Hello -

A vital part of this television show is the participation of those agencies listed on this WHRO-TV page. There is the Better Business Bureau, many Chambers of Commerce, many Economic Development groups, the SBA-SBDC-SCORE local offices, financial institutions, the business press, and the business professors. The list will be expanded with every small business advocate in the WHRO-TV viewing area that is helping businesses be successful.

The goal of this show is to identify at least 2600 businesses each year to be profiled online and at least 13 local small business owners profiled on WHRO-TV. The best of these episodes will then be aired nationally and globally (VOA)!

WHRO-TV is a vital part of the area's economic and intellectual integrity. Your membership within the station will help keep it vibrant. Consider participating in their programs for business -- their Passport Program puts you in a special category beyond just standard membership.

Join the station (or renew your membership) and you can get a free Learn Online class. Join their Leadership Circle or become a Corporate Sponsor of any show they air, and all the Learn Online courses are free for everyone in your business (that value begins at $1000).

In each class within Learn Online there are Interactive Questions. The more questions that are answered, the more templates completed. Once you have those templates just right, you can publish them right on this site for free. Plus, once there is validation from the station, the Chamber of Commerce, or your Economic Development Commission, links will be populated throughout the site.

Again, ultimately the best small businesses will be profiled on local television, then throughout the state. The best of these local stories will be profiled on national television, then on global television. We are turning to the banks and utility companies to help with the expenses. What a result -- founder/owners of some of the best businesses lifted up as role models for our children and for each other! Such people are in every community. We only need to look for them! Here's our selection criteria.

Our mission and that of our nation's public television stations have much in common and it is very different from commercial television. Our television shows are uniquely dedicated to empowering people through continuing education. The focus of SmallBusinessSchool is the topic of work. In the search for the best examples among those people who, in creating work and wealth, who make our world a better place, we discover answers to the questions, "What is good work? And, what has value?" It is a close-up on how people discover their special gifts and how they convert these gifts into a purposeful life. It is education by example and inspiration and that is the heart of empowerment.

Television should be about the best of the human spirit – people who follow their dreams, people who are value creators, prime movers of social capital, "... today's pioneers and quiet heroes" (from the opening of each episode), those who forge into unknown places, bringing out the best within their employees, suppliers, resellers and customers.

This web site will host a description of no less than 10,000 businesses within the WHRO-TV viewing area. Those who answer the questions within the study guides can develop an overview, study guide and transcript, and even upload a streaming video clip. No good business will be excluded from these listings (but that list is a qualified list by local Chambers, business press, SCORE, SBDCs, and other small business advocates within each state).

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 weak, confuses 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. We have received hundreds of comments like, "Keep it coming!" All of us here at Small Business School thank you for your letters of support. These new pioneers and quiet heroes, lifted up as our Master Class teachers, can help improve the fabric and quality of our communities and the world! Thank you.

With our abiding thanks and every good wish for your greatest success,

Bruce Camber

PS. The ownership of SmallBusinessSchool is being turned over to the local stations that air the show, the sponsors, even some of the viewers, and others who believe the small business marketplace needs their abiding attention. That discussion is here. It is an open letter and the makings of a collaborative business plan, this new age of business with joint ventures by all interested parties. You will also note within this business plan that it is an exit strategy for Hattie and me and the formal beginning of the Small Business Index for Growing Companies. This letter is one of our basic statements. There is also the mission statement, an explanation of the name of the show, and the story behind the show.