Hi there, welcome to your business. Small business saturday is fast approaching. The yearly effort to get people to shop the saturday after thanksgiving has blossomed into a year effort to get customers to support independent businesses. Here is a great example of how one persons successful startup started eaterys all over her small town. This is exactly the winwin business story that other communities can learn from too. Im shari. I will be your guide today. I was born and raised if california. Reporter she has lived in the carlsbad, california area for more than 30 years and she loves showing tourists and locals the things that make her neighborhood so special. Were going to do a threehour walk and tour around town and stops at seven different restaurants and wine tasteings. Anybody like wine and food . Yeah, lets go. Earlier this year, she started carlsbad food tours. She did it as a way to prepare for her retirement. I have been a nurse 32 years now. I still am actually nursing. This is kind of my Retirement Plan job. What she did in real life was her one Little Company would have a Ripple Effect that would help other Small Businesses and the local community thrive. I think the tour has been a great promotional opportunity for us. Many people that go to the tour didnt know we were here at the corner. Reporter the owner of the chocolate bar gets people to come down the viet, in a direction too many people miss. They dont know we exist, even though we are a blockandahalf away from the main strip. The owner of cafe topes needed help getting people to check out her store. There is no question, people who try her sin upon rolls love them. Wow whats the no. 1 breakfast spot if carlsbad . But she says when people go out to eat, they often hop on the freeway and head to the phish malls, completely ignoreing local places like hers. Just a couple feet away we have a major chain that. Reporter with an ad campaign of zero, its hard to compete, but charice introduces many people. Thats what the Small Businesses like her need. We know if you just get them in here, to try it. Youd have them, tad be hooked. But its expensive. Reporter steve brady recently opened an innovative ice cream shop subzero. He uses lick witd nitrogen to fast freeze the portions. Despite his great location, right in the center of town, hes selling something new that people dont totally understand and its hard to get people to try it. Which is, once again, where charice is so helpful. Thats probably what we think about 90 of the time. You have to bring them in. These downtown businesses say her tours help boost customers, theyve also helped the businesses take notice of each other. The food tour has helped the businesses Work Together because now we recommend our customers to go to each others spot. The owner and publisher of carlsbad meteorologist. He says even knot nonfood business versus benefits, too. You have to meander through, even though are you on a food tour, you certainly are noticing the window displays. You might say, oh, yeah,ly come down here tomorrow and get a few pair of shoes, whatever it is. Her business is still in its infancy, but as she grows, so do the number of people visiting these off the food establishments. Thats gotten everyone excited. What she does with the food tour is different. Its an opportunity she presented to us, as to how she could cross promote together. How it was a whenwin. In that aspect, shes doing a great job. American goes to the polls this weekend. What is shaping up to be a potentially historic Midterm Election that will determine the political makeup of congress. Small Business Owners are optimistic about the economy, they showed deep skepticism about whether walling will fix problems directly related to them. As they head to the ballot box, jim newman from finance and the ceo of five businesses, jay is a Small Business bloger. We will go through a listing of things Small Businesses should be thinking about as they go to the polls. Lets start with anyone you want. Immigration reform. It is a real problem. We interview people all the time. We like them. We put them threw everify. It doesnt go through. Which had people saying my father told me this was straightened out. I have been in this country 32 years. Its a problem. Its bad for the xhichl its bad for the work force. Its a problem. They keep saying they will fix it they havent. The crystal ball, anything moving forward . Lets assume we have a divided government just as we had several years now. So i dont think we will see any big breakthroughs at all. One big thing is the absence of selfdestructive antics like shutting down the government. If republicans control both sides of congress, they can run things and they have to do that going into the 2016 election that removes a lot of what they complain about. Immigration reform is very hard, very complicated. We could see a few other small things happen you know fiddleing on the margins if you will. Lets talk about things that could happen that Small Businesses care about that could happen. The top three concerns, they want more revenue. They want lower taxes. We are going to see a lot, hear a lot of talk about Corporate Tax reform. I dont think it will get a tax code too complicated. Its possible there could be some type of tax reform. President obama said he would want it lower than that. There is room to me in the middle if there is a willingness to compromise. One could be the minimum wage, the cost of businesses, there is no chance we will see a minimum wage there. Its now just above 7. We could see it settle out around 9 president obama asked for so. Fine sents cents. We could see action on that. You have faith that things move forward . I would never say i have faith a lot depend, does each party see they have something to gain . Positive and proactive. How about loans, people looking for money . I am doing sba loans. The program is great. There are some tweaks there though, if you hit a 