Introduction: Smallbusinesschool is a weekly, half-hour television show that began in 1994 and has been airing ever since, first on PBS-member stations in the USA, then on IBB Voice of America TV (VOA) around the world, then on cable stations throughout Canada, Latin America, South America, Africa, the Middle East, New Zealand and more. In the USA the show re-airs on DirecTV and Dish Network.

Smallbusinesschool is also this web presence where the substance of every episode of the show is available, first within an executive summary (overview-profile), the transcript, a case study guide, and streaming video -- all being translated into Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish.

The people: As small business owners, Bruce Camber and Hattie Bryant felt there was something missing from television. There was nothing about the men and women who are more likely to invent a new product, create a job, and support their community than those big business folks that get 99% of the media's attention. Television is full of news and stories about the publicly-traded companies.

They also believe there is something profoundly wrong with much of television. There is too much programming that capitalizes on and glamorizes exploitation; and there is not enough about creativity and the processes of creating something of value.

Smallbusinesschool involves many, many people, however the story begins with these two people. This is a Mom-and-Pop shop; they are a husband and wife team, the founders and creators of the series. And like any business, they, too struggle with roles and definitions.

Hattie is the producer / creator of Smallbusinesschool. She has been a small business owner since 1979; she provided employee training for small companies, most often with 100 employees or less. She developed courses based on the real stories and successful experiences of these small business owners and employees. She has presented seminars in most every state and is a widely-acclaimed public speaker.

In every show she takes us on a discovery mission to find out why people have been so successful within the businesses that they start from out of their minds and passion.

Bruce is the executive producer / founder of Smallbusinesschool (and before, Small Business 2000 and Small Business Today). He has been focused on human creativity and productivity from a very early age. He has been a small business owner since 1970 and has had thousands of small business customers. In 1978 he envisioned a conceptual framework for diverse question-answer arrays about the first principles of business, of value, and even of our deepest questions about life.

In the '80s he developed software systems (human interfaces) to mimmic human intuition. Pushing it all together, the first iteration of a dream is Smallbusinesschool.org, a resource for small business owners to get real answers to questions about their business and a place to develop a community of values around best business practices. (More...)

When they started to raise money to produce the program, none of the big companies had a marketing effort directed toward small business owners. The executive over "Emerging Business" at one of the BIG CPA firms, said, "No one wants to be small. If you change the name of the program, we might consider becoming a sponsor." You could conclude that "small" was getting no respect and that has been the case until the web began to sweep the world. Now everyone wants a small business portal and every big company knows that we small business owners spend billions of dollars purchasing the goods and services we need to run our companies.

Many people ask, "Why public television?" Bruce and Hattie envisioned a "how-to" series (such as "This Old House") for small business owners. They have always wanted the show to answer the question, "How does a person start and grow a business?" Also, the broadcasts of PBS-member stations are free to most every American. You don't have to have cable to receive this signal and today Smallbusinesschool reaches into about 90 million households via over 200 public television stations in the USA.

You can find the broadcast time in your city by clicking right here. You can look up to find the particular program to be broadcast and the day/time where you live.

Bruce and Hattie own Flying Leap and are independent producers. They do not receive nor do they seek public funds to produce the series. They raise the money from national sponsors such as Microsoft, Thomson Learning, and the United States Postal Service and regional sponsors such as Verizon. Over the years Dun & Bradstreet, IBM, MassMutual, Citicorp-Travelers and many others have been national sponsors and many, many local businesses have been local sponsors of the show.

Bruce and Hattie make each episode of the show, then they give it to PBS-member stations.

The business is virtual. They live and work in Dallas, Texas and they subcontract work with small businesses throughout the USA.

In Dallas, John Fulton is their senior editor, and Michael Davis and Amy Polk provide ongoing support. John has done the final editing on show since 1994. Michael does some of the digitizing for the web. And, Amy coordinated the production of the opening/closing and the tool kits for the one-minute profiles. Michael Griffith Productions in San Diego has worked with us within our studio to produce all the opening and closings segments.

A special firm in the California desert, Graphtek, provides us with the look and feel of the web site. In February 2004 these pages began looking like they do and quickly that look and feel is being extended throughout the site by a Montana sole-proprietor, Marge Sterhan & Company. The infrastructure, which includes WebSphere Commerce, is the work of Drake Philbrook.

The music of the show is the work of Daniel Walker: In this section of the web site there are several links to listen to various pieces of the music. Daniel composed and arranged the music, then conducted it at the Capitol Studios in Hollywood with an orchestra of independent musicians.

Small business owners are the backbone of the day-to-day work of Smallbusinesschool. There are many cameramen, sound engineers, and lighting specialists who are also involved and they will all be linked from each show in which they are involved.

The programs are fed to PBS-member stations by NETA, the National Educational Television Association. There is an entire MasterClass about the making of the predecessors to Smallbusinesschool, that is Small Business 2000 and Small Business Today.

And, there is more about our mission.

Here's what others have said about Smallbusinesschool:
"This is the most informative and inspiring show
for the entrepreneur that I have ever seen!"

"I saw your show and I was mesmerized.
These people really do make their dreams come true."