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Planning the last
chapter is as important as planning the first chapter. So we are working with
the stations, our national sponsors, and our many other business partners to
develop a succession plan whereby the show not only lives on, but grows
substantially beyond the two people who started it.
Our
population. There are 25 million businesses in the USA (IRS, SBA and US
Census data).
There are as many
as 40M people involved with a small business startups where that income is
reported as personal.
The American Dream
is every person's dream of starting, running and growing a business. Our
working premise has been that 2% (or 500,000) of all small businesses would be
worth our time to study. The founders apply best practices every day; they are
givers and not takers; they are role models for good citizenship.
Our potential
viewers. We also believe that 10% of all business owners would be
interested in watching these stories if they knew when and where to watch the
show. That would be 2.5M people. We also believe 10% of all people who work in
small businesses would want to watch such a show if they knew when it was
broadcast. With over 50% of the 138M workforce within small business, there
could be an additional 6M viewers of the show. Of the unemployed and
underemployed, potential investors within small business, and general
population interested in their local small business, we believe there are
another 6M viewers. All these numbers taken together would place this show
among the most-watched television in America.
Results. So
many people think that people pay to be on this show. Nobody has. Nobody. You
have to be selected and that selection process is the beginning of a
fundamental change in television -- rewarding the good and ignoring the bad.
There have been few television shows that encourage good citizenship. Most do
not last long. But this show is about the American Dream. The subject is us.
The supply is endless. The interest is abiding.
1. We encourage
people to be their best. Most people on the show are very good. Not only are
these people good citizens, they are making money and sharing it with the
world. They are creating a legacy. They are answering some of the most basic
questions about meaning of life and work.
2. The people who
are profiled get even better. Once an episode airs, it sets a benchmark of
expectations. They see themselves in a new way and even demand more of
themselves. The community begins to see the deeper-inside qualities of these
people and they often affirm that goodness. Positive reinforcement helps every
one to stay on the straight and narrow.
Selection
process. If every area of the country with a population of 100,000
businesses were to have a working list of 1000 business to be profiled, many
businesses will attempt to get on that list. The list becomes an excellent
reference of good businesses. If no one organization is responsible for the
generation of that list, but has some influence on its unfoldment, no one
organization can get into trouble with its membership regarding favoritism. We
believe there are 400 such areas that can be mapped within the USA and a list
of 400,000 businesses becomes the working list from which businesses are
selected by one of the producing groups for PBS, PEG, and even VOA broadcasts.
Our open
letters discuss this filtering process. To narrow our selection
process to find the most inspirational stories in the world, even in uncommon
and relatively unknown places. We are also introducing several new episodes
based on the working title, "$0-to-$1-a-Billion in less than a
lifetime."
Another major focus
of our episodes will be the importance of the ethical and moral character of
the people (and nations). We have done several episodes that focus on it. This
episode provides an excellent foundation for
many more.
Here are just a few
of the cities where our
next
episode of the show will air. Although we release a new episode each week,
each station chooses which episode to air. There are often more than 40
different episodes airing in a given week! With so many years of weekly
television behind us, there are stories from virtually every
industry
type and from every
business
size. We even did one business that was a multi-billion business still
being run by its founder as a family business.
We are emerging
with a database of the finest, strongest 400,000 small businesses in the USA
and we are encouraging every one to work more closely with their CPA,
essentially saying, "Ask them to teach you how to read
your
financials and to track your key critical ratios." One of our episodes
focused on
succession planning. Most small business
owners do not do it. Too many of us liquidate when we should be getting liquid.
We should get on an inexpensive audit path so that we can more readily leverage
the equity within our business through an
M&A,ESOP, or
DPO, or
by selling slowly into the
private
equity capital markets.
We are always open
to your ideas and suggestions.
Warmest
regards,
Bruce Camber and
Hattie Bryant |