that's what i was going to say. there's a lot of pitfalls. what's interesting with these entrepreneurs is they established their businesses already and have their customer bases. and they seem to be such a good relationship with their customers that they didn't anticipate customers dropping off just because they took time off or decided to close the bookstore guy who closed -- >> these people are my age, right? they both have been in business 10 to 20 years. >> right. also, she totally changed her business. she changed it from something that was very customer in their face, retail, you have to be there all the time to something that's online and deals with wholesale. maybe look at your business and see where can i move this to somebody that fits in more better with my life. >> if you really want to have a lifestyle, which is huge, you have to get an edge. you have to own it. so get small, really. i think, find something that nobody is in and grab that piece. and then i think you do have a chance at 48 hour a week. cutting back or reinventing are pertinent to small business. joining forces with another entrepreneur can help to save both companies. >> well, i wouldn't say we are in business with one another, we are co hoots with one another. >> it is like having a second warehouse. >> reporter: these two have been working hand-in-hand about three years. the co-owner of the peach valley winery and the owner of the desiato vineyard in pennsylvania started a working relationship with wine making in mind. >> we said, hey, you guys are a local vip yard, i need a ton of grapes. >> reporter: one business deal led to another and now the pair has one goal, purchasing power. together they now buy in bulk allowing them to save tens of thousands of dollars on every order. >> we buy a truckload of bottles, it is $15,000 to $20,000. 10% to 15% reduction in purchase price is a significant amount of money. >> it is not just bottles, either. the two men will led them use wine barrels and more. >> if i need corks, i'll go to him and he buys the corks by the thousands. >> these are two of many small business owners finding success by sharing their resources. >> that is probably from the late '40s early '50s. for a few years rosie gold, owner of retro rosie and nancy cobb, an an teak dealer, have been sharing a store in florida. long-time friends they were each running their own stores but as the economy worsened they struggled to make ends meet. >> the last year my rent was increased because the shop owner has remodelled the building. >> everything has gone up. when i first started in our shopping guide and local little shopping guide, you know, i used to get an ad for $30 a month and now it is $75. >> people just aren't buying like they used to. i kept thinking, how can i cut my expenses and stay in business? >> they decided to form a coop sharing retail space and expenses. >> the deciding factor was dollars and cents. i felt that downsizing and joining forces with another antique person that i could stay in business and do the things that i love to do. >> cobb found somebody to take her old location and moved her full inventory to rosie's store. >> we decided she would take the smaller room and the expenses are shared. >> they share all the other expenses including ad space in local newspapers, the main form of advertising. >> we have increased the size of the ad and it makes more of a punch. people know they can come in, two great shops, one location. >> have a good day. come back and see us. >> so far the partnership has eased the financial burden. >> by moving in here and sharing the expenses, i have literally cut my expenses in half. by cutting my expenses in half i am able to buy a better inventory. >> unlike nancy dole and rosie cobb's whose inventory compliments each other, these two still have a slight overlap in business, but it is a small price to pay for the arrangement that just makes financial sense. >> we are in a competitive business but we are two different styles. it is like having an asian restaurant and an italian restaurant. they work together buying the take-out containers. what's the difference. >> money is the bottom line as long as everybody pays the bills and it doesn't cause the other person to default and whatnot. it is great. purchasing together. >> and the for nancy and rosie, it gives them a break from running their businesses all by themselves. >> it helps us each with our personal lives, too, during busy business time for ourselves. >> when you have your up place, there's no vacation. it is just so much more on you than having a coop. a coop is perfect, it really is. >> when we come back, jill and colleen answer your business questions, including one about how to turn a free website service into a paid one. and healthy employees take less time off. some tips on how you can help them stay fit. this is my band from the 80's, looker. hair and mascara, a lethal combo. i'm jon haber of alto music. my business is all about getting music into people's hands. and the plum card from american express open helps me do that. you name it, i can buy it. and the savings that we get from the early pay discount has given us money to reinvest back into our business and help quadruple our floor space. how can the plum card's trade terms get your business booming? booming is putting more music in more people's hands. it is time now to answer some to of your business questions. colleen and phil are here with us once again. the first question is from trish, i'm a small business owner and have had a challenging time keeping people in the marketing communications role as they're always looking at us as a steppingstone to something bigger. we cannot afford to pay the big dollars that large cooperations can but we have other incentives. what would you suggest would be a good financial incentive for an employee in a marketing communications role? that's interesting because she doesn't have much money clearly, so i don't think she can beat anyone out on incentives. >> the thing you have to do is cut