504 loan, they are allowing you to take money out of the bidding. Its out there in congress bringing it back to where you could get money out of it. That would be helpful to businesses because there is the 504 loan program and the 7 loan program. Its difficult to take money out. It would be helpful if they bring that back to where it was two years ago. I find for Small Businesses so steeped if getting things, often you dont know something is a problem until you know its a problem. So jay few had never gone out to get anza ba loan, you would not even know what those numbers would mean, right . So you wouldnt think about how your Congress Person would vote or how they care. So is there anything else Small Business people wouldnt have an their radar that they should be very aware of right now in their voting . I say the section, depreciation was a great ting. You could deduct a big piece of equipment quicker. That they retirement starred it for this year. You are absolutely right, i wouldnt know about the issues, so there are things out there that arent going to cause money, its pushing forward the deduction. They will get their money on the back end. Its very, very helpful to Small Business. Its just straighting that every year you dont know what they will be doing. One thing i would add, we are having elections at the state and federal level, too. Practically every Business Owner will tell you, i got the same pile of paper from the state and the feds. A lot are state or local regulations. Were so fixated on national politics, a lot of time you forget maybe you can make a little more difference at the state and certainly at the local level some its very worthwhile to get involved there and see who is running policies. Thats such a great point. The regulations on the local level are the ones that bog them down and oftentimes they may make sense for big difference. You can get involved at the local level. Well, rick, jay, thank you so much for having this discussion with us. We look forward to seeing what happens election day. His spanic ent fewers are like all small Business Owners. As we found out, this years u. S. Hispanic chamber of Commerce National convention, we simply want an environment that sets the straij stage for their countrys success. They want to help power the economy. Small Business Owners gathered if Salt Lake City to attend ceremonies held by the u. S. Chamber of commerce. The 96 chamber of commerce represents 3 million hispanic owned firms in this country that collectively contribute over 468 billion to the american economy. Traditionally, theyre growing at a rate of 3to1 when compared to the market. From Network Events the focus was on helping hispanic entrepreneurs gain information about retirement sources, make connections and grow their businesses. What we do is help to insure we are closing the gap when it comes to knowledge on running the business, the standard information and skill sets that sometimes are missing in the hispanic community. The head they say the sba is working hard to help latino small Business Owners flourish and get access to market opportunities. One of the reasons im here is that women are starting up businesses at much different, theyre over indecked. For example, latinos have a start rate of six times over the national average. Thats remarkable when you figure women in many instance dont have a choice. Theyre the sole bred winner. When women come in to secure contracts from the government, the u. S. Government is the largest procurers in the world. Most of all, its making sure no hispanic small Business Owners are left behind, helping them grow and survive just good busine business. I think there is a lot to be gained. Right now this is the largest gathering of hispanic Business Leaders in the history of the united states. Thinking of offering a few product or release agnew upgrade to your service, here are five ways to get your launch off to a good start, courtesy of business week. Com. Ask your customers to test. Incorporating tear opinions makes your knowledge better and shows you have expertise. Two, get publicity. Make sure your potential examiners know about it. You can give bloggers and the press a headsup that you are releasing something new. Three, develop a plan. Physical out the best way to market and advertise in order to reach your target aude audience, four, stole your existing clients first considering upgradeing from old to new as a appreciation of their loyalty. Five, ask early users for review. Possible buyers will Pay Attention when somebody they recognize or is similar to them directly and clearly explains how your product benefitted them. Still to come, how to get customers to be as engaged with your ecommerce site as they are with your brick and mortar locate and our viewers share their favorite online tools and aps. Also, we stretch out, for our panel to get next with our exercise product. If i can impart one lesson to a new Business Owner, it would be one thing ive learned is my philosophy is real simple American Express open forum is an online community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make Smart Business decisions. If you mess up, fess up. Be your partners best partner. We built it for our members, but its open for everyone. Theres not one way to do something. No details too small. American express open forum. This is what membership is. This is what membership does. I tried to grow too quickly and the company got very over extendened and if you dont think about what could go wrong and prepare for what if it doesnt work out, can you leave yourself very exposed. Now as i look towards the future and i think about the business, im always trying to weigh the pros and the cons and make sure i have a safety net for whatever decisions we make. Are you looking for a new workout that will help you take off pounds and build muscle . Today the ideal product to keep you in shape. Angel investor ceo of pantegria capital and yummy by heather and one of the fork house wives of fork city. Im the ceo and 2014 women of the year with napw benefit hart by trainer. We are assesstive 60 a. Tech following based resistive band training system. From the home to the gym and the teeld and if your suitcase, four levels of resistance bands give you functional training. Safe and prevents injuries. The science and tech following behind the bands is they warrant circumference around the body, give you even distribution of weight. They are made of material poly and rubber. Not latex. Not tubular. They give you mobile flexibility, complete movement linear and lateral. For the athlete the pull, the push the jive. You are working inner and outer leg for true resistance. Unbelievable product. 