Small businesses are revitalizing the economy and American Express open is here to help. Thats why we present your business on msnbc. Hi, there, everyone, im jj ramberg and welcome to your business, the show dedicated to giving you tips and advice to help your Small Business grow. This week makers, doers, and creative entrepreneurs from across the country are gathering at Grand Central station in new york city as a part of Martha StewartsAmerican Made initiative. Now in its second year, the event honors those sparking a change in the way business is done by pioneering and innovating in their selected fields. Im hosting a panel at the event discussing the next generation of socially responsible companies, its called doing well by doing good. We met up with two of the honorees, whose companies are doing just that, by leading a group of Small Businesses focused on stainability. If we can get more of that, i think wed be on to something, carl. Behind this cloud of dusty ashes is woodberry kitchen, one of the countrys best new restaurants. If you make a commitment like we have to local sourcing, you start to look at everything through that lens. That means something as simple as the ash that comes out of our wood burning oven, we sift the ash, make charcoal we can cook with over a grill and the middle grade ash is a good soil amendment. This restaurant rose from the ashes of what was once a vacant and burned out compound of industrial buildings. Our location is in one of baltimores grand mill spaces. We took the space and had local artists and craftspeople, they really built the space. They are tapping into a trend of companies that care about stainability, care about their local community, and care about the local economy. What sourcing locally does is it drivers the local food economy, and thats really what woodberry kitchen is all about, buying more food from farmers that we could then make into this beautiful product. But it doesnt just end at the food. Using found materials from the area, they repurposed metal work for the stairs, salvaged wood for the bar and tabletops, and utilized the local glass blower to create the light fixtures. We knew that we werent going to just drywall the heck out of it, and i think that from the very beginning is a very sustainable move, not using materi materials that are new. Spikes understanding of local sourcing formed after 15 years of working and owning traditional restaurants in and around baltimore. It was a long, slow, steady learning curve both about local food system, which im very connected with now, but also how much it meant to me as a chef, and i didnt really feel like id found what i was meant to do until i started talking to farmers and going to markets and going out and visiting folks growing food. Along the way, spike has met and formed relationships with likeminded people like denzel mitchell. Denzel took a gamble to fulfill a more filling life as a farmer. The food in Baltimore City is developing rapidly and absolutely ready for this kind of product and farming. We sell to about 12 restaurants, woodberry kitchen and the other fleet of smaller restaurants being our closest partners and allies and our biggest customers. Our goal is to return the maximum value to our growers. Thats a very simple equation when we think about how many dollars can we get back into supporting Sustainable Agricultural in our region. Across the country in oakland, california, another company with the same core values as woodberry found an opportunity growing mushrooms from used coffee grounds. The idea got started off in a pretty random way. Were sitting in a Business Ethics class and our professor said he could possibly grow gourmet mushrooms on entirely Recycled Coffee grounds and something about that stood out to the both of us. The two students were inspired by the idea of turning waste into fresh, local food. After a Little Research and a ton of youtube videos, they started experimenting with growing mushrooms in alexs fraternity kitchen. We both walked over to our local coffee shop, picked up coffee grinds, brought them back to my fraternity, planted two rows of five buckets and one bucket ended up growing. That one bucket is really the start of the company. They started cultivating mushrooms in coffee grounds, selling to local supermarkets and restaurants, but the idea quickly morphed into something entirely different. People kept on expressing their interest, can i do it myself. That was when something beautiful clicked in our minds, that opportunity to get other people to see how food grew, and thats how the mushroom kit really got created. They soon realized the companys true mission, creating tools to make food personal again. Like a small selfcleaning fish tank where you can grow herbs and the product that started it all, a grow at home mushroom kit that was simple, sustainable, and educational. I think we all have to learn how to do it to make our food better, and these young farmers, they are doing all kinds of innovative, creative things, so its incredibly important and incredibly inspiring. And very, very entrepreneurial. Both woodberry kitchen and back to the roots are being honored by Martha Stewart living as part of its American Made initiative, celebrating a new generation of creative american entrepreneurs. For us, this is entrepreneurship. Its nothing new per se, its stuff our grandparents used to be doing. Although it may seem like a throwback to depressionera values, for these entrepreneurs, it boils down to three things, people, planet, and prof it. Not trying to be the best restaurant in the neighborhood, but best restaurant for the neighborhood. We employ a lot of people, butchers, bakers, we literally have a candlestick maker, as well, we make our own candles. In the last three or four years, how this movement has grown, yes, you can make money and do good at the same time. Chances are, Martha Stewart has touched your life in some way