An Open Letter about good businesses and television

TO:  The  Economic Development people and the Chambers of Commerce of Coachella Valley

FM:  Bruce Camber, executive producer, Small Business School

RE:  Local productions of the show in the Coachella Valley

Hi:

As a very quick introduction, I am CEO of a television production company about best practices in business.  The show has aired since 1994, a weekly, half-hour on PBS stations nationwide and the Voice of America worldwide.  

I would like to see if you might be interested in helping us to do a series of productions about the best businesses of Coachella Valley.  These are businesses who are loved in the community for their generosity and ethics and they are respected in their industry for their leadership and integrity.  

The first episode I believe should start at 20,000 feet and circle around and come down to 10,000 feet and then finally  drop in on a close up on El Paseo, its genesis and its future, as seen from the eyes of some of the most outstanding business owners along that way. 

I believe this model of a planned community that still has a spontaneous look that emerges over time is a valuable lesson for all the communities of the world.

This episode of the show would be part of the weekly series and it would launch a series of local episodes in Coachella Valley working with the Economic Partnership  (John Soulliere, CVEP), the area’s chambers of commerce, workforce initiative, city mayors  and town managers, and as many as 70 other business advocates (from coaches to CPAs, from the press to the professors…).

Our formula is to identify the best businesses by asking all the business advocates for two or three nominations of those people they believe  are loved in their community and respected in their industry.  Our founding sponsors – IBM, USPS, AT&T, Business Week, etc – simply said, “Find the most ethical people you can find.”  Nobody can pay or has ever paid to be on the show.

In the Coachella Valley with about 430,000 people, there are as many as many as 8,500 businesses. That includes the sole proprietors and businesses without employees.   My goal is identify the top 10% or 850, have an active relation with 100, and to have 30 to 50 in the queue for an episode of the show. That is over five years of productions.

I believe there are excellent opportunities for our local partners to be involved with identifying those 850 best businesses and to leverage this relation in ways that help all businesses  to be the best possible business they can be.

Each of the stars of this show are sharing their hard-earned insights about why they have had successes and how they got up and over their failures.   This show is about best business practices.  It is a classic "hot-to" genre show.

Who would you recommend  to be on the list for consideration? <br /> What larger businesses would want to participate as a sponsor of the show?  I believe there could be as many as four sponsors.  The cost for those boards would be minimal and the sponsor would have access to the footage to stream on their website.  

Many thanks.

-Bruce
214-801-8521

PS.  Each reference below goes to a page or a video on our website.  The site has over 2000 videos from over 300 episodes and the New York Times and many business journals use these every day to inspire their small business customers.

Bruce Camber, Executive Producer
Small Business School, Inc.
Private Business Channel, Inc.
http://SmallBusinessSchool.org

References to learn more about Small Business School:
1.    The opening and closing of each episode.
2.    Episodes done with the National Trust for Historic Preservation:

•   Madison, Wisconsin

•   San Diego

•   Deland, Florida

•   Selection criteria

•   The local business model