Key Idea #1: Being a pioneer can be lonely.

Bruce and Hattie separately have been small business owners for over 20 years. Hattie's business was always in the area of business education, and Bruce's in business development and software development. Hattie's customers were mostly small business owners and her business was certainly small. Bruce had done special projects for some of the largest corporations in America, and many of his software products were also bought by the largest corporations. When Hattie and Bruce met, they were both looking to develop a television program about, and for, small business owners.

You think back: Was there anything on television about small business owners before they started?

Answer: Not really. CNBC had a program called, "Succeeding In business." Though CNBC said it was about small business, it was compilation footage of news reports edited into a program that aired for a short time on Saturday mornings. It was journalists working for a big company trying to tell the story of small business.

That is not visceral enough for most small business owners -- certainly not for Hattie or Bruce.

What do you think? Is being first with a concept an advantage?

Answer: Sometimes. If the concept is complicated, it is terribly expensive to be first. If you are the first to market a new idea, you have to be the teacher. Vince Occhipenti, a venture capitalist on an earlier show, said his group will only fund companies that have a built-in market demand. It takes too long to teach customers who you are and what they can do with you with you when you are first.

What do you think? You've watched SMALL business 2000. Does it belong on television?

Answer: The big names in television have huge control of the airwaves. For decades television has been about entertainment, not education. It is a ratings game, and even PBS is driven by ratings. They gets their best ratings with children's programs followed by music, theater and British situational comedies.

Wrestling is the number one show on all of cable.

And throughout the years people like Oprah and Jerry Springer have won big on daytime broadcast television. Game shows like Who Wants to Be A Millionaire and then such banality as the Survivors win prime time; Antiques Road Show takes the prize on PBS.

SMALL business 2000 can hardly compete. Our show is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It is about the unsung heroes of the business community. It is about everyday life.

In the eyes of viewers who want to be taken away from everyday life when they turn on television, our program is too honest. The truth is that business is hard. Our superstars get up everyday and risk their time and money on ordinary ideas like making delicious cheese or removing demolition debris.

Even though small business owners are the heart of the nation and embody the spirit of our country's founding fathers, as a group, we are rather boring compared to movie stars and the tycoons of big business.

Yes, the program belongs on television because television is the most powerful maker of heroes. And small business owners are the real heroes of this country. We are the risk takers, the miracle makers, the creators of wealth and work. Bruce and Hattie are pioneers, and this show is not about entertainment and beauty and sex and violence and quick money and exploitation.

This is is a rather lonely voice in the wilderness of television.

Key Idea #2: Small business is getting smaller.

Small business 2000 is created and managed by a group of small business owners. Bruce and Hattie own Flying Leap which owns the show. They created the concept and raise all the money to make the product happen. However, they have a lot of help from other small businesses and a few large businesses.

You think back: How do they get things done?

Answer: There are a network of other small business owners who all contribute to making the final product.

Therefore, just as you have studied about outsourcing here with Cowgirl Enterprises being a great example of a company that does this well, we outsource the manufacturing of our product although we own it.

They have an accounting firm that handles many of our day-to-day accounts payables (plus taxes and the usual).

You think back: What is most unusual about the outsourcing done by Flying Leap?

You think back: Why do they have this type of arrangement?

Answer: Because they think they have the best people for each job and location is irrelevant.

What do you think? What are the ups and downs of working thousands of miles apart?

Possible answers: The biggest negative is that Bruce and Hattie have little of control over the quality of work in progress. Also, sometimes they miss being with these people, but they choose California and some of their best advisors and editors do not.

The point here is one made in other programs: hire people who have something you don't have. Go back and study Renegade Animation or Anne McGilvray and Company. You'll see that the magic is in the mix of talents and abilities. Too much of any one thing does not create dynamic chemistries.

So small businesses are getting smaller because we can form relationships with other owners to achieve a goal.

Key Idea #3: The smaller you are the bigger your technology needs to be.
Though a tiny independent television production company, Bruce had the foresight to put a web site up at the end of 1994 and to keep adding more computer power to it. Continuity is the first principle of business and the web has added many dimensions of continuity with their sponsors, the small business owners who become MasterClass teachers, with all the small business owners who tune-in every week, with the PBS-member stations, and with all the small business associations and agencies that tell people to tune-in!

What do you think? Is television going to be bigger or smaller in the future?

Answer: There is a convergence of competing technologies and everybody is trying to find their audience; broadcast television audiences will continue to be smaller. Increasingly, people will use the Internet to find exactly what they need and want, and use broadcast and cable as a huge "schedule collaboration events."

So, television is the story teller and the web is the teacher. They have to do both to achieve their goals.

You think back: Who are the sponsors of SMALL business 2000?

