Kit and Amanda started Tiny Pies three years ago at the farmer’s market and it’s grown by leaps and bound since. The idea for Tiny Pies came from Amanda’s son’s wanting to take pie in their lunch to school. Tiny Pies bakes seasonally and sources ingredients from local farmers (when available). Pies are baked fresh daily with natural ingredients.

Tiny Pies will open its’ first brick and mortar store on March 24, 2014.

On Today's show Amanda and Kit will share:

- What are your top 3 business tips for aspiring entrepreneurs

Top tips: 1. Trust your gut, (2) be fearless, (3) have faith in yourself.

- What has been your biggest business mistake

Our biggest business mistake was spending too much money on promotional materials and marketing in the first year.

- What do you think is the difference between people who talk about starting businesses and those who actually do it

I’ve found for me, that the more I talk about an idea the more energy and momentum the idea loses, thus, I try to keep my vision for the company close to me …I don’t talk much about what we’re doing but instead I visualize it every day and keep focused on that vision.

- What has been greatest business decision you made that changed everything for the better

There are two business decisions that I feel changed everything fro the better. (1) Investing time in talking with others who are in the business and learning from them…avoiding the mistakes/missteps they made. (2) Investing money in our brand/ logo creation and website.

- Plus much more...

LIVE Kombucha Soda is the pioneer of better tasting Kombucha, providing a raw organic Kombucha that is not an acquired taste. Our founder, Trevor Ross wanted his family to be healthy, particularly his father who was a soda addict—so he set out to brew a Kombucha that combines all of its raw benefits with the popular taste of soda…Mission Accomplished! All LIVE Kombucha Soda products are USDA Organic, non-GMO, vegan, gluten free and made with Fair Trade Certified ingredient

LIVE Kombucha Soda began in Austin, Texas as one man's mission to improve the health of his family by crafting a kombucha that tastes like soda. Trevor Ross first experimented with small batches, tweaking spices and flavors until he got each one just right. His kombucha went above and beyond industry standards of quality and probiotic content using only the purest ingredients - always USDA Organic, Non-GMO, Fair-Trade, and 99% raw kombucha. Soon, friends and family were raving about the delicious taste and asking him to sell bottles of the brew. Trevor had already achieved great success with Boundless Nutrition with his yummy Oatmega Bars and Perfect Cookies, so he teamed up with his friends David Smith of Sweet Leaf Tea and Mario Mendias of My Fit Foods to share LIVE Kombucha Soda with the world. Now this raw, organic beverage has come on the market, much to the delight of soda and kombucha lovers alike. Try it! Your digestive tract will thank you.

"We lost my sister Courtney to breast cancer several years ago, and our family was devastated. I funneled my grief into finding ways to help the rest of my family stay healthy. I had begun drinking Kombucha, but could not convince anyone else in my family to also drink it. I started experimenting to see if I could make it taste more appealing. At the same time, I was trying to figure out how to convince my father, who was a soda addict, to find a healthier beverage to consume. Lightbulb! I thought, instead of taking away his soda, what if I could just sub it out for kombucha that actually tasted like soda? Give it a try. My dad did, and he's been soda-free ever since.”

– Trevor Ross, Founder and Brew Master

On Today's show Trevor will share:

- What are your top 3 business tips for aspiring entrepreneurs

 - What has been your biggest business mistake

Bad Hires

 - What do you think is the difference between people who talk about starting businesses and those who actually do it?

Risk tolerance and faith. Faith that it is going to work and faith in yourself

 - What has been greatest business decision you made that changed everything for the better?

Finding good business partners, take advice from people who know the industry.

 - Best books for the entrepreneurial mindset?

- Plus much more...

David is a serial entrepreneur who has built several successful companies over the past three decades. The regional consumer financial services company Pawn X-Change that he founded in 1993 that grew to 45 stores and 50mm in revenue, was sold in 2008 for 70 million dollar. David founded the upscale service repair company Home Smart in 2000 and sold in 2003 with 3mm in revenues. David was incarcerated from 2003 -2007 for charges related to Pawn X-change business in 1993, and this is where he found the concept that was the basis for POP Gourmet, writing a business plan while in prison and launching in late 2010. POP! Gourmet now has 90 employees and 35% are transiting ex-cons giving them an opportunity to have a positive life.

On Today's show David will share:

- What are your top 3 business tips for aspiring entrepreneurs
Know your market better than competitors, be the absolute best at what you do, and never see barriers, only hurdles you can get over.

- What has been your biggest business mistake
Giving to much rope to employees that obviously aren’t in to win.

- What do you think is the difference between people who talk about starting businesses and those who actually do it
Listening to NO or CANT.

-What has been greatest business decision you made that changed everything for the better
Having integrity, the highest quality products and service period.