them a piece of your deal. >> you have to give them equity. >> it is amazing how many entrepreneurs resist that because they want to hold on to it, and i understand that, but that's the way to go. you want to hold on to good marketing people because they are hard to find, good marketing people. >> do you offer them a stock option? >> i would do a stock option. invest them in three to five years so they are locked in and hopefully you build the business to where this is valuable. >> i like to go the cheaper route first. if you are a smaller company, and we talked about this before, you can always offer flexibility, which is something large companies often can't give employees. so maybe you can give this employee to opportunity to work from home or rearrange his or her schedule, that may be more valuable to the employee than a large paycheck. see if that's an option. >> this is an e-mail from nancy who writes, we are a physician referral service based on nurses' recommendations. we are currently a free web service with a membership of 1,000. how do we change to a pay service to generate revenue? "the new york times" just did this same thing. >> you can see how that's working. >> it is very tricky when you start free to go to paying. that's a big goof. don't do it if you can avoid it. >> the journal always charged subscribers, so yeah. >> i would say if she can get to it, one easy way to go would be web md and do advertising. but she has to build the number. >> instead of getting subscriptions get advertising. for 1,000 people -- >> if you shift the subscription, you are going to lose a lot of those people. and then i think you are more of an an jooe's list model. >> what if you did something where you gave all existing members a really, really good deal for the first six months or something like that. >> yeah, with 1,000 people why not? >> incentives are always good. what i would advise this person, if you are going to start charging or, you know, this is for anymore who may want to start charging more for the products in a show. you want people to feel like they are getting more than they got before. i would recommend she add something on to this website, maybe instead of just -- i think she said it was like nurse recommendations, maybe add patient reviews there and start charging so people feel like they are getting something nor now and would be willing to pay for something they weren't getting before. >> amazingly, i think that's a good idea. >> thanks, phil. >> and something about the thousand people bothers me. i think she really needs to look at the whole thing because that's not a lot. >> no, that's not a lot. >> you are not going to build much business online with 1,000 people. >> maybe if you are offering more people -- there's a free service and pay more for something. >> it sounds like a good idea. i would like to go ask a nurse, why only 1,000. she has to look at that point. >> the next question is about going global. >> i was wondering if there's an appropriate time within a business's life cycle to start -- pitfalls with doing this and ways to avoid that. >> we have gotten so many questions recently about international distribution and moving your company overseas. >> the government is really pushing it. i would advise for a business owner thinking about this to check out export.gov, which is an export site that is pretty good with a lot of information, frequently asked questions and stuff from the commercial services. i would advise any business own tore check that out, but as for her question, there are always pitfalls in terms of going global, you have a deal in language barriers and time zone differences and regulations and laws in different countries. >> you have the money difference. how do you get paid. this is something most people don't think about. you sell something to other countries in a currency, doesn't the money just come like on a visa card? no, it doesn't. you have to open letters of credit. i know companies that insist on wire transfers or they don't do the deal. >> i think i would find somebody whose doing it in a complimentary -- somebody doing something with a comet complimentary product. >> or somebody with distribution. if you go that way, be sure to tell the person i'm going to have you give me a number and i'm going to check your number. we are going to do business as long as you say you are going to do this. there's a lot of questions about the distribution channels. >> this is from jesse who writes, i'm starting a salt water fishing guide service down in port charlotte, florida. i wanted to know how i could procure financing in the way of sponsors. sponsored fisherman would put the lo go on the boat and on the products. >> i have to say, my stepson just won this really prestigious fly-fishing tournament and i can tell you about the sponsor thing. the game is, if you are going to be doing something like this guy is doing, you need to be able to get fishermen out there who are already sponsored. you bring them out there, they are already sponsored, then you have already people looking at this tournament, whatever you are setting up, in a way to give you a lot of credibility. build the credibility on the back of people already there. also, get a lot of media out to guys that like to go fly fishing. he can get media people on that boat and they will write him up. >> the more sponsors will be interested. thank you so much for all your advice. it is always fun to have you on the program. if you have a question for the experts, go to our website, the address is openforun.com/yourbusiness. there just hit the ask the show link to submit a question for the panel. if you would like e-mail us your questions and your comments. the address is your business at msnbc dot com. workplace wellness doesn't mean on-site gyms or percent trailers. here are five low-cost ways to help them stay healthy courtesy of wallstreet.com. >> clean out your vending machines. relace them with low-calorie treats. invest in pedometers. create office competition to challenge them to walk