Hello Small Business Owners and all your advocates -

One of our goals is to identify 400,000 small business owners who are commited to lifelong learning and who are actively working to those ends by supporting and participating within their local public television.

In our letter to all our viewers and visitors, we said that the mission of this television show and that of the public television stations in the USA have much in common. It is very different from commercial television. Our television shows are uniquely dedicated to empowering people through continuing education. Small Business School (and Small Business 2000 from 1995-2001, and Small Business Today from 1994 - 1995) continues to focus on the topic of work; and we search for the best examples among those people who, in creating work and wealth, make our world a better place.

We can all answer the questions, "What is work? What is good work? And, what is value?" We can share with other people how we discovered our gifts and talents how these became meaningful work. Education by example with a touch of inspiration is the heart of empowerment.

Short term, our goal is to give away SmallBusinessSchool to each of the local stations and their Chamber of Commerce and to help empower their own local productions of up to 26 local episodes per year. There are 179 PBS-member public television stations around the USA. If all of them we to produce 26 local episodes per year, there could be as many as 4500 local episode per year out of which the production managers from each station could readily select the best 26 to be aired nationally and globally.

A possible future. Eventually production costs will drop low enough that it becomes possible for every station to produce a daily show. Although it sounds like too big of a stretch, just think where we have all come in the past ten years. If each station had a daily show, there could be over 70,000 businesses a year profiled in the USA alone. Crazy? Maybe not.

Why can't we capture the best of the human spirit – people who follow their dreams – and create value, people who give back to their community, people who are "... today's pioneers and quiet heroes." Let's follow these people as they forge into unknown places. Let us see how they bring out the best within their employees, suppliers, resellers and customers.

This site is prepared to host a listing and a link for 4M good small businesses and an overview, study guide and transcript for as many as 400,000 great small businesses. With the abundance of bandwidth and storage, even a streaming video clip from each local public television station can be hosted as well.

The key financial formula. If just within those 179 PBS-member public television stations, there were 4M small businesses that became members and 400,000 of them became members of their Producers' Club, there would be plenty of money for these productions. Plus, there will be plenty of local sponsors.

Immediately, one of our goals is to get every station to do short introductions to outstanding small business owners within their community who join their Producers' Club. Tell a quick story about why you joined and why you support your local station. You see it all the time on public television. If there were enough of us doing it, they could end up airing no less than one-a-day! What a gift it would be if every station were to open at least a little profile of one of their small business owners every day.

What an alternative to Tony Soprano that would be! We finally recognize the good (and not the bad and the ugly like commercial television)!

1. If you appreciate what we are trying to do with Small Business School, please join us in thanking your local public television station. At least be sure your membership is current.

If you are not a member of your local PBS-member station, please join today! Public television needs small business owners like you! We are asking all our viewers to thank your station, become a member, and get involved with quality TV.

2. If you are a small business owner and you're doing well, become a member of your local station's Producer's Club (usually $1000/year).

We need to support our Three Sopranos that create harmonies not those HBO Sopranos who thrash values and make a mockery of small business. In lifting up exploitation as an artform, cleverly shaping every second, HBO -- and so much of commercial television and our cinema -- encourages the bad, confuses the weak and the marginal, and weakens the strong.

Our viewers and web visitors often respond -- and we welcome your notes. Some have told us they quit jobs and started a business because the success of others inspired them. Others have told us how they've adopted some of the working principles used by business owners within episodes of the show. Some turned their businesses around. Other told of how their businesses took off! Our Master Class teachers have all reached a place in their life where they want to share their insights and experiences. In part it is their legacy. In part, they truly want to help make our little world a better place.

With our abiding thanks for everything that you do
to make our world a better place,

Bruce Camber, founder and Executive Producer

References:

1. Invite Somebody to Watch the Show with you:
Register a business that you love. There are over 6 billion of us on this tiny planet Earth. We are all learning each other's name. And, whether we like it or not, we are a family. There are many among us who have chosen a life of hate, greed, exploitation, and self-aggrandizement; we can help these people. But first, we need examples, great role models for each other and all our children. Then, we can extend a hand and try to pull some of these people out of their abyss; they'll need those role models to see that life can be good on paths that lead to higher perfections.

Again, by working together, we can identify good businesses and from that list have no less than 4 million business owners join their local public television station. We can change the face of television.

2. 4,000,000 Weekly Viewers who are Small Business Owners,
all listed and linked within a Small Business Index of Learning Companies: All of us should be members of our public television stations. We will change the nature of television so it is about teaching the children during their hours and teaching us from best practices how to live, learn, work, and perhaps even sleep! These links open the door to begin getting listed on this site. You can then opt to answer questions and so much more.

3. 400,000: Build out pages within this website that become the transcript for an episode about you, your business, and your mission. Nobody can pay, and nobody has ever paid, to be on this television show. Our sponsors pay for everything. They only ask that the business owners selected be among the most ethical and generous that we can find (our sponsors want to lift up good role models, too).