Your business the show dedicated to helping your growing business. Heavy rain, strong winds and flooding. The city of houston is still building after the destruction left behind by Hurricane Harvey. The damage forced houston to shut down which was a major blow for area businesses. One owner had a gut feeling that there were going to be tough times ahead. He changed up his Sales Strategy to make sure his business didnt become a victim, too. The store was absolutely shut down. There was an immediate decision to be proactive and think outside of the box and not be a statistic. Reporter its hard to shake the images of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Harvey in houston. The whole surrounding area was absolutely flooded. We were kind of on our own Little Island thankfully. Reporter travis weaver knew the situation was dire and he feared for the future of his store. I knew that if we didnt do the right things that this business would absolutely close its doors, no if, ands or buts about it. Reporter the owner of manready mercantile selling products mainly for men had to come to grips with a harsh reality. His customers wouldnt think about shopping for a long time. When harvey happened my thought was i needed to act quick because i didnt know if people in houston would be spending again. Our storefront is the bulk of our business so i knew things were going to change immediately. Reporter time wasnt on manreadys side. Foot traffic declined fast and even though the store didnt flood, travis was forced to make a decision. Should he risk it and keep the store open or shut it down, hoping he had enough money to survive the sales slump. An immediate change had to happen to offset who wat was go on. We needed to open up other doors. Reporter his first thought was for his fellow houstonians. It became a Donation Center for people wanting to help harvey victims. As clothing and toiletries were coming in the front door the back of the house was buzzing about manreadys next move. Travis said guys its scary theres no one up in the store. They said dont worry. My focus was lots of other areas besides just on how to generate revenue through the brick and mortar. We wanted to sink our teeth in, do it right and make a dramatic impact on the wholesale and online. Reporter the companys online store got a needed boost with help from everyone who could safely get to work. I think it was so unreal of the situation that we didnt have to say a lot to each other. When it happened, we just showed up to work, the people that could get here, and we kind of just assumed that role immediately. Reporter the group took a hard look at manreadys website and social channels. Each platform was quickly and carefully updated to ensure more views. I started working on new products we could add to the website and we were taking time to revamp existing products and put better photography up, work on coding and seo and metatags and the backend data that so encourage people to shop small. Reporter in the short term, incentives helped encourage sales of things like clothing, soy candles and leather goods, some made right there at the store. We were able to go online and offer a couple of flash sales, a couple of just online only offers. Reporter employees figured out which orders needed their attention and prioritized them based on what was on the shelves. Hey, were going to focus on what weve got, the materials in house, what we could make. We focused on where we could still ship, how we are going to get our shipments out and from there, we kind of worked backwards and we saw what available product can we fulfill. Reporter the plan wasnt perfect. It was anybodys guess how long the operation could sustain itself with very few supplies coming in. If theres a thrill in any of it, it was looking arounding my to macgyver what we had. We tried to figure out if we have one week, maybe two weeks were not able to have the supplies needed. Reporter there was plenty of juggling going on but no one was giving up. Manready needed to be prepared when saelles went back up again. Almost like a survival instinct, on the front line waiting for the resupplies, reinforcements and trying to make do. Instead of us being backlogged because we werent able to produce we overproduced in other areas. Reporter all along travis was paying his employees. He pledged to support them, knowing that they were facing hardships themselves. We have a lot of staff here, and a lot of responsibility, and as an owner, i just couldnt set back and be idle, and i made a deal with my staff, i told them that ill continue to pay them even if theyre not working. They do whats right by us on a daily basis and it was my turn to do whats right by them. Reporter once it was safe to travel, travis relied on popup shops to offset some of his lost revenue. Unfortunately during one of his trips out of town, manready suffered a major schettback. The store was burglarized. They came up, broke the window in, ran in, stole all the computers and all the electro C Electronics that run everything and you know, just take them and make a quick buck and for no care in the world for anybody else or anything. Reporter travis was stunned by the crime, but he wouldnt dwell on it. He had to stay focused on keeping manready alive as the equipment was gradually replaced. Im like okay, were going to survive. We havent lost everything. Lets make the best of it. I dont want to think about it anymore. I want to move forward and be done with it. Reporter months later the stores open and what was a slightly unorthodox work flow has paid off. At first we didnt see a dramatic increase. We were getting more sales because we were marketing more through our social media, but i think now that the internet has had time to catch one what we were doing, were now seeing tremendous increase in online sales. Reporter travis will never really know how much harvey cost him, and he doesnt want to think about it too much. Hes incredibly grateful that some creative thinking and a dedicated team helped manready stay open while so many other businesses failed. What