What happens next is a key to every small business wanna-be's success.

First, he sharpened his focus, took the leap, and made his avocation his vocation. Then, he was always shooting for a slightly better way. His sites were set on highest levels of achievement; he named this new business, The King Company.

Next, he focused on his team. Team players. And his weight-lifting center was only a metaphor for his goal of building the strengths of each person on that team. David then focused on getting people on base. Know your stuff! And, before long, each of his people began helping others to get on base. They began scoring. They began winning. Each day. Small victories.

Remember, this is the King Company. Constantly reaching for a higher perfection, they looked at efficencies. And, here is where the paperless trail opens up. These folks were always early adopters of technology. Why? Because the efficencies made it possible for more people to get on base, to be moved around, and to score.

This is the story of business. No great secrets, just an unfailing, unwavering dedication to getting better. Constantly.

Now the story gets better for David and his customers. Not only was the operation smooth, winning against the competition, it was so good, his primary supplier wanted to buy into this business. This is one of the liquidity models that we have been discussing here.

David quietly offered to sell some his equity and Fossil and Seiko were quick to buy it. And, of course, the focus gets changed. Now, to reflect the participation of these supplier/partners, David rebranded his business as SII Marketing International.

To continue learning from David, let us look at ways he applied the most sophisticated technologies to the business of ordering, warehousing, selling, shipping and financial transaction processing (collecting on accounts receivable within minutes not 30-60 days). The watch industry is one of the oldest, but here we learn about some of the newest business practices to create profits and a foundation for the future.

• Contact: SMI
  1309 Rutherford, Suite 160
  Austin, Texas 78753
  Tel: 800-443-3617 or 512-349-3019
  Fax: 800-988-5464 or 512-349-3019
  E-mail: customerservice@siimarketing.com
  URL: http://www.siimarketing.com
  
  We invite your questions or comments.

• CASE STUDY GUIDE OF EACH EPISODE: We call this page that you are reading an overview or profile or an executive summary. It begins with a brief analysis of the show, then it lists/links the key points to that episode's Case Study Guide. Click on any of those key points above, or click here to go to the top of that guide. We prepare these case studies for the special feed by PBS ALS to the college and universities in the USA and also for Thomson Learning - Southwestern to be included in their best-selling business college textbooks.
  When you LOGIN (you have to SIGNUP), some of these questions become interactive. When you enroll in a course, more questions become interactive. When you answer these interactive questions, you can build your own profile page like this one right here. You could also get qualified for a profile on television, plus begin automatically creating the kind of documents needed to raise equity or debt capital.
  
  We invite you to log in.
  

• STEP 1: "I'm Going to Start a Business. You have to at least say these words to yourself. It is the first step and a big step.
  
  The King Company went right through to STEP 8.

• Business Type: You can study other episodes of the show that are also involved in distribution and/or personal products.

• FIND YOUR STEP AND CHART A COURSE TO THE NEXT. If you already have a business, explore Steps 5 - 8. If you’re just getting started, spend time going through Steps 1 - 4. Three-dimensional business modelling is part of our research of critical ratios.

• MORE ABOUT EDI:
  • What is e-commerce and EDI?
  • What did David say about EDI?
  • How does EDI help to do business?
  • What is the role of a technology business partner?

• JOIN, JOIN, JOIN: Your professional associations in your industry are your key to continuing education, market research, collaborations, strategic partnerships, capital and so much more ... often you'll find that you enjoy like-minded people and many will become friends for life.

• FIRST PRINCIPLES: Starting a business is the road to economic independence for most of us average people. Read a little more to see why incorporating a business keeps the passion of the American revolution alive!

• SUPPORT PUBLIC TELEVISION:
  Become a member of your local station. If you are already, great. If not and your business is doing well, consider joining the Producers' Club ($1000).

• 1500+ Questions and Answers within SmallBusinessSchool. Within every show there are about 15 questions and answers. Within the school, there is a place to record your answers to these questions. Your answers to the same questions that Hattie has asked all the other business owners become part of your own secure database where you have options to re-display your best answers within this site as your own profile page (that is this page), essentially an executive summary , a study guide and/or a transcript.

• STEPS TO GROW: Please take some time with the top two steps within our eightfold way, that is Step 8 – Exit At the Top and Step 7 – Sustainability. David built a sustainable business, so much so his primary suppliers wanted to buy him out. That is the wave of our future. If you have a good business, get ready for the inquiries. Begin doing regular business valuations. Learn about EDITDA.
  
  These are five possible ways people have taken Step 8:
  1. Mergers & Acquisitions. There are three flavors: (a) Businesses that are no more. David's business will soon be on our list of businesses that were gobbled up and the original business is a mere memory. (b) Businesses that are no longer small businesses because they grew so large due to their acquisitions. Here are a few shows that are on this list, and (c) the business ownership transfers hands to another. We are doing several shows about this process. Here is a link to the most recent show.
     
     Fire sales and liquidating assets is not Exiting At the Top and it is an indication that the business owner has not developed a sustainable business.
  2. Franchising. These businesses that we have studied have grown very large by franchising.
  3. Selling the business to employees or family: See our show about ESOPs.
  4. Selling the business to the public: See our show about Direct Public Offerings (DPOs).
  5. Doing an IPO. There are a list of shows on this page about businesses that have grown very large through Initial Public Offerings. Remember how these folks raised over $100M within a day?

• MORE ABOUT FINANCES. We have a section about money and it can be useful. BUT -- and this is a big one -- we all need to know about RMA --The Risk Management Association. This is real insiders information on your financials so take note.
  
  This organization is the banker's banker. They know more about key critical ratios than anybody on earth. Over 3000 banks and 16000 other kinds of financial organizations contribute the essential financial data from their loan inventory to RMA's "Annual Statement Studies" to calculate key critical ratios for every major industry type (and for most subsets of business vis-a-vis the SIC and NAICS). With over 150,000 loans per year, that is statistical relevancy.
  
  Do you know the average key ratios within your industry? We haven't learned ours yet for the TV/Production Industry, so we all need to ask our banker. To really make a study of it, keep an eye out for the next seminar by RMA in your area. It'll be the best money you'll spend to understand the organic nature of your business, and learn what it is that your banker so quickly knows about your industry. For more, read online: RMA seminars, RMA history, and their small business scoring (i.e. used by the SBA for their Low Docs).
  
  Study the history behind the RMA (it goes back to Robert Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence).