HATTIE: Hi, I'm Hattie Bryant. This is the program about starting, running and growing a business. Every week here typically you meet one successful small business owner who tells their secrets. But, today is different. In this program you'll many business owners who have proved they have Staying Power. The good news is that we can identify why and how companies make it past the first 3-5 years. Companies with Staying Power have these nine qualities: (See above right column -- Transcript Segments).

1

HATTIE: Let's look at each of these.

Number 1: A leader with a vision who is able to communicate it to others.

Jim Schell has started and sold four businesses. When one of his companies reached 250 employees, he realized he had lost sight of his original purpose. Jim Schell has started and sold four businesses. When one of his companies reached 250 employees, he realized he had lost sight of his original purpose.

JIM SCHELL (Bend, Oregon): Visions change as companies change. I hired a consultant an dhe comes to work with us in a strategic meeting. We were having a strategic planning meeting. When he gets our eight or 10 key managers into a meeting and he says, `OK, gang,' he says, `We've got eight or 10 people here. I want each of you to write down what your company's vision is and what your mission is.' And I'm thinking, 'I'm paying a consultant for this? Give me a break.' So they all write down. When we're all done, he says, `OK, tell me what you wrote.' And, around the room we go and everybody had a different idea of what our vision was.

Everybody had a different idea of what our mission was. How can you all be going in the same direction if you don't know what direction that is, right?

And from that point forward, we started to try and develop a vision and mission between our managers that made sense for our company that made sense for the time. Dreams and missions change particularly in a small business because we are moving fast. Then we had to communicate to employees so that everybody knows wherer we are going.

HATTIE: OK. But after you determined that you agreed on the statement, does productivity increase, do profits improve? What happens?

JIM: Well does it help on vacation to have a road map? Do you get there quicker? It's a focus issue. Everybody becomes focused on the same things and everybody is going in the same direction and hopefully we all get there at the same time.