-Best book for the entrepreneurial mindset
“They Can Kill You But They Can’t Eat You” By Dawn Steele

- Plus much more...

Madeline Haydon, MBA is a versatile professional with a passion for people, products with strong communication and self-motivation to take on new challenges. She is a sales and marketing professional with a successful 14 year career in the medical industry, spanning medical devices to blood center donor management.

After focusing her career in the medical field and being dissatisfied for a healthy, quality non-dairy creamer for her coffee, she elected to begin a new career as a food entrepreneur.  Seeing a market opportunity for a more wholesome option to the portable dairy-free coffee creamer singles, she created nutpods; a delicious dairy-free creamer made from almonds and coconuts which are packaged in convenient, easy to use coffee pod singles that require NO refrigeration and is perfect for on the go! For more information, please visit www.nutpods.com

On Today's show Madeline will share:

- What’s Your Personal Mission Statement
To bring a better option for portable, dairy-free coffee creamers made from wholesome ingredients.

- Biggest Business Mistake
Be passionate about your business, but when you take the emotion away, there should be a solid, viable business opportunity left.

- How Do You Handle Business Stress and Uncertainty
An inner voice that is positive and respectful of the journey. The journey unfolds and I talk myself through the business stresses to see the positive of the situation or what I can learn from it. For example, my current production issues help assure me that it’s equally hard for my competitors to follow me.

- Greatest Business Decision That Changed Everything
Using Kickstarter as an indicator to test market demand/interest.

- Best Book For The Entrepreneurial Mindset
Launching New Ventures – Kathleen Allen

- Plus much more...

Pacific Pickle Works is based in Santa Barbara, California and is committed to supporting local and sustainable agriculture by using locally grown produce for it's wide variety of pickled vegetable products - all of which use only natural ingredients and are hand packed here in Santa Barbara.

The company was founded in 2010 by Santa Barbara native Bradley Bennett who had been making his spicy blend of pickles for friends and family for a decade before bringing them to market for the public to enjoy.  Bradley enjoys creating inventive new pickle recipes to add to the Pacific Pickle Works product line and today you can enjoy a wide variety of tastes including pickled asparagus, green beans, beets, carrots as well as the original spicy cucumbers.

These products make terrific appetizers, drink garnishes, or are delicious just eaten straight from the jar!

On Today's show Brad will share:

- What’s Your Personal Mission Statement
Have fun and do everything with quality

- Biggest Business Mistake
Risking too much – need to balance steady growth with risk

- How Do You Handle Business Stress and Uncertainty
Manage growth at the rate you can handle. Don’t be in too much of a rush to where the risk will stress you out.

- Greatest Business Decision That Changed Everything
Saying ‘yes’ when presented with opportunity

- Best Book For The Entrepreneurial Mindset
Jack Welch – Straight From the Gut

- Plus much more...

Sarah Wallace is a veteran marketer in the natural products industry, where she worked with companies such as Clif Bar (where she launched Luna Bar), Kashi, Bear Naked, Think Products, and PopChips.  In 2010 she started The Good Bean, Inc., and launched the first line of all-natural roasted chickpea snacks. Two years later she introduced The Good Bean’s Fruit & No-Nut Bar, the first chickpea-based nutrition bar. She brings her passion for innovation and making healthy food, and her experience creating strong natural brands to The Good Bean.

On Today's show Sarah will share:
- Biggest Business Mistake
- How Do You Handle Business Stress and Uncertainty
- Greatest Business Decision That Changed Everything
- Plus much more...

Emmy-winning journalist Cindy Morrison teaches everyone from network TV journalists to corporate CEOs how to strategically use social media to build brand loyalty, raving fans and their bottom line. Her social media savvy has been highlighted on national TV shows like FOX News, CBS’s “The Talk”, The Washington Post, The New York Post & The Huffington Post. Good Morning America’s Tory Johnson calls Cindy her favorite Social Media Strategist and they’ve spent two years together on the 2011 and 2012 National Spark and Hustle Tour to help women entrepreneurs across the country make more money. Cindy has helped create social media buzz at events from star-studded Hollywood fundraisers & red carpet events to national conferences.

On Today's show Cindy will share:
- How to transition between corporate employee to entrepreneur
- Why social media is so important for your business
- Top 5 social media platforms for food entrepreneurs
- Plus much more...

About 1 year after gradating college, I quite my management consulting job without a plan, just a strong feeling that I needed to be doing something I was more passionate about. Having traveled to organic tea estates in the Himalayan foothills as well as to every great speakeasy bar in NYC, I had the idea that maybe people would be interested in using premium cocktail mixers crafted from organic teas, local honey, and other fresh/organic ingredients. I made a video describing the idea, put it on Kickstarter, and since it funded Cocktail Crate has been my full time job.

