Hi there, everyone, im j. J. Ramberg and welcome to your business. We came across a great shop local event while one of our producers was vacationing with their family this summer. And when we dug in a little deeper, we discovered that it was happening nationwide. The owner of a bookstore in falmouth, massachusetts, launched a find waldo local Scavenger Hunt to get people to visit her neighborhood stores. And today, if youve ever wondered wheres waldo, you might actually find him shopping in a local downtown near you. Now you see him. Now you dont. For the past three summers, waldo, that intrepid and unusually elusive Childrens Book character has been spotted shopping locally in stores all across america. Weve had major cities use local. Weve had small towns. Theyve been on main streets. Theyve been in shopping malls from asheville to austin, from yakima, washington, to zimmerman, minnesota. In just three years, this special campaign anchored by a local independent bookstore has had more than 10,000 local businesses participate. And the whole thing started here, in falmouth, massachusetts, in 2011. With this woman, the owner of a small bookstore called eight cousins. Like many good ideas, this one came from desperation. Every summer we tried 20 do programming, because its our busy season and we want to encourage people, of course, to be involved with the store. And kind of thought, well Everybody Knows waldo. Maybe we could do something with waldo. And then i thought, a Scavenger Hunt. That could be fun. She got in touch with candlewick press, the publisher of wheres waldo and asked them what they,000 of the idea. They loved it. And said if theres success in falmouth they would create a find waldo Shop Local Campaign nationally. They went to the american booksellers association, formed a partnership that way and it Went National the following year with 250 Different Stores in 250 different towns in every state. So i was so, so pleased about that. The idea was simple. Get 25 local businesses to gather in your area to participate in a Scavenger Hunt by widing a cardboard cutout of waldo somewhere in their retail store. You never know where youre going to find him. Like today, hes hiding in the sharks mouth but some kids think thats absolutely hysterical. Waldo spotters young and old are given a passport that gets stamped by each store where they find a waldo. The more stamps on the passport the better chance they have for winning a prize at the end of the monthlong campaign. Lets get that stamp. Stores participated because it was a great way to get new potential customers through their door. They liked the idea that it would bring more people through their doors. More walkin traffic. That was appealing. They like the idea that they wouldnt have to do a whole lot. And then, pretty soon, it took on a life of its own, because they could see that it was really working for them. There. Not only does it drive traffic into the store, it just creates a fun environment within the store. Our employees love it. They love when the kids come in. Well play hot and cold with the kids, to help them find waldo. For 7yearold agnes buhl the actual path to finding waldo was a big undertaking. I go in to the store, and i was always like looking like this. And im looking up, and down, and all around, and its very hard work. But at the end of the day, it pays off. And for her mom, it was an excuse to do a little shopping. I enjoyed it, because i got into some Different Stores that maybe i wouldnt have stopped in if there hadnt been a waldo hiding there somewhere. Out of the 20 stores we visited, i purchased something at 11 of them. And theres one store that she found waldo right away and i said i have to go back. I loved everything in there. And so im planning on returning the next rainy day. In other parts of the country, like new orleans, the timing of this event in july is perfect since its typically one of the slower times of the year. July in new orleans is very slow. And its also the first month of hurricane season. So a lot of people tend to vacate the city. Since weve been plays waldo for the last three years, the stores that have participated have actually seen a rise in the business. Judith has been the local organizer of the find waldo event there. Shes made a point of approaching shops in her area that might be a little off the beaten path. I wanted to get attention to shops, and stores, that maybe didnt get a whole lot of attention during the month of july. And they have great things to offer, and you know, why not check them out. Philip has been searching for waldo all month long and came by Octavia Books for the end of the month i found waldo party. He won a gift card. I think its a great thing. I think anything that makes children participate with reading and writing and experiencing things with their imaginations helps them to be better and having the parents relate to the children, and then all of us as retailers relating to these people that are coming in as customers and what we can do to make it more fun or more interesting for them. Its just a big circle that actually works well for everybody. You know, people can find merchandise anywhere, including nowhere. And yet people can only have genuine experiences doing real things. The wheres Waldo Campaign is just one of the ways Small Businesses are getting customers to shop local as the Holiday Shopping season approaches. Here are five ideas to help prepare your Online Business for the hustle and bustle of the Fourth Quarter courtesy of entrepreneur. Com. One, anticipate your bestsellers. Build an inventory of products now. Analyze your past sales results, and keep a surplus of your top items in stock. Two, plan promotions. Come up with campaigns youre going to offer and map out sales early on. Three, test your online