- Over 99% of all businesses in the USA are small
businesses.
- Small business employs up to 60% of all working
people.
- Small business and family businesses (still
privately-held) taken together produce over 70% of the Gross National Product.
- Small business creates 75% of all new jobs,
virtually all NET NEW jobs, and most entry-level jobs.
- 300 of the largest 1000 biggest businesses are
still privately held.
These are family businesses that have grown very
large.
- All the businesses on all the stock markets in the
USA represent less than 1% of all businesses. Here are some calculations:
- There are over 25 million businesses in the
USA, essentially one business for every fourteen people.
- Less than 3000 are listed on the New York Stock
Exchange.
- Less than 5000 on the NASDAQ. And, less than
2000 on the AMEX.
This site is for the owners and employees of small
businesses. Yet, it is a very selective site. We welcome all people who are
committed to lifelong learning and who operate their business with integrity.
Taken together, we are all advocates for all small businesses.
Our common belief is that the economic health of our
towns, cities, the nations and yes, even our globe depends on the well-being of
our small businesses.
This site is totally intertwined with the daily
broadcasts of the television shows, Small Business School and to the mission of
the show and of public television.
Though there are several web sites,
SmallBusinessSchool.org is our online community, and it carries forward our
legacy site from 1994 to 2001, our first seven years of the television series.
Inspiration, insight, and information to start, run
and grow a business. This site is about creating value, work and wealth,
and making the world a better place.
Whereas the legacy site was only informational,
SmallBusinessSchool.org is all about interactive, online learning so all the
best small businesses can be lifted up as roles models for our children and
each other as portraits of the greatness within the human spirit. It is about
creativty, risk, courage, honesty, perserverance, insight and vision. To that
end, every word that people write as answers to the questions within the Learn
Online community, can be used by the owner of that information to build five
types of profiles and to share the most educational aspects of their story here
on this web site and possibly even on television.
These five profiles are:
1. Just-A-Listing:
"Take One." In every State, and soon in every country, when somebody
says, "List me" and provides two references, a listing and link is generated
within your State or Country Index of Learning Companies. The information in
your registration generates this one-line listing. SIGN UP.
2. Web Profiles: "Take Two." Small
business owners, mostly our viewers, qualify to be listed within this site as
part of the Small Business Index of Learning Companies -- by building a profile
page online and by getting a person at the local Chamber of Commerce or
national trade association, owners of small businesses, to send us an email
(with permission to publish it) that says, "This is a good business and a good
person."
We work with your local PBS-member station, your local
SBDC, your local Chamber of Commerce, your local business press and your local
Economic Development Commission. Though most all the data within our web site
is public information, we of Small Business School have to rely on the
integrity of the owner of the information. Of course, we appreciate your
feedback.
There are several levels of security that we provide
for every owner so only the owner of the information authorizes when the public
may view their information.
As you progress through the school, your listing can
be hyperlinked under several of our small business indexes by the name of the
Owners, Business, or State and also under Business
. Once the owner completes their profile page, they qualify to go into
their local public television station or SBDC to produce a one-to-two minute
streaming video clip -- we call it "Take Two" -- that can be hosted without
charge as a profile page. And, it is from these profiles and clips that small
businesses/owners will be considered for a similar type of profile -- we call
it "Take Three" -- that is produced by the local station to air as a viewer
tune-in to the show, to the school, and to the local SBDC for more help.
Some of these "Take Three" clips will also be used within a special
section of the broadcast of Small Business School. And, it will be from
this group we will invite everyone to help us select the best to be profiled on
Small Business School. Here the entire Small Business School
crew comes to town, and we do a complete story. These stories are then
broadcast throughout the world!
3. Local TV profiles: "Take Three."
Small Business School works with the local PBS-member stations to
develop unique local profiles that are inserted during our regular program on
just the local station. These profiles are just under a minute long, and
introduce the local viewing audience to the vision and motivations that drive
one of their local small business owners. The local newspaper and/or public
television station, working with the local Chamber of Commerce, Economic
Development Commisssion and SBDC, will select at least one-out-of-every-ten of
the best small businesses to profile.
4. National TV profiles: "Take Four."
With every twenty local profiles, we of Small Business School will work with
your local PBS-member station to select profiles to become part of the national
broadcast. When aired, the weekly viewers throughout the USA will be invited to
respond, "Tell Us More." Those profiles that stimulate the interests of
the viewing audience will then be selected for a visit from the Small
Business School crew come in and do a complete story!
5. Indepth TV profiles: "Take Five."
All of our national stories go out on the US State Department's Worldnet Global
Satellite and are aired literally on thousands of stations throughout the
world. These stories are also used as a Case Study by virtually every college
and university in the USA. These case studies have been incorporated by authors
into the best-selling (category-killer) textbooks used in business schools
today. The small business owners truly become Master Class teachers and
a source of inspiration and information for millions of people. We call these
people our today's pioneers and quiet heroes.
 More...
Exit at the Top: The last step, the final
look at an owner and the business that has been created, before the owner turns
over the reins to the employees, new owners, or investors and new
management. Small Business School has worked with many organizations,
from ESOP associations to the SEC and many of the State Securities
Commissioners to be sure every small business owners understands their
liquidity / equity options. One option that is underutilized is the federal
government's Small Corporate Offering Registration.
Another is
private
equity placements for your stock. Many small businesses have qualified.
More...
Thank you.
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