or another, whether that spatula in your kitchen bears her name or youve come to really rely on her recipe for blueberry pancakes, Martha Stewart has a talent for teaching, inspiring, and creating beautiful things. So how did she turn her passion for home making into the power house that is now Martha Stewart media . She shares her thoughts about being your own customer, learning every day, and having a business plan. When i wrote my book the martha rules, i made a list of what i think are those golden rules for a Good Business. Just like i have golden rules for how to make a pie and golden rules for cake making, i have golden rules for business. And if you stick by these golden rules, youll probably do okay. I have always said ever since i started working that i am my customer. I want to appeal to me. Whats missing in my life . What void can i fill that will fill the voids for everybody thats like me . And my mother would always say, nobodys like you, martha, forget it. And i always said, mother, i am like everybody else. And, you know, i have chickens, i have a garden, i scrub the floors, i vacuum my house. Im just like everybody else. So she finally got to understand what i was talking about, because i always want to please me with what we do. Do i want to buy it, do i need it, so its the need and the want. When i started the business, the Martha Stewart living media, our two words were inspire and inform. So you create the beautiful picture. You create the lifestyle that you think everybody would aspire to, and then you have to tell them how to get it. So thats the teaching part. To be that inspiring, that inspiration, you have to know a lot. You cant fake it. So i learn every single day. One of my mottos is learn something new every day. And i do. So its all about informing yourself so that you can be a good teacher. Once you develop a Large Customer base, and we reach about 100 Million People every month with all our various businesses, our books, our magazines, our television, and once you develop that kind of close rapport, they have already a feeling that im providing them with things they need and want. So its very important. To engender trust with your customer. If you disappoint them, if you make something that falls apart, forget it. You dont get that customer back again. And all i want to do is grow my customer base. I want to be where that customer needs and wants me with good stuff. When you develop your business plan, dont be afraid to write everything down. Everything that comes into your mind, because ultimately, if you have a Good Business plan, well thought out, well designed, carried out for a year or two or three, you can start to follow that plan in an orderly fashion. Doesnt always work. It doesnt always work. It doesnt always turn out the way you think its going to turn out. You might stumble or trip or fall in a gully, but if you have the plan, you can get up and continue on your path. Mobile technology is changing the way that we connect with clients and how we market and sell to customers. Here to talk about new trends for advertising efficiently and effectively is mark astrofsky, a serial entrepreneur and author of a new book, word of mouse, how we buy, sell, live, work, and play. Great to see you, mark. Thanks for having me. Theres so much great information in this book, i wish we could talk more about it, but i want to focus on some of the new advertising trends if we can today. One of the things you talk about is app vertizing. Theres different ways to use apps, you can have an ad within your app, but more importantly, the thing of an app, get them to use a free version and up sell to a Premium Version and it works. A lot of Small Businesses are choosing to do that. Exactly. Its easy. This just happened to me actually. I downloaded a free app for my children, played two of the games with them, then youre hooked. To get the third one i had to pay, but they had me. It works, its a sample. Youre giving them a free sample. Facial recognition software, how does that help most of us . Its understanding the technology so you know if its good for you. In the billboard space, they have billboards with facial recognition, the billboard is looking back at you and playing the type of ads that you are going to look at. So you dont want to run women ads to men and ads for hockey for women, if i may say that. Is this in a lot of places . They are testing it, yeah. Madison square garden, they wont show you a male ad, theyll show you a female ad if youre the only one sustained standing in front of the one they are testing. Another way of targeting your advertising. Facebook has put in facial recognition so they are going to try to automatically identify whos in all your photos. A lot of people can do that right now. Okay, so now lets go to retargeting and relationship targeting. Retargeting is when youre using gmail and they can see youre talking about im going to go to italy, you might suddenly start seeing ads on the righthand side of the page for italy car services. They know what youre talking about because youre using their service and thats part of the agreement, they are going to flip you ads retargeted towards you. Because you cant learn everything with limited time, choose your medium, right . I tell people you have to know what you dont know. Then you have to hire someone or bring someone in who knows what you dont know. So that if you dont know pinterest, you find someone when does. If you dont know linkedin or one of the others, you find someone so you know now i know enough, can i make a decision to get into that media. Finally, mobile crm. Mobile crm is managing customers through mobile. You know where they are, you can know where they are and what they are looking at and the ads can be targeted to them and you can have a better relationship with a lot of your customers through mobile, whether its mobile or social, its a language. Thats what they speak. So