NASHVILLE, TN – For small businesses trying to survive, one man said he could keep them from failing — but not without some tough love.

Branding expert Martin Lindstrom lent his expertise to two family-owned businesses just steps from closing for good.

One business called Biscuit Love is a food truck in Nashville, Tenn.

“For the first time I feel like we’re pushing the cart instead of the cart pushing us,” said Sarah Worley, who owns Biscuit Love with her husband Karl. The couple had invested $80,000 in the business before Lindstrom’s intervention, and said they were just two weeks away from having to shut the doors forever.

With Lindstrom’s help, the husband and wife team transformed the Biscuit Love experience, creating a brand that goes beyond food.

Another business owner, John Veach, owns Veach’s Toy Station in Richmond, Ind., which has been in the family for 75 years. He and his wife Shari bought the business from Veach’s father last year.

“If I lose this, I don’t know what I’d do,” Veach told TODAY before the help from Lindstrom and a team of volunteers, who worked to transform the shop with bright colors, hands-on displays and a smarter layout.

Lindstrom told TODAY’s Erica Hill that the toy store and Biscuit Love had gotten to such desperate places because they were “in panic.”

Find the entire article with video by Jillian Eugenios at today.com <here>