shop. The holidays often bring increased web traffic and transaction processing. So make sure your website can handle it. Four, add layers of packaging. Stand out from the competition by infusing seasonal spirit. You can use customized wrapping paper or include a festive image or message on your shipping label. And five, take a look at your shipping tactics. Youll be sending out a lot more packages as we get closer to the holidays so make sure your current mailing process is the most efficient and affordable option for your business. There is a reason Big Companies have a department because it takes a lot of time to deal with benefits and payroll and all sorts of other things currently piling up on your desk right now. Our website of the week will help you, zen fittings. Com is a free Cloud Based Hr Software system that automates and eliminates all your businesses benefits related paperwork. It allows you to manage payroll, health insurance, time off and more all in one dashboard. Also you can tweak the onboard members by having them sign all of the necessary documents through the online portal, and theyll be directly processed in to your payroll and benefits system. There comes a time for many of us when we are done running our businesses. Maybe want to retire, maybe want to move, maybe some life event is making it necessary that you change things and when that time comes, and you are looking to sell your company, our next guest says that you better have all your ducks in a row. So best to start planning for it long before that day arrives. Michael schwerdtfeger is managing director at a firm that specializes in middle market mergers and acquisitions. Hi, j. J. You talk about in general just invest in people and processes. Dont run your business willynilly. Youre not going to be able to sell that. Right, right, absolutely. What we find is that in many cases, Business Owners tend to wear a lot of hats. They lot of Business Owners like to run the company, keep the financial house, be the keeper of all the customer relationships. That makes it very difficult to sell. A Company Owner should really bring in, in to the company a good, competent management team. Bring in the cfo, bring a manager of sales. Similarly, on the process side, a lot of companies tend to run by the seat of their pants, because thats what entrepreneurs are able to do. But as the company gets larger, in order to really bring the value for that Business Owner, they really need to put practices in place that allow the company to be sustainable, and create a lot of value for the buyer, as well. Okay. So that moves in to the next thing that you talk about, which is just do what you do best. And outsource everything else. Right. Right. And that goes for transactions, as well. I mean, most Business Owners that we work with, its really the only transaction theyll ever do in their lifetime. So every minute that a Business Owner spends working on a transaction, theyre really not spending time doing the thing that creates value for them. So, i really recommend early in the process, i mean even years in advance, talking to a good m a adviser to help you understand where the value propositions are in your business and what you can do to make it more valuable. Also bring in a good, competent merger and acquisition lawyer, an accountant with transactional background. You know, similarly on the planning front, bring in a trust lawyer, or an estate planner. Bring in some tax planning help. All of those types of things enable you to really create a lot of value early in the process that you probably arent going to be able to do when the transaction is imminent. And then, you talk about recurring Revenue Streams because a buyer is going to be much more interested in your company if they know money is absolutely going to be coming in. I think the big issue for us is that in dealing with our kind of our clients, weve learned that buyers hate risk. So anything you can do to manage risk inside your company is going to be worthwhile. Tying down longterm relationships, putting recurring revenue plans in place, making sure your customers are sticky, even down to, you know, making sure you have a longterm lease in place, your vendors relationships are longterm. Anything you can do to reduce risk is going to make your company more valuable. Yeah, and finally getting your house in order, because a buyers going to come in, no matter how great a Company Looks from the outside, theyre going to lift the curtain, and if things look like they are a mess or you dont have these recurring Revenue Streams or there is a lot of risk, suddenly you are much less valuable. Yeah. Thats right, j. J. What tends to happen is ive heard from many, many clients, well these financials are good enough for me. They enabled me to run the business and i understand that approach and thats completely valid approach when youre running a business. But when youre dealing with a transaction, most of the time youre dealing with professional investors, youre dealing with lenders, banks, that are going to be interested in very keen Business Practices and financial practices that you need to make sure you have that financial house in order. Adopt financial practices that you can live with over the longterm. You know, adopt good accounting practices. And then lastly in the last year or two before youre ready to sell, think about getting an outside accountant involved, getting your financials reviewed or maybe even audited. Michael, great talking to you, thanks so much. Thank you very much, j. J. When we come back well look at whether you should be sharing information about your companys financials. Lynn tilton, ceo of Patriarch Partners which owns companies ranging from style la to rand mcnally on making great products beautiful. Even helicopters. And an old fashion the elevator kitsch for a ketchup like the kind your great great grandmother might have head. 