Today, as a culture, we reward the bad and turn our backs to the good.

Background:  Small Business School  has often asked, "What would happen if, as a culture, we focused on creativity and value? How can the good   become the subject for television programming?  How can it be more compelling than the current focus on the bad -- all the exploiters, the darkness,  and the thoughtless?"

"What business model would render the dollars so each station or the best independent producers in an area could go out and do an episode about one of the best businesses in their community?" 

As a result of  working with this model since 1994, today's vision has four key faces:
  1. Local producers and stations
  2. Local business advocates
  3. Local sponsors and advertisers
  4. National and global partners, sponsors and advertisers by country.

If one were to study the broadcast schedule of any station, network, or production, there is no current television model that has successfully integrated a local, national and global episode of a television show. CNN's global news network comes close, but it is a top-down model, not from the grassroots up.  In the new model everything is grassroots. 

1. Local producers and broadcasters

The Numbers.  If we were to take a community of 100,000 people, there should be between 1000 to 7700 businesses.  The statistical average in the USA is 1:13   which includes sole proprietors and businesses without employees.  The focus of the show is always on identifying the top 10%, and then producing episodes on the top 1%.  So within this "typical" community, the focus would be on 100 to 770 businesses and then on 10 to 77 businesses. 

Those businesses will be very special businesses indeed.

The reach of the broadcasts of most stations is over 1M people. Using 1M as a base, for each station, the list of businesses will be between 1000 to 7700.   The intense focus will be on 100 to 770 businesses.  If we can get those business involved with the station, magic will happen.  The station will be transformed.

The impact.  There are 52 weeks in the year; and if 13 of those weeks are local episodes of the show, those 13 would look like local superstars within a national line-up. You might hear,  "Wow, we sure do have a lot of businesses on this show!" If one out of four episodes is local, it will drive viewership; it will engage all the local small business advocates; and it will give the local station something very edgy to do. Everybody will be involved in documenting some of the most creative people in their community and in the country.
 
Systems.   In 2006-2007, Small Business School  began revamping its web site to provide a depth of support and services for local stations and independent producers that is unprecedented within public television. 

With these emerging systems, it is possible to project a working model whereby just within public television,  over $400M in new revenues are raised for local productions and a station's general and administrative.

The local station's Producers' Club.  Those people who donate over $1000 a year most often become part of an inner circle within their local station.  That is the Producers'  Club.  If every station cultivated the top 1% -to- 2% of their small business community to be members,  the net result for all local stations would be somewhere around $400M.  The total PBS budget is smaller.

The current reality.  These business owners typically do not watch television.  These business owners are typically more conservative than most stations.  Yet, that will change:

1.  Television is changing.  Viewership is tumbling down for all of television. Alternatives are more and more compelling every day.  That's the reality.

2.  Viewers are changing.  The old production formulas of sex, lies, and violence have run their course.  In the new world order, personal growth is in.   Viewers are demanding to be entertained, informed, inspired, and challenged all at the same time.  They want to be involved.  They want to participate, be an effect and not just a recipient. They expect all their activities to be purposeful so they also expect to interact, meet new people, and confront new ideas.  And, they expect it to be global.

3.  Systems are changing.  Studied within several episodes of the television show, the new model for television now includes information processing, communications, education, and publishing. Our working acronym for this model is BICEPS.  Every episode of a show provides possibilities of the viewers engaging each.  Please check out the eight videos at the very top of the right column titled,  "On Becoming an E-culture."

Broadcasts now become scheduling events to bring communities together.

Information about each episode is online.  Transcript, case study guide, overview and streaming video (for review) provides a platform for discovery.

Communications in this new environment is now called collaboration.  And, during any broadcast of a show, the viewers can collaborate, discuss content, and drill deeper into the it. 

Education for some watching an episode means credits toward a college degree; but for most viewers, it is a learning experience about best practices, the power of integrity, and the possibility of networking and doing new business with others watching the broadcast or the simulcast online. 

Publishing one's own reactions to an episode creates dynamic content that is attached to an episode, plus the inherent questions are now available for the viewer to answer to create more content around their own profile within Small Business School. 

The ultimate goal is to have over 200 stations producing no less than ten  episodes of the show each year.  The 52 episodes selected for the national and global feed has been described in greater detail here.

2. Local business advocates and partners

Who's who.  In every community in the USA over 50,000, there are Chambers of Commerce.  Within the region there are economic development  commissions and Workforce Initiative groups.  There are governors, mayors,  the business press, and often business professors.  There are local people from national agencies like the SBA, SCORE, and the SBDCs.  There are also often regional offices of national trade associations and national business associations like the NFIB. 

These people know the hearts and minds of their business owners within their local communities.

The nominating and the vetting.  The challenge to all will be to nominate business owners who are loved in the community, who are respected in their industry, and who put integrity above all  (the criteria for selection ).

The list of 10%.  If every business advocacy organization and every large business with over 100 customers do the nominating, a list of 10% of the businesses will emerge.  If every business advocate is then asked to vote for twice the number of businesses that they nominated, a rank order will emerge.

The list of 1%.  The businesses who receive the most votes are then listed and posted on several websites throughout the community using a push technology.  That listing is dynamically generated just like the video clips from Small Business School to those local sites.  They can invite their customers and friends to register and vote for them.  Those businesses with the highest ranking customer satisfaction votes will begin raising in the list.

We are seeding viewers and participants. 

3. Local sponsors and advertisers

Nominating.  The largest businesses within any broadcast area — utility company, telephone companies, cable companies, banks, publishers, CPAs, lawyers, private equity investors, etc. —  will all be invited to nominate their award winners from among their customer base.  If they do not have an awards program, they will be invited to nominate up to 10% of their best customers based on their knowledge that those customers meet the criteria for selection. 

Selection.  Some of their nominated businesses will be successfully vetted  by the business advocates within the community (at least one would hope so). 

On Becoming a Sponsor.  Each large business with one or more businesses that have been vetted by the business advocates will be asked to sponsor an episode of the show.  If their nominated businesses are not high enough in the rankings to be consider within a season, the large business will be asked to sponsor a segment or a video clip about one of their businesses.  These source materials for these video clips --  the transcript / case study guide -- will be online.  

The sponsor and the business owner can opt to have that clip considered for an episode of a special show and/or to be made available to the wider public online, and to even a wider public by being included in the daily feeds of  the Video Clip Player. 

Nobody can pay to be on this television show, however, large businesses can be involved in a de facto mentor-protégé relation to encourage best business practices among all their customers by lifting up the best possible examples.

4.  National and Global sponsors and advertisers by country.

This anticipation is that this series will be over-subscribed because the viewership ratings will be among the highest on television within every country.   The anticipation is that there will be several global sponsors of the show.  These large businesses will be sponsors and advertisers within many markets.

These national sponsors will be providing key dollars for the production.

The Financial incentives for involvement.  The national underwriting budget would