you got to find some that work in one, some that work in another. Mobile crm is a big deal and you just need to look it up, understand it, and find out if its good for you. The point of all of this is not like what happened with tv ads, you throw it on tv and maybe four people would be in your target and 20 people wouldnt. Now here are all these ways to figure out who your target is and get right to them. Its drilling down. Theres broadcast and theres narrow cast. Were broadcast. This is broadcast. But its still narrow to Small Business. Narrow casting is knowing exactly. You can run an ad on facebook just for people who belong to a certain association. Thats narrow casting at its finest. Youre not wasting money on people who might not be interested. No, youre not. So good to see you, thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. Do you have a packed day of meetings and need a ride to your next stop . If so, check out our app of the week. Using uber, you can order and pay for black car service entirely on your mobile phone. Simply request a car through the app and youll be picked up within minutes. Payments are handled automatically by using a credit card, and you can also share your location so that people youre meeting with can track your progress. When we come back, well answer your Small Business questions about what skills you should have when starting up a Small Business, and the value of going to a fremium model, and sunday on a sunday. They hope to get their just desserts with their natural ice cream product. Brought to you by American Express open. Visit openforum. Com for ideas to help you grow your business. Has its ups and downs. Seasonal. Doesnt begin to describe it. My cashflow can literally change with the weather. Anything that gives me some breathing room makes a big difference. The plum card from American Express gives your business flexibility. Get 1. 5 discount for paying early, or up to 60 days to pay without interest, or both each month. Im Nelson Gutierrez and im a member of the smarter money. This is what membership is. This is what membership does. Its time now to answer some of your business questions. Lets get to this weeks board of directors. Brian cohen is the chairman of new york angels, which has invested more than 53 million in 70 early stage companies. Hes also author of the book, what every Angel Investor wants you to know, how to get smart funding for your billion dollar idea. Jen gruber is best known for creating butler bags and starting her lifestyle band. Thanks for being here. Lets start with the first question, it is about getting your business off the ground. I think a lot of people wish to have an awesome startup and they kind of neglect what skills are required to launch the company. So i think if you could answer what kind of skills are important for a startup founder to have . I know this is a passion of yours, brian, making sure that people are starting companies are actually doing it right, so what do you have to say to him . All starts with the customer, how well do you know the customer . How much do you know what they are thinking, are you inside their head, do you know the problems, challenges, issues they face . Your business is based around solving their problems and being able to know what they are thinking is critical. Are there any particular skills . Youve done it multiple times successfully. I think your ability to be able to pitch and to connect with people is critically important. I see so many people with great ideas, but they cant articulate their ideas, they cant pitch or stand in front of an audience. That holds them back considerably. Also your ability to be agile. Sometimes people think this is my customer, but in reality, a new form of customer comes into an unexpected area and people ignore that because they were so focused in this one direction and their true customers being neglected. Knowing your customer is a key part of it, but being able to be agile to attend to that. Next one is about giving free stuff away. A lot of Companies Offer their services for free in hopes to get this exponential user growth, so what we were kind of wondering was how do you balance that need for this really growing user base, but also at the same time wanting to prove yourself as being able to be a profitable, successful venture . I love this question, and can you give stuff for free, is it worth it in the beginning . How do you deal with that issue . I think the true question about this is experimental marketing, its cosmetics or skin care. For me, when i launched the butler bag company, gave out a lot of bags for free. So that became a viral Marketing Strategy for me. Now, if were talking about a website and technology, then it might not have that same kind of conversion. Youre giving experience for someone to use, but you need them to be talking about it and showing the brand to other people for it to be effective. The issue is also freenium with a premium capability. You want to add to the value of what you already gave them. Look at facebook right now. Now in order to just to to have the something and get it seen by all of your friends or your fans you have to boost your sales. In order to be seen. So i feel like it has become a Business Model that people are starting to expect. People who have gotten too used to everything being free get a little bit frustrated by it. And wont participate in it. But if you see the value coming from those fans and followers seeing what youre posting, then youre going to pay for it as part of your Marketing Strategy. The next question, for michael. He writes, my website connects home owners and contractors. The site is still being developed, but it is nearly complete. What should i be doing if anything about promoting my website before it is completed. My concern is that ill direct people to it and theyll be turned off because of typo, fufrp functionality issues, et cetera. I think he answ