Answer: The most faithful have been IBM and the United States Postal Service and Verizon. Sponsorship is also from Thomson Learning, USWEST (now Qwest), BankOne, Southwestern Bell, Travelers, MassMutual, Dun and Bradstreet -- some of the biggest corporations in America.

If you want to have big business as your customer, you have to be using big technology.

What do you think? Does the web site help gain sponsorship for the television series?

Answer: Absolutely. Without a strong web presence, there would ne no television show today.

Many of the companies studied here credit their success to their big commitment to technology. Go back and study The King Company and International Wine Accessories.

Key Idea #4: Get response times down to zero.

One of the sound and light engineers on the show had his own business for over 20 years and he stays busy by staying in touch.

You think back: What was unusual about the way he handled his incoming calls?

Answer: He has a traditional hard-line phone, a cell phone, separate fax line, a pager and email. He only gives out his hard-line phone number. When a caller leaves a message there, he is automatically paged. Then he uses his cell phone to return the message. He says there's no reason for a customer not to be able to reach you anytime.

When they're on location, all cell phones get turned off, but during breaks, everybody is checking their messages.

It may seem like a nuisance, but a "staying connected" tip that works best for Hattie is to change her voice mail everyday. This way, if someone is trying to find her, they know exactly where she is. By understanding her situation, they don't get frustrated if she can't call back instantly.

A typical day might sound like this, "Hi, this is Hattie. It's Tuesday, January 4 and we're taping in Tucson. Please leave your name and number and I'll call you back during a break."

Customers constantly comment how much they like this.

Hattie started this habit years ago out of frustration with other people's voice mail. It really irritates her to hear, "You have reached Joe but I am not here right now. Leave a message and I'll call you back." If she doesn't hear back right away, what does that imply?

A new, very small business owner had this type of message and they were hiring him to do some work. When he didn't call back in two days, Hattie called him and said to his voice mail, "Are you dead or alive?"

Staying in touch with customer is so affordable and so important that there's no excuse not to have all the machines and all the manners you can muster.

Key Idea #5: Big companies are simply a collection of individuals.
Though doing business with some of the world's largest companies can be a little overwhelming at first, the fact is that you work with a big company one person at a time.

What do you think? What does a small business owner need to know when trying to work with either the government or big business?

Possible Answers: First, we have talked about doing business with the government here, and the biggest hassle is the paperwork. But underlying that is understanding the culture of the particular big organization that you want to have as a customer. Just get used the fact that your contacts at all big organizations must have documentation to justify purchasing from you. You cannot compete or even get the first deal if you don't know how to write a proposal that will not only ring one person's bell, but will stand up in group meetings.

Imagine anything you prepare for one person being copied and looked at by a team of people around a big conference table.

Try to get your hands on proposals from other companies that might be competing with you. If you've ever worked for a big company, then this is all easier for you. Many of the successful government contractors retired from the military or some government agency which means they know exactly how to communicate in writing with these big entities.

Second, you must build a relationship with the individuals in the department and related departments with whom you want to work. Both at IBM and the United States Postal Service, having multiple relationships with multiple departments has been critical. The reason is, individuals change jobs. If you only have the one relationship, you may be left in the cold when that one person that you work with leaves the department.

Also, you need to understand how departments in big organizations relate to one another. Take time to make yourself a chart and keep up with all the critical players.

Key Idea #6: Everything takes longer than you think it will.
We deal with big business and public television which is big government. No one in those groups is as hungry as we are. No one needs to close a sale today.

What do you think? Is any big goal achieved quickly?

Answer: No, and we have discussed this here before. To prepare yourself for the long haul, conserve your cash and set small daily and weekly goals that are achievable rather than feeling like a failure all the time.

Also, you might think your goals are small and doable already, but you're still not reaching them. That could be because you haven't studied your competition enough or you don't understand your market or you have the wrong product or service at the wrong time.

Raising the money to make television is the hardest thing we do but nearly as difficult is convincing individual stations to air the program. We give it to them, but many stations have never aired us.

We had no idea that it would take so long to achieve our market penetration. This was because we didn't understand our competition at the beginning. After six years, we know. Public television is not about education-- it is about entertainment. Knowing this doesn't make it easy, but it just informs our strategy.

Key Idea #7 : Find efficiencies. When we started producing SMALL business 2000, we didn't want it to look like it was produced in any one place. We spent tons of money on plane tickets, rent vehicles and hotel rooms.

What do you think? If our goal is to champion small business owners and teach how business works from the inside out, does it matter where we are physically?

Answer: Not really. Hattie's brother-in-law told her after watching our first 13 episodes that what is most important is the business we are studying, not the location that business is in. Even though we still travel all over the country, he helped us see that we were spending money that really didn't get us the results we were looking for.

We still travel but we tape more than one program in a city. The hotels and rent vehicles stay the same, but we have cut two thirds off the cost of air travel. Look at all your processes and ask your customers to evaluate your products or services. You may be spending money you don't have to spend.