On Today's show Alex will share:

- What’s Your Personal Mission Statement
The journey is the reward

- Biggest Business Mistake
Rather than 1 giant mistake, I typically do every little thing wrong the first time I try it, then get it right the second.

- How Do You Handle Business Stress and Uncertainty
It’s really important to build a network of other entrepreneurs to offer advice/complain about things with.

- Greatest Business Decision That Changed Everything
Not sure I’ve made that yet, although listening to my customers and cutting the size of the mixer bottle in half was pretty big.

- Best Book For The Entrepreneurial Mindset
Steve Job’s official biography

- Plus much more...

Susan O'Brien’s story started on the island of Maui where she fell in love with Superfoods and the Raw Foods lifestyle.  For the devoted daughter, wife & mother of three boys, this new way of living seemed like a natural progression from her decade long yoga practice

The origin of food is in her DNA given that her grandparents were farmers growing heirloom vegetables and fruits in the small East Texas town of Grand Saline.  Her uncle (whom she adored) would continue the family farming tradition growing citrus fruits near the Mexican border town of McAllen Texas where she frequently visited as a child and has fond memories of picking fresh fruits from the trees.

College would take her to UT Austin where she studied design and was a regular customer at Whole Foods Market at the original location on Lamar.   Her design skills and professional career of designing clinical laboratories would serve her well as the owner of a food company specializing in the unique techniques of food dehydration rather than typical baking.

Upon turning 40 years old, Susan wanted to explore ways in which she could look and feel better as a sort of birthday present to herself, so she adopted the raw foods lifestyle entirely for 9 months and as a result, never felt better.  She studied the popular raw food chefs of the time and even trained with the famed raw foods chef, Juliano Brotman, of Santa Monica.

In Dallas, she would later turn her home and back cabana into a test kitchen for these raw creations vowing to make them taste better than what she could find on the market.  She wanted her Hail Merry snacks to not only be functional but they had to taste good as well.  She sold her products into a few local health food stores and quickly gained a devoted following of people who were also seeking better for you good tasting snacks made with pure ingredients.  Susan trained her children’s nanny Lorraine (who is now Hail Merry’s Chief Mixologist), how to prepare the food and package it all so that she could spend her time selling and marketing the brand.

- What are your top 3 business tips for aspiring entrepreneurs 
1.  Know your target customer REALLY WELL as you are creating your brand and also know your competition and how you are different.
2.  Surround yourself with people who compliment your talents and bring knowledge/experience to the table that you don't have.
3.  You will always need way more capital than you think – plan accordingly.  Companies go out of business in the first 18 months because they are not well capitalized.

- What has been your biggest business mistake
Expanding the brand into new markets with out the capital to properly support the marketing needed to launch brand and sustain sales.

- What do you think is the difference between people who talk about starting businesses and those who actually do it 
Fear of failure.

- What has been greatest business decision you made that changed everything for the better 
Taking on partners who could help me expand and grow so I could keep doing what I love which is sales, brand strategy and marketing.

- Best book for the entrepreneurial mindset
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell.  Every business starts out small and there will always be larger companies your competing with for customers.  You have to know how to expose their weaknesses.  I like to say “you have to zig when they zag”.  Innovation in the market place usually comes out of the founder’s personal challenges/hardships and the deep rooted passion for making the world a better place.

- Plus much more...

Kelly Costello is the owner and founder of Puppy Cake LLC and is a graduate of Grove City College with a degree in international business in 2007. After a year in the corporate world, Kelly started Puppy Cake LLC and has most notably appeared on season 3 of ABC's Shark Tank. Puppy Cake headquarters are located in Evans City, PA where Kelly currently lives with her two rescued terriers.

- What’s Your Personal Mission Statement
My personal mission statement is to constantly grow and stretch myself as a business person (not allowing gender to influence or inhibit my growth) while maintaining my personal integrity.

- Biggest Business Mistake
I spent way to much money in the beginning. I was naïve and almost completely delusional about my business. My sales the first year were in the thousands while I spent nearly $20k that first year. It has taken a long time to get rid of all the debt I accumulated from the first 5 years.

- How Do You Handle Business Stress and Uncertainty
I often have an inner dialogue with myself. I will assess this situation for what it is. Perhaps its my fault that I am experiencing the stress. If I made a mistake, I analyze it, recognize it, forgive myself and move on. If the stress is a result of outside forces, I analize it, recognize the problems and can often commend myself for handling the situation well. For uncertainty, I love data and do my best to accurately predict sales numbers and changing trends, but I plan for the worst.

- Greatest Business Decision That Changed Everything
Best business decision I ever made was accepting the request to apply for shark tank. It has changed everything.

- Best Book For The Entrepreneurial Mindset
The E-Myth. Hands down.

- Plus much more...