In search of the best businesses of the world

Share Problems with Other Owners

Bend, Oregon: Meet Pamela Hulse Andrews, founder of Cascade Business News. She found the network within Opportunity Knocks to be refreshing. Started by our veteran entrepreneur, Jim Schell,  he says, "No small business owner should feel lonely."  But we do.

Jim advocates creating your own small business owners group.  He calls them OK Groups and he's glad to share his guidelines.  These groups typically meet once a month for three hours. Usually there is a group for business owners in retail, plus one for manufacturing, and others for service and for home-based business. The owners serve as an advisory board to one another.

In this episode of the show you meet participants and see how they work together to solve problems and grow their businesses.

Jim Schell says, "All business problems are generic. You've seen one, you've seen 'em all. Products may be different, services may be different, but they're all generic." He has seen with his own eyes that when he puts a group of small-business people together in the same room, someone else will have had the problem, or the opportunity, that another owner is struggling with now.

The key knowledge gained by every OK member is how to use their financial statements to run their business.  Jim wrote a book on the subject .  Using Your Financial Statements is an episode about the topic.  Let's visit Bend, Oregon and learn what it is that Jim teaches his OK members.