We all probably have an idea of some glamorous job we could have, a rock star, a famous chef or photographer. But, we also know that the reality doesnt always fit the dream. One rock music photographer walked away from the life he created for himself. He quit the gig after hobnobbing with and snapping images of the biggest chart toppers in the industry. He put down the camera and made the switch from pictures to paper. By the time he was just 16 years old, chris rothe already had his dream job. Going in front of people standing in line for two hours, photographing the band they clearly loved and most of the time hanging out with the band after the show. He was a photographer, capturing the rock n roll lives of Billie Joe Armstrong and scott weiland. It seemed life couldnt get better. I shot nickelback, pearl jam, creed. Theres another one for you. Guns n roses, slash. A teenage success, it looked like this would be his lifes career. Its not. Here is chris today. Hes a businessman. His business is notebooks. Modern Stationary Company. Who would have thought in this day and age where technology rules the world that a Stationary Company could continue to pop up and succeed in an ever competitive digital market . This is a far cry from the Music Industry from on the outside looks glamorous. Chris learned early on the image of a job doesnt always meet the reality. It was the time where all the online things became posh and popular. I have 13yearold girls standing next to me with their point and shoot rainbow bright camera and we are huddled in like cadttle waiting to be slaughtered. Had enough of this. Done. Now that he was out of the Music Industry, he looked to his fathers company, allied binding, a book binding company. Thats where he landed. Comparison to his old life was a shock at first. It was so much fun. I have access to this. There was never a question, its fun all the time. Then its like, well, this sucks. This is not fun. You know what i mean . Not only that, now, instead of working alone, chris was kneedeep in a Family Business and we all know what that can mean. Im not going to candy coat this. We have had hea lashs fights. The doors dont have doors on them. We had epic blow ups. We are not a lot alike. Its rough. He doesnt listen to me a lot. It wasnt working. Chris needed an out. He found it in the form of machinery sitting idle in the factory. It gave him an idea. Its time to take it from a businesstobusiness entity and create something that has our attitude, our flair. So, he started his own business, write notepads and company. The first was a notebook. It was a calculated decision. It wasnt the product he was most passional about, but the one that could kick off his brand. It was the gateway product. It has a perfect crossover. Its not confused with a massively produced asian notebook or everyone some of the other competitors we have, some of their notebooks. He felt launching a notebook with his stamp on it is the easiest way to get an entry into a cut throat stationary market. Chris and his social contact director thought long and hard about what made the company different. We go after collectors and people who want something different. Our collectors make a certain amount of money, they have a certain amount of education. If we go after, you know, kim kardashian, its a waste of money to us. The basic skills chris learned as a photographer transferred to running the business. Whether its a photo or notebook, they had a figure out a way to connect with the consumer. Its a writing pad. You cannot connect and form a relationship. If they dont want to be around you, they are not going to buy you. Chris started getting customers and soon expanded to the products more interested in like pocket notebooks and customized design the goal was to appeal to the people that use fine writing instruments, specifically fountain pens. We wanted people to find it on a store shelf or see it online and feel like this is the same kind of notebook i would have found on my grandfathers dusty workbench. Today, they have 20 products and keeps on growing. Chris surprised himself. Indeed, running a growing business gave him a purpose that rivals the one he had on the road. Coming up with the idea for notepads reinvigorated me. Creativity i once had. Chris business, making notebooks is about helping people get organized. The next story is about a business focused on cleaning up after chaos. We met an owner in florida that cleans up crime scenes and hoarder associations. Getting the word out to customers can be a challenge. In shows like csi and breaking bad crime scenes and meth labs are pivotal. In real life, after the tape is cleared theres chaos behind that no one wants to clean up. That is no one but laura spaulding. After being on the scene for a terrible crime, she saw an opportunity. It was a double homicide. It was on christmas. I was helping these people that had no means to pay for it but their Homeowners Insurance covered the clean up. After i was done with the clean up, i thought this is it for me. This is exactly what i want to do. She started spaulding decon, a company that specializes in crime scene, meth lab and hoarder clean up. She found she had little competition. The work wasnt steady, at first. The clean ups or sporadic. You cant open a brick and mortar and put a for sale sign. Its death related. We added hoarding in 2006 and meth lab clean up as well. Laura cant spend her days waiting for the phone to ring. She has to hit the street and go doortodoor. Its awareness. I go to multiple hotels, apartment complexes and insurance companies. When they get the call, they dont know where to turn. Gay met her through a mutual acquaintan acquaintance. Then tragedy struck. My son was killed. He was murdered by a young man he was going to give a ride to work that morning. The police came and had my house for most of the day that day. When they let me back in, they told me that there would be, you know, a lot to clean up and that it was biomedical waste, it would