more. give fast food facts. create a pocket of nutrition information at fast food locations. this will help employees make informed choices for their meals. offer health risk assessments. employees who complete assessments are better equipped to take steps to head off health threats. know your employee. consider wellness options tailored to your specific group of workers. for example, if your workers are women, provide mammogram screenings or bring in speakers to talk about women' health issues. to find out what people think about your business and learn more about your visitors, one of the best ways to collect market research is through surveys. our next guest has tips for creating effective questionnaires that provide you with relevant feedback. that's the key, relevant. dave goldberg is the ceo of survey money key, a company to enable users to create their web-based surveys. great to have you, dave. survey money monkey is easy to put a survey out, which is really fun. what i found is what i was saying before you have to make sure it is relevant. >> what you are trying to do with a survey is get information. in a lot of cases, from your customers, about how they think you should run your business, what kind of decisions you can make to make it easier for you and so getting a survey out to is really easy as a tool. story the right people is the critical part to help you make a better desgligs and make sure that the information you get is actionable. >> right. >> who cares if they answer "a." >> don't ask someone a question you don't want the answer for so keep the questionnaire short. >> right. >> keep it under 12 minutes. >> 12 smints long. >> under 12 minutes. >> sometimes you'll get a survey that could take you half an hour and -- and so those are really not good for people, but keep it as short as possible. keep the questions, if you can get it down to five questions, great. >> yeah, five. i answer surveys all the time, by the way. i love them. i just answer the ones that call you on the phone. you gave us a bunch of tips which are really useful. avoid using agree, dis agragree questions. >> that's what i get in a lot of surveys. people want to be polite and want to agree so you get a bias towards agree questions when that's not really how people feel. >> even when it's anonymous. >> even when it's anonymous. people are generally might. >> use an appropriate number of scale points. that is, how interesting was there, extremely interesting, very interesting, you say five? >> five -- in most cases five is kind of the number to recommend. some cases there are seven-point scales that you can use. five is the right new. you've got sort of two usually that are sort of, you know, extremely interesting, very interesting, and then you've got somewhat interesting, not at all, but you're forcing people to make discreet choices along the five-point range. that's the best way to do it. >> then, make questions clear and specific. >> we suggest to people don't ask them sort of an open-ended text question so that's not clear, right, because then they can write anything they want. you don't know what you're going to get back from those open-ended questions, and they don't know what you're supposed -- what they are supposed to give >> you and it's hard. >> somebody then has to take 1,000 answers and figure out what to do with it. >> not good on either side, not as the creator of the survey and then for the person trying to figure out what are they getting to try me to answer. >> you can't say was the speaker cool, because cool means something different to everyone who uses that word. >> i think the general message with all of these things is be very precise, right about, what you're trying to get and be clear and run it by a couple of people in your office or friend if you don't have a big team. run it by people. >> that's a good idea. test the survey on the people. >> absolutely. >> avoid leading questions. don't basically say did you hate it, right? >> of course, of course. but you'd be surprised how many times people do that. >> dave goldberg, thanks so much. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> do you wish you could manage your business as financial accounts all in one place? well, our website of the week may be of interest to you. indinero.com is a site that helps you plan and budget your money. after you enter your account information they will organize your bank statements and update your budgets and provide you with an easy-to-use financial dashboard to. learn more about today's show, just click on our website. it's openforum.com/yourbusiness. you'll find all of today's segments, plus web exclusive content to help your information grow and don't forget to become a fan of the show on facebook. we'd love to get your feed baghback and follow us on twitter @msnbcyourbis and next week making your social marketing social. >> it's been important to show that myself and erin are two women, just like the two women who engage with us, and that there really is a personality, not some februarylous corporation behind skinny skip. >> the founder of one company explains why it's important to get out from behind your compute and do old-fashioned offline marketing. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg. and remember, until then, we make your business our business. this is my band from the 80's, looker. hair and mascara, a lethal combo. i'm jon haber of alto music. i've been around music my entire life. this is the first alto music i opened when i was 24. my business is all about getting music into people's hands. letting someone discover how great music is, is just an awesome thing. and the plum card from american express open helps me do that. i use it for as much inventory as i possibly can. from picks...to maracas... to drums... to dj equipment... you name it, i can buy it. and the savings that we get from the early pay discount on those purchases has given us money to reinvest back into our business and help quadruple

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