do you do in times of desperation . You set back and do nothing or do you fight and overcome and persevere . It really is a reality check. Theres a lot of other people a lot worse off than us. More things will come our way, theyll happen and well do it over again and not give up. Theres the saying in business that the customer is always right. But what if theyre not . The owner of a houston area Garbage Company believes if someone has an actual problem, it should of course be corrected immediately, but he doesnt always assume theres an issue. Unlike many of his fellow Business Owners he is a Firm Believer that the customer is not always right. Its nasty, its smelly, its dirty. If i can get people to not think about what i do then im doing my job. Reporter people hate their garbage, to Kevin Atkinson every trash can, recycling bin is an opportunity. I knew all along owning my own Garbage Collection Company was something i truly wanted to do. Reporter as the owner of texas pride disposal, kevin says his brand, like so many other garbage companies, has an image problem. Its very tough to garner respect for what we do. This is an industry where people as long as it goes away, people dont think about it. Reporter kevin needed a strategy to fight this negative perception, and so he and his staff focused on their clients. The service we deliver and the Customer Experience behind that, thats all i have to offer. Without a happy customer i have nothing. Theres one part of the texas ride Service Philosophy that may leave some small Business Owners scratching their heads. The customers are not always right. They are right most of the time but certain instances where they push the boundary. This approach came to life after years of interacting with clients. Theyre not always 100 honest with us. Theyre just really trying to take advantage of the system, and its garbage. People just want it to go away and they will sometimes do whatever they need to, to make sure that it goes away. Well get somebody out there. Well get it cleaned up for you today. Reporter so every time a call or an email comes in, kevin is curious about the nature of the complaint and who is making it. Heres just one example. When you get that customer that calls and says your guys didnt pick up my garbage. All right, well, you know, thats what we do. We do this day in and day out. I cant see why they would have just missed yours. Are you sure it was out on time, are you sure it was something were supposed to pick up or something maybe hazardous . Are you sure its not 100 bags and not one bag . Reporter the truth is that most calls arent bad ones. Yes, maam, how can i help you today . Nine times out of ten its a misedding on the customers part, you know, about what they can and cant put out for trash. Reporter when more serious complaints come in, kevin has to take a more pragmatic view. He wont assume the customer is right, and thats for the sake of his team. Kevin has a unique perspective on the work his crews do. He knows them and he troousts them. Texas pride balances its Customer Service approach by setting a high bar. Kevin doesnt want his clients to have a single reason to complain. I hold my guys to probably a higher standard than anyone in this market, than most in the industry, i would think. We do our best to be as customer oriented as possible to go above and beyond. Everyone is serious about these guidelines. Field crews abide by rules of the road, theyre reviewed constantly. The teams also function as the first line of defense. If theres a problem with the trash being picked up, customers are notified. Weve got a yellow tag and its got ten Different Reasons why we didnt pick your trash up and its everything from you havent paid your bill to the container is overweight, so those yellow tags are a big deflector. Reporter random quality checks are a reminder of whats expected. We go out and do what we call route observations on the crew, to make sure that drivers and helpers are doing the property things so they understand the importance of Customer Service so we never lose that. Reporter pictures are a key component to the service model. No matter the issue, the photos speak for themselves. Employee also submit pictures to the office if they see a potential problem. Clients are encouraged to send in pictures, too. If you really feel justified in your complaint and youre not willing to send me a picture, im going to be a little skeptical. Reporter not every day is perfect. The company does make mistakes, and the team tries to resolve them quickly. When its our mistake we go back and get it. I can text the supervisor right away and he gets on the driver and they turn around and go back so we correct our mistakes in less than a day. The procedures in place are working. The regional provider has 32,000 customers and that number continues to climb. Complaints are at a minimum. There are no reoccurring issues and the staff is happy, too. Weve literally had no turnover. Its a great service. Its a great product. It will speak for itself. Be responsive, be attentive. Make the customer your priority but at the end of the day, know that that customer is not always right. If you are not paying attention to the opportunities provided by youtube, you should be. Entrepreneurs are using the site and the fame it can bring to make millions. Nbcs jo ling kent tells us how theyre doing it. From rachael ray. Its so beautiful. I love it. Reporter to ellen degeneres. Theyre so soft. Reporter celebrities have long used their fame to hawk their own line of products. Now, the next generation is taking a page from the same playbook. Youtube stars cashing in. Finally we arrived at this formula. It smells clean and smart and funny. Reporter over a billion hours of video are watched on youtube every day, according to forbes the top ten youtube stars earned a combined 127 million this year from ad revenue alone, on top of the list, daniel middleton, evan fong and dude perfect. And now some influencers are leveraging their fame in the real world branding their own merchandise to sell to millions of