maintain our personal relationship rather than having it be a father and son business relationship so. succession is not just a ceo thing. it s absolutely critical for a company to have the mentorship of the people that have done the job before and then also the youth for the next generation. thank you everyone for joining us in 2015. it has been a great year. i know that i ve been so inspired by the entrepreneurs and small business people that i ve met over the past year and i hope that we ve been able to tell their stories in ways that have inspired you as well. we also have a treasure-trove of tips and advice from these people who are in the trenches and so i want to tell you all as you get ready for 2016, head over to our web site where we posted all of the segments from the yearment it s open forforu m openforum.com/your business. follow us on twitter@msnbcyourbiz and on facebook and instagram too. when we return in january we kick off the new year with a
brand-new small business makeover. our makeover team heads to texas where they meet the owner of a woman s apparel store whose company seemed to be doing well but at the end of each month she never had any money to pay herself. sound familiar? it s a common story. find out how our experts dig into her marketing and finances and get this owner paid. till then, i m jj ramberg, have a happy new year, everyone. and remember, we make your business our business. we thought we d be ready. but demand for our cocktail bitters was huge. i could feel our deadlines racing towards us. we didn t need a loan. we needed short-term funding. fast. our amex helped us fill the orders. just like that. you can t predict it, but you can be ready.
importantly for the technology that enables her business to connect with customers at lightning speed. businesses that are antiquated in the way that they are not moving forward will probably fall off the cliff and you know, essentially close their doors just because everything s so instant. they are attached to phones, to technology so we had to move in that direction as well. for small business owners contracting with a lead generation company is nothing new. what is new is that uberization of our economy where consumers expect to find products and now services with a high degree of speed and predictability. this is where company likes home adviser, thumbtack and amazon services come in. not only doing the match making it navigates making appointments. the homeowners concede they are moving forward on their project
coming in, running landscaping company in spencer, massachusetts, was a bit nerve-racki nerve-racking. he found a holiday solution. the company invested in a fran dhis, christmas decor was a way to cover his seasonal gap. you start decorating around the beginning of december and you ll fill in that at least that time period and take down and we should possibly be able to fill four to six weeks. brandon is the president of christmas decor. we help seasonal companies operate during the wintertime. we go out to homes, design display, install them, maintain them, take them down at the end of the year. he understood the tight spot arnie found himself in, problems like employee retention were bad for business. train all of these individuals and it s not easy for them personally to be laid off year to year. sometimes you lose them because they find a full-time job.
and professionals can focus on doing the work instead of getting the work. instant gratification is the name of the game. i think it s a good opportunity for people to get what they need and as a contractor in this business i get what i need, and makes it efficient and does cut out a lot of the red tape. chris s plumbing business is only a year old. he says between 85 and 95% of his revenue is from the work through the multiple lead generation portal he uses. for companies in their infancy it s probably crucial. word of mouth can take years. if you re not doing this you re not going to make it. there is no way that i can foresee anybody being able to start a business without getting into this new technology of instantly connecting with the customers. there is no way. and keith should know. he suffered the ups and downs of the economy when he started his