2002 results. We are currently selling on our website, amazon, Sports Authority is coming soon. We are starting classes in boutique jims. Were 99 retail. We have approximately 75,000 in sales. We are seeking 225,000 for product and placement. Okay. You got the elevator ding. It was a great. Congratulations. I will give each of you one of these, i can trade you. Heres a pen. There you go. So one to ten, not how much you like the product but how much you like the pitch . It sounds like you have a real ground swell going him it seems like a good time to pip people you have something there to tell people its working. I gave you an 8. I thought you dade good job. You told us great information about the product. Are you clearly energetic. Financials, how many you were raising. You told us a little about your marketing efforts. I might like to hear more about how large the market was. But overall, i thought you did a really great job. Congratulations. Be i the way, there is your target. Heather. I give you a 6, because i loved hearing about the product, but i dont know what you need the money for. So that i missed. I didnt find that in the pitch. What are you looking to invest for . Are you already in stores . You got this technology down . You know, its a great product. I like in the bag. I think it would be a great video idea for you. You know, hotel idea. Where you can brand it with a hotel. So there is inroom training with it. I want to know more. So the product you sold me on but i dont know awe feed me for. Okay. Great. Thanks so much for your advice you guys on this. Thank you for being our fitness model. Appreciate it. Good luck with everything. Thank you so much. If any of you have a product or a service, you want feedback all you have to do is send us an email to yourbusiness msnbc. Com. Dont forget to include a short summary of what your company does, how much money you are trying to raise and what you intend to do with that money him we look forward to reading your pitches and seeing some of you here on the show. Its time now to answer some of your questions. The first one is about customer interaction him. My business encourage people to come into my shop and play. Engage their senses, really have a connection and realtime fun experience. How then am i supposed to encourage Online Shopping when my store, itself, is the antithesis of looking and shopping online in. Its a good question. I have been there to her store before. It is bouchl it is an amazing experience, which you cannot replicate online. What she can do is take out the online viewer, rhetoric what she is writing is really important and reviews. She can tell the story online without being able to go in there. Dont forget people go online and shop for it. So shes got to grab who shes got in the store and through online promotions, she can get to them as well. If she thinks about this. Yeah, i think it should be an extension of her brand. If she is prideing herself, then what are those aspects she can portray online. Its not like having a website. Heres the product, heres the site, click to boy. How do you make pleadsing visuals on the website . Are there reward can you do . Are there promotions . Fun ways to engage the audience . Are they giving information . Uploading pictures. Making that website an extension of the brand. Then its a little more seamless, it makes more sense. Video, its really great on websites. Shes the perfect candidate for it. A question about engaging with the all important members of your staff. What else could we be doing to insure that we retain those individuals that essentially make a professional Service Corporation viable and successful . Its a great question. Particularly for people running Small Businesses, you are so busy. Assuming you are doing a good job. Your employees are often your biggest customers. Absolutely. So retention is incredibly important. There are a lot of formal ways you can address it, how do you include your equity in the company . Its much tougher to walk away when you feel like you are part of it again its hard to leave when you forfeit unvested equican i. Is a 401k generous . Do you have a generous vacation policy . These are all things you can do that really differentiate your company and help us set apart. So its really set apart so its harder to leave that company when you feel a lot of those benefits are tailored. Not easily rep politicable elsewhere and finally listen to your employees, sit down with them every few months. Maybe they care about having one day a week to work at home and flex time. If you are providing them with what they care about, its so much harder to leave. Culture is the biggest. Exactly. Other than financial things, can you do team building. You know, i love this idea of stay interviews versus exit interviews. So you go to the women in your company and say what do you love here . Then you grow your idea. You have to invest, everyone loves a good pat on the back, so recognizing when people have done a good job and creating an entrepreneurial spirit. If theyre not given a part of the business they feel like they are from start to finish. Its all about the team the reward, the financials, or not. But you have to spend time