be better to get somebody. A quick call made to a number she never imagined she would have to dial and lauras team came in. She was thankful she didnt have to do it herself. I was happy i met her before. A lot of people dont realize theres a company to do that kind of thing. Not all publicity is good publicity. This is not your typical service. This is not a typical coupon or find a buy one get one free. Obviously, thats not going to apply. You have to be strategic about how you advertise. Some of the add versaillesing has been billboards with outlines of dead bodies. That will get your attention. I know they are going for an awareness type of thing. Maybe it worked for them. That type of approach doesnt work for us. Instead, discreet profession professional brotures make sure each Customer Base is addressed separately. I designed a broture to talk to them rather than a one size fits all. The hoarders dont want to know you do a crime scene and you are associating them with crime scenes. They feel worse about themselves. That sensitivity to what her customer needs also spills over into how her Team Delivers on each and every job. For hoarding, we are very, very sensitive about how we speak to them. We teach the employee, you have to be emp thetic. We are going to get started and bag up a couple bags. Even on the job, shes not taking care of herself. The high level of service her business is known for continues on. Her ability to speak to the needs of her customers and market what many see as an unsavory business means the future is brought for spaulding decon, not only in florida, but nationwide. Shes franchising and has inquiries pouring in. We do the services no one wants to think about. We provide peace of mind. The growth for this business is unbelievable. Its recession proof business. Its never going to go away. The need is never going to go away. The awareness is only growing. It has been a busy week in washington. Propelled by the president taking action in two areas. President donald trump signing several executive orders. He signed one that would cut regulations he says are holding back the economy. Thats what this is about today. This will be the biggest act that our country has ever seen. The bill will be regulation, controlled, but it will be a normalized control where you can open your business and expand your business very easily. Earlier in the week, the president signed executive orders on immigration including a 90day ban for people traveling to the u. S. From seven muslim countries. That erupted protest. How will the executive orders affect your business . Judy which ychu is its s to see you congresswoman. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. We have a lot to talk about here. I want to start with immigration. Obviously, there are a lot of theres a lot of controversy around this. People feel very strongly one way or the other. I want to focus this conversation on Small Business and how this executive order actually affects Small Business owners, if we could start there. Well, there are many Small Businesses that are started by immigrants. In fact, immigrants are twice as likely to become entrepreneurs than native born people. They are the ones who took the big risk of coming here and they are the ones who are more likely to take the risk of starting a Small Business. So, we would severely hurt the start ups of Small Businesses if we were actually to have this executive order continue on for months, if not decades. Lets move on to regulation for a moment. Theres a lot of talk and we have spoken a lot on this show, we had the chairman ofour committee on talking about it and talking about how regulation Small Business owners. Too much regulation hurts Small Business owners. Every Small Business owner i talk to agrees with that to an extent, right . Many of them are local and not federal regulations that hurt Small Business owners. Sometimes its simply about trying to figure out what the regulation is, not complying with the regulation. Lets just start by you let me know if you agree. For Small Business owners there are regulations that make it trickier to run your business. Yes, there are regulations that do make it tricky. There are a mare yad of them. They are mostly local. They are city or state regulations that affect Small Businesses and what i think the Small Businesses need is the guidance to get through them. The trump executive order primarily deals with federal regulations and i already know that there is a Small Business enforcement fairness act which looks at the effect of regulations and their impact on Small Business. That had already existed prior to trumps executive order. So, do you understand the executive order well enough . I will admit to the audience, i have read through and talked to a lot of people, but im still confused on how it will work. Or is it simply directive to say, look, i believe that regulations are hampering Small Businesses and business in general and so i want to directionally say i want to be more considerate about it . Its a twoforone regulation order. Basically, it says that if you have a new regulation, then you have to get rid of two that exist already. In order to identify those two that you have to get rid of, you would look at these regulations that have been submitted by federal agencies as the most likely candidates. It sounds very easy, twoforone. When you get into the details, as i understand it, more needs to be unpacked when we talk about this. Oh, exactly. What are you talking about . Are you talking about workers safety or environmental regulations . Is anything up for grabs . It certainly isnt just the regulations that affect Small Business. It is the kind of regulations that would affect our every day living, our quality of life, the things that make us safe, the things that make our food likely for us to eat that would make sure that we are Healthy People in this country. Congresswoman, i thank you so much for stopping by and talking with us. We hope to keep having this chat with you throughout the year. Thank you. Thank you. Ted talks are a great way to get you thinking outside of the box and get inspired by what others are doing. These influential videos from speakers across a wide range of topics could be what you need. This week, we turn to smallbiztrends. Com for ted talks for entrepreneurs. One, steven johnson, where good ideas come from. He challenges the misconception that innovation comes from a brilliant eureka moment. He argues solutions are born of hard work, preparation and team work. Two, tim urban, inside the mind of a master procrastinator. This funny ted talk guides you to look at pra kast nation to better prioritize your life. Three, dalia mogahed. What do you think when you look at me . A muslim. She shines the light on why empathy is a critical skill and the importance of being aware of how we respond to people dimpt from us. Four, bill gross. The biggest reason why star ups succe succeed. New businesses face a high failure rate. He uses analytics of what makes success and failure. Five, pamela meyer. How to spot a liar. Why honestly is a value worth preserving in society. How is it going, im j. Winklepleck. Im jordan hunnell. 3 of apparel sold in the u. S. Is made in the u. S. 8 in 10 people would rather buy American Made than imported. We are veterans and best friends that created American Made supply co. We focus on a great experience from start to finish from when you order online and receive your package. We have 30 styles for men and women. All are laundered, preshrunk. Prices from 20 to 80. We have several exchanges from online to international distributors. We are here today to raise 2 million to grow and enhance our business. We are on track to do 2 million of gross in our business. 10 of the apparel in the u. S. Is made here. Good job, both of you. Thank you for coming on into the elevator. Thanks for having me. Give you these. Two numbers. The first one, 110, on what you think of the product, the second of the pitch. Lets start with you, alicia. I gave you a seven on both. The product front looks great. I love the branding. I loved hearing about the competitive advantages, its clearly a big market. I have no sense of pricing. I feel that would be important to know who you are targeting. On the pitch side, you did a good job. I love hearing the milestones, your ask and the uses. I have no sense for your background other than you are close friends. Thats huge for me as an investor. You have backgrounds that are very relevant to what you are doing. Tom . I pick up on that point. I give you a ten. I tell you why. I love tshirts. I wear them all the time. You cant find a tshirt that is consistently of the right quality. Here is what you are doing. Community around the product. Thats huge. Brand is the most important thing you can do with a new product line. A nine on the pitch because you were almost there. I agree more of your background is important, but more passion. You know, it was too robotic for me. Yeah. You are doing this because you love doing it. You have done it your entire lives and it shows in your product. Emphasize that. Get that passion out there. It shows when you are talking about it before you were doing the pitch. That is the tricky thing, how do you get that same passion, off the cuff talking when saying something you have practiced 1,000 times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Srk 60 seconds. Great talk. Congratulations, good luck going forward. Look forward to seeing tom wearing your tshirts. When we come back, why millennial employees should be mentoring you. Plus, we have all been through it, ways to deal with the ups and downs of owning a business. Will your business be ready when growth presents itself . American express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. Find out how American Express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open. Com. We have an email from trent how does an owner deal with being patient with the ebb and flow and ups and downs of business. Such an important question. Ebb and flow is typical of have entrepreneur. You own the pros and you own the cons. I say before doing anything, step back and ask yourself, are you a seasonal business . For example, at pipeline angels, we are a seasonal business. We hold our accounts in the fall and in the spring, so that means we have offseasons. And so, if you get a sense that the ebb and flow actually theres a consistency to that, that means you can program around it, maybe come up with a service or a product that you can actually sell offseason so that you can actually have a more consistent year, or alternatively, also think about how you can build and prep, you know, prepare for the next season during the offseasons. And so, thinking about it as something that you can take advantage of versus something that can necessarily be a little bit, you know, worrying. We now have the top 2 tips you need to know to help your Small Business grow. Alicia seret and tom galopolos are back with us again. Hello, you too. Hi, there. Your advice in the elevator, now your piece of advise for Business Owners this week. Tom . I think one of the things most businesses dont understand well is how to deal with generational differences, the frictions between generations. We have five generations working in most companies, and it creates so much friction and divisiveness that its impossible to collaborate in that kind of a company. So, my advice is simple, start a reverse mentoring program. Young kids have them be mentors to older individuals. And that way, you bridge the gap. You create a postgenerational organization. Because focusing on generations is just going to put wedges into your organization. Not a good idea. Very interesting. I think its a great idea, particularly theres a lot, technology alone, right, theres a lot that younger people can teach the older people in the office. Absolutely. But i do hate talking about generations, right . I do hate the idea of millennials are this wa