followers. The smartest influencers know that their fame has an Expiration Date and if they want to have a career out of this, they cant just be an influencer. They have to be bigger than that. They have to be a brand. Homecoming makeup. Reporter between homecoming and gymnastics classes, brooke and Bailey Mcknight document their every move and song on the youtube channel. They are putting their own line of products branded with a double b in front of their 4 million subscribers. I would call it like an everyday line, like weve got tshirts, wallets, pencils, notebooks. Reporter they recently launched their own mascara, too. Was merchandise something that your followers were asking for . Were seeing any time we post a t. D. The girls want the outfit were hearing. Outfit of the day. Otd ss. We decided to create something of our own so they can feel more connected. Brooke and bailey did not say how much theyre pulling in other than the line is doing well. Were saving the money they make for college tuition. On a weekday we go to school, we have math homework, too, but at the same time we have this totally different life, going to business meetings. Reporter another youtube star cooking up a success story. Its ro, withal come to another nerdy nummies. Reporter rosanna has more than 9 million Youtube Subscr e subscrib subscriber. We caught up with her on her road trip across america promoting her new line of kitchen tools. It feels surreal. It was the only word i can think to describe it. Reporter fans waiting in line to get their hands on aprons, mixing bowls, cookie cutters and sprinkles. This is the first time ive done a baking line. Theres so much work that goes into it. Reporter you built a physical business out of a virtual business. I knew it was possible to have a career online and make a living creating content full time, but i didnt know that that was going to happen for me. Shes amazing. Reporter why . Shes like the coolest person in the world. Just so fun to watch her. Reporter the next generation of stars turning their virtual fame into a real world fortune. No matter what industry youre in, it is changing, and its going to continue to change rapidly, as consumer tastes evolve and new innovations prove their value. No matter whayour industry heree five skills you need for continued success in 2018 and beyond. One, digital literacy. Even if youre not doing the work yourself, you should be able to direct someone in how to tell your story. Try learning todays digital basics at the a Community College or on a platform like youtube for free. Two, good manners. If the rise of online bullying is any indication of the state of manners today, then its worth mentioning that good social graces are a huge asset for all leaders, from client dinners to employee disagreements, managers should be able to navigate even the stickiest situations tactfully. Three, an appreciation for innovation. If you are not innovating, youre failing. Practice being able to spot new, more efficient ways of operating business as usual. Four, analytical skills. We live in a datadriven society. Do some research about which data is most important to your bottom line, and then keep track of it. And five, cultural awareness. It may not always be appropriate for you or your company to take a public stand on the most controversial issues. However, you need to make staying aware of the cultural hot topics a priority so you can make that decision fully educated. Weve seen reports about this years very active flu season and its effects across the u. S. However, what is not talked about a lot are the challenges Business Owners face with employees living with a Chronic Health condition all year long. So how do you manage those employees conditions and if they take it, missed time from work . Eric peacock is cofounder and ceo of my help teams which serves more than 1. 2 Million People with chronic conditions. Great to see you. Good to see you, j. J. This is something, i said it before, its not talked about a lot, and if you manage people, you are likely managing someone that either has a condition or is helping someone with one. Thats right, one in two americans have a chronic condition right now. Were talking about diabetes, and depression and migraine. Its not just retired people who have these conditions. So if youre managing, the stats basically say if youre managing more than ten people youre definitely going to have people with chronic conditions or as you pointed out youre going to have people who are taking care of maybe an older parent with a chronic condition. So how do you think about this, because companies have sick policies, right . You get this many days off and you have to let us know by this amount of time, and do you have to create a separate policy for this group of people and how do you then make it seem like its fair for everyone . How do you deal with it . I think there are four things probably every company of any size can do. Basically no matter what your fallacy is, if somebody is sick or taking care of their mother they have to deal with that and unfortunately the Health Care System pretty much works from 9 00 to 5 00 monday through friday, exactly when you want to be at work. So things you can do that prevent what they call absenteeism, which is like a 790 billion productivity problem in the united states, or another aspect is presenteeism, when people come to work but maybe they shouldnt. Maybe theyre not at their best because they have a migraine or suffering from depression or Something Like that. You just need to address it headon. And the first thing you can do is be flexible. If you have a business where, look, i know you can get your job done in eight hours a day, i dont really care when do you it, then if i can let you work in the morning or in the evening, and just focus on the output of your job, that can be hugely helpful to that person. But do you have to do that then for the whole staff or everyone in that department or everyone who has that same job title, or can you carve out okay, you have this illness, and so were going to do Somethin