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. We dont want to sell somebody something they cant afford. We dont want to sell somebody something they dont need in their home. So if we can really learn and think about what they need in their home to make things better for them, well get a repeat customer. I have a simple saying, your success is our success. If we have a customer that successfully shops in our store its our success. Theyll be back for more to tell their friends. Do you remember how great catsup tasted in the 1800s . Neath do i. But todays elevator pitcher does and he thinks theres a market for a retro kansas im. Jeffrey hayzlett and Mike Michalowicz take the taste test. Hello im daniel hooberry. Since 1876 catsup has been brabded as one flavor, tomato. In 176 were bringing back some of the victorian flavors that were popular back then starting with our first four offerings, cranberry, grape and tomato ginger made in small batches with whole fruits, all natural ingredients. Daniel i got to say food is a big deal where i come from, brooklyn, or where im living right now. How much money are you looking to raise . 60,000. What are you going to do with that money . Work with a cofounder and be have be able to increase my production while reducing my costs and being able to have reserve capital. Im going to ask one more question, which is have you seen any success so far . Yes. At farmers markets and different farmtotable restaurants that i work with, theyre enjoying the catsup very well. Okay, great. Im going to give you guys this i didnt even let you taste it yet. We have to taste. Whats the use of coming on here, having food, without having this. Okay. While you are eating that which one is theres one thats ginger. Which one is that . Ill having the cranberry habanero which has a little bit of spice to it. A little kick. You guys give one to ten on the pitch. And some suggestions for working it better. When did you start the company . In may of this year. Okay. Well you definitely get a ten for best costume here. Okay, jeffrey, how did he do . Im going to have to give you a five. The reason is youve got the stuff, you know the stuff, you just have to get over being able to give me all the facts and figures. This is a onetime deal. You only get one chance. Right. So i also gave you a 5. 1 just to up 5. 1. 3wu9, too rehearsed. Right . So you werent going in to tell us the honest truth. You were going through your sequence of words. Thats what threw you off. The product is phenomenal. I love what youre dealing but the pitch if your pitch is as good as the real sauce, youre going to get a lot more than 60,000 for that kind of product. All right. Great. Great advice. Good product. Work on the pitch. Practice, practice, and then people will Pay Attention to the product more. Good luck with everything. Thanks so much for coming on the program. You guys stick around. Thanks for the hats. Now if any of you out there have a product or a service and you wouldnt feedback from our elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interested investors, just send us an email. Yourbusiness msnbc. Com. Please include a short summary of what your company does, how much money youre trying to raise, and what you intend to do with that money. We look forward to reading your pitches and seeing some of you here in the elevator. Its time now to answer some of your business questions. I got jeffrey and mike out of the elevator to help us out. The first one is about getting help with your tech needs. Thats one thing we struggled with, finding the correct tech talent and who can really marry our skills and our services with that right person or that right firm. So how do you know when you found that right person . You know what about this, mike, we dont speak the same language, right . And so you are so reliant on your tech team. You have to trust them. Trust that theyre doing the right thing because you cant look at their work and say thats right or thats wrong. No. But you can measure the end result. Sure. So how you find the best person is you look at their past history. Were all human pattern kind of people. If that makes any sense. What we did in the past is what were likely to do in the future. The best way to gauge a performance or company is look at their past work. Give them a test, too. So when you bring them on board, put them through probationary period even if its only a few weeks and have them perform the type of work they need to perform and measure the end result. The other big thing is we dont spend enough time to get to know those people. I dont like to hang around most of them anyway. But getting to know them a little bit or take them to dinner. Put them in a social situation because youre going to have to have conversations with these folks. The other thing is to think about outsourcing. Go to teamlogic i. T. Or somebody else and go to places where they do this all the time for others. I would also say, go read some books and understand the language. You know what waterfall means. You cannot talk to a tech person if you cant speak the language. Youll never know what theyre doing or how theyre doing it or what theyre doing to you. Right. It is a great point. Its about cultural fit. An extraordinary person at just might not be an extraordinary fit if theyre not a cultural fit. Lets move on to the next one. About sharing your financials with others. How much of the financials, the p l should i share with those people so that they can make decisions understanding the impact of those decisions in the context of the profitability of the business . Its a really interesting question. We did a story on open Book Management a few years ago and from wh