Hi, everyone, im j. J. Ramberg and welcome to your business. The show dedicated to helping your growing business. Most people in business are very familiar with disasters. Deals that fall through, employees that disappoint, and contracts that are broken. These are challenges that go with the territory of running a company. But, theres another kind of disaster that thankfully most of us never have to face. Fire, flood, earthquakes. What would you do if a real disaster struck . Thats what one new York Furniture maker confronted one cold winter morning. It was 4 00 a. M. , monday, january 30th, 2017. A fouralarm fire struck this commercial warehouse at the corner of lake street in yonkers new york. We get a call at 6 00 a. M. That your building is on fire. Im like, what . I was like, oh, my god, this is crazy. It took more than 80 firemen from 18 Fire Companies over three hours to bring this blaze under control. I remember feeling like my heart was almost going to stop. Because i, for a moment, i said but what do we do . Robert rising and Jacqueline Tellez are the owners of new york slab. Their furniture factory and salvage lumber company was located in that building. They got an unwelcome Early Morning call. The first thing im thinking is, is it my shop . Am i responsible . So, click on the news, and the top half of the building was burning. I was frightened that we might have been the cause of the fire. Watching the fire on tv was devastating. But knowing their shop was located on the ground floor, robert and jacqueline could tell one important thing right away, they were not responsible for it. I see its the third, fourth floor, and the roof. And im like, okay, relieved i didnt cause the fire. Fortunately, nobody was injured. But for robert and jacqueline, the core of their business was gone before sunrise. We have no investors. Weve taken out no loans. Everything that we have has been with our money. I mean, we have raided our savings accounts, retirement accounts. It looked like a crime scene. There was water everywhere. Stuff was wreckage. As dreadful as this disaster was, this was not the worst news. That came later. When they spoke to their Insurance Company. They explained to us that a fire doesnt cover us, because we had limited liability. We didnt have content, and we didnt have work stoppage. Details like limited liability, content, and work stoppage coverage may feel like the least engaging part of running a business. But at times like this, they can make or break you. With unwanted surprises. And our Insurance Company said if you had been the cause of the fire, you would have been able to get coverage, more stuff back. Im like, are you kidding . No. Unfortunately the insurance didnt work for us. Typical of many businesses, they had the legal minimum limited liability. Which only protects them if they cause harm to someone else. Without content insurance, they get no money for damage they suffer. And without work stoppage, they get no compensation for lost income. They had absolutely no safety net. I had no idea what we could do at that very moment. It was robert who actually, you know, started doing stuff. I was on the phone, making calls to see what i could do. See what the next move is. Like many Business Owners who face disruptions and crises, these two immediately went into damage control. The thing that we did first was to let people know, listen, we had a bad fire, this is really devastating, but were not out. This is just a bump that we have to get over. And were in business and going to continue to do business. And i took that cue and i got on my phone and started calling people, too, to let them know that it was big, it was devastating, but we were around and we were going to get to their work. Hey had no money coming in. A payroll to meet and no work space. On top of that, they had to tell their clients they wouldnt make their deadlines. And im thinking, okay, how am i going to pull this off . The bills are piling up, and im trying to keep my staff working. Their first break came when robert got permission to move the machinery into a vacant greenhouse near the site where he stores and mills his lumber. And thankfully, the greenhouse wasnt cold. Then came another lucky break. A Building Company in the bronx heard about the fire, and called to see if robert could deliver 60 wooden park benches. He came to the yard, he checked out, make sure that everything was still up and running and good, and he gave us a check. So that kept us working, kept us going. We were like, okay, we got it, lets go. Lets go. What also kept them going were several secondary Revenue Streams beyond the wood shop. We get trees, turn them into lumber. We sell rock slabs. Thats one revenue stream. Here you see all of the feather grains. Thats pretty beautiful. I think maybe you need two boards. Roberts company also salvages antique beams and lumber from job sites in the new york city area. He then sells 130yearold beams unfinished to other builders, and back in his shop, turns them into high end furniture and antique flooring. It makes you versatile. It pushes you to places where you may not have known that are workable. Today, hes still not 100 back. Much of his machinery needs repair. And his staff has been working overtime to make good on the unfinished orders that were destroyed and never delivered. Fortunately for me, weve been busy enough to not really get bogged down with the stress of it all. So were probably at 60 now. Going forward, robert and jacqueline have taken out a full set of insurance policies. No one prepares for a fire. No one plans for a fire. But you should always be prepared. Because you never know what happens. Selling new products to existing customers is generally easier than getting new customers to buy something. So here are five ways to increase your repeat business. One, get to know your customers. Send them a note on meaningful days like birthdays, or the anniversary of their first purchase with you. Also get to know their preferences based on their purchases, so that you can suggest particular products or content to them. Two, be a source of useful information. Use news letters to send your clients relevant articles, howtos, and tools to keep them informed about your industry, and the ways you can help. Three, brag a little bit. If people love your brand, dont keep that to yourself. Consumers flock to popular products. Use that social proof to your advantage. Four, overdeliver. Ship your products out as soon as possible, and make Customer Service a priority. Also, a little surprise can go a long way to instilling loyalty. So, when you can, throw in a Little Something extra into their order. Five, reward loyalty. Give your best customers special deals, points, and discounts on your new products, and help them to save on their old favorites. When social Media Marketing started to show serious engagement, a lot of people thought that email marketing was on its way out. But, it wasnt. Email, it turns out, has some of the highest returns on investment for many companies. Maria semple is the founder of the prospect finder, a Consulting Firm that specializes in email marketing. We caught up with her at new york now to get some ideas on how to make your email work for you. How important is the subject line . Subject line is very important. After the from line, who its from, the subject line is the next most important thing. Youve got two seconds to get somebodys attention, and actually the first two words will matter most in that subject line. And you also cant forget an area known as preheader text. Which is that if youre looking at your email inbox, especially on your mobile device, youll see the from line, the subject line, and then the first line of text from that email. So if you can work their name in to that preheader text, youve got an even greater chance of getting that email opened. Lets talk about tricks of the trade. Is there anything we should think about in the subject line . There used to be, right, like must have, or sort of big statements that i feel dont work anymore. Right. Right. So, one of the tricks that you might try and use is using a number. And then the word you or your. That works really well. So, five reasons why you need whatever. That still works . People arent onto that yet . Well, you know, it still does to some extent it does. And if your email Service Provider allows you to use the person that youre sending it to, their name in that subject line, then, again, anywhere you can personalize it, you, your so if someone in the subject line you would put, j. J. , your best tips for great skin. I feel like that makes it seem more spammy. But is it proven that people open it more if their name is in the subject . Yeah. I mean, you want it this is about permissionbased marketing, right . So somebody has opted in to the list. That means they want to hear from you. So absolutely, youre looking to continue that rapport, cultivate that relationship, so in any way that youre able to do that, its going to be very helpful. And who should you make it from . Lets say my company is called flowers. Com. Should it come from information at flowers. Com, service at flowers. Com, j. J. From flowers. Com . So if you are flowers. Com, if that is your business, and people have built that rapport with you, then you want to make sure that your name appears in there. Otherwise just put the company name in there. If its a larger company. So if its just its a Customer Service team, right . But its still information, Customer Service, who should it be from . I would just put the company name, actually. Got it. Okay now lets talk about building your list. Right. Do you think that you should buy lists from other people . Are you a fan of that . Actually, no. The big thing to keep in mind is this is about permissionbased marketing, and there are laws in place. The can spam act, here in the United States, theres a castle is the canadian laws. So you have to Pay Attention to those laws. But you can still buy lists where people have given permission for them to sell their name. You would want to still have a oneoff communication with them first and give them the opportunity to opt out. Yep. Absolutely. But do you think it is worth buying those lists that are legal to buy . I typically will advise my clients to try and build their lists organically so they can do that through their social media following. They can do that by even their email signature line that youre using for their oneoff communications. Certainly at different types of trade shows you can build your list that way. Speaking. There are lots of ways, texttojoin. Theres even an opportunity now to use to allow people to use their cell phones to opt in to your email list. And how big should your list be when you start segmenting . Right, when its small you dont want to waste your time doing too much segmenting. But at what point do you think, okay, now its time to give different messages to different people . You can start segmenting from day one. From day one. So if you already have any type of crm, or if youre just using outlook to house all of your emmale addresses, however youve got those lists segmented there you can export them and import them right into your email Service Provider. So i would say from day one. And even when people are opting in on your website you can let them opt in to the list that they want to be on. Right, all right. Thank you so much. I know email marketing is so important and so we all really need to be paying attention to it. Thank you. It was just a few years ago that the idea of picking up your phone and pushing a button and having a car magically appear to take you home seemed like something from the space age. Now, Services Like uber, and lyft, with its famous pink mustaches, have become part of our daily life. But as nbcs willie geist tells us, the ambitions for lyft and its founder john zimmer go far beyond just sharing rides. How you doing . How are you, man . Look at this traffic. Yeah. Like most of us, john zimmer hates traffic. But while most of us just curse and pound the steering wheel, zimmer is doing something to fix the problem. The 32yearold president and cofounder of Ride Sharing Company lyft got hooked on cars as a kid. But not just because they looked cool and went fast. Zimmer loved what they represented. I think its the idea of freedom and exploration. I just remember being on the ground, playing with cars, getting over, you know, any obstacle. And is there a direct line then to lyft . I think what i realized is that that freedom wasnt really there. And that the cars become more like a 9,000 ball and chain with all the maintenance, the parking, so i wanted to go to that original idea that got me so excited about the car, but actually deliver the real freedom. John first noticed the number of empty seats in cars on the highway during his drives home from Cornell University in upstate new york. Like, ten of us would be going back, driving with just one or two people. I started thinking about occupancy. How much are these cars used . What i learned is that 96 of the time, the car is parked. In 2008, zimmer left his job at lehman brothers, just before the company crashed, to pursue his vision of ride sharing with partner logan green. Four years later, lyft was launched with a signature pink mustache on the front of its cars. Today, it operates in 200 cities across the country, provides about 13 million rides per month. And is valued at 5. 5 billion. Carpooling, to most people, with strangers, was a nonstarter just a few years ago. Everyone is doing it now. When did you see attitudes start to change more broadly . We actually had a tag line youre a friend with a car. And we encouraged people to sit up front because we realized we had to change behavior. Right away people started getting excited, meeting new people, and it took off so fast we had to create a waitlist. Now, about 30 of Young Americans use ride sharing services, and 15 of adults of all ages do the same. Thats according to the pew research center. But even as americans embrace this new frontier of transportation, the taxi commissions entrenched in our cities were not as welcoming. Im sure youve got some Great Stories sitting across from the taxi commissioner in some cities, and him sort of giving you the dressing down. Kid, you have no idea what youre getting into . There was an enforcement leader called the general in california, and there was some really stern conversations where he said, look, son, youre going to shut down, arent you . I said back to him, you know, respectfully, you know, what were doing is legal, and were going to continue to operate. So what she said was . Look, son, youre going to shut down. Again. Beyond the general, the biggest challenge for lyft is the behemoth now so ubiquitous it has become a verb, uber. When people think about your sector of the economy, they think about uber first, probably. And then they think about lyft. What is the relationship like between uber and lyft . You know, they got started first. With a vision of being everyones private driver, with black cars and limos. And we said, you know, we want to bring down the cost of transportation. We want to bring people together. You know youre doing something right when uber starts paying attention to you. They put up billboards trying to lure some of your drivers away. What was your reaction to that . Weve just been really focused on who we are and what we do. I think the differences speak for themselves in how we focus on the people that are involved in our business. And the fun that were trying to have in the process. And some high profile stars have joined in on the fun as undercover drivers. Oh, my gosh its good to see you again. Oh, my god odds are you wont get Shaquille Oneal or demme lovato behind the wheel when you order a lift but you may get someone like robert henderson, the companys most prolific new york driver. Whats a typical day for you . A typical day is anywhere between eight to twelve hours. But its eight to twelve hours thats fun, and you just look at the time and go oh, my god, ive been out this long . And then you laugh about it. But zimmers goals are much bigger than getting us to work or home from a bar. He wants to change the way we live. At what point do you believe all your cars will be selfdriving . I believe in about five years the majority of lyft trips will be in Autonomous Vehicles. Five years . Yes. What does the experience look like . Just like you purchase a Monthly Subscription from netflix or spotify youll purchase a lyft plan. You can imagine if youre taking a long family trip for the weekend youll have a large vehicle, maybe with like a screen to watch movies. If youre on your personal trip to work you can be productive. Maybe you can take a nap. You do understand this still blows peoples minds. Yeah. The high line is a new york public park built on an unused railroad elevated above the streets of manhattan. From these old railroad tracks, zimmer looks down at the roads, as the next frontier in obsolete modes of transportation. In ten years, i believe that personal car ownership will all but end in major cities. Ten years, though, thats a quick turnaround. You really believe thats going to happen . I do. People are already starting to move away from car ownership. To order lyft when they need a ride in their city. And eventually Autonomous Vehicles come out you get a ride anywhere for 5 or less and then it makes no sense to own a vehicle. And it seems not just a Good Business by you but a necessity at some point for our culture. We cant fit all the cars we have on these roads. Were at a turning point where more and more people are moving to cities. And theres just not enough space. Its absolutely going to happen. It has to happen. And the good news is, its going to be better for all of us. New york city, 20 years from now, what does it look like . All the parked cars on the side of the road, imagine those all gone. The majority of parking lots, and spots, gone. Instead of a parking lot, it could be new housing or a park. Imagine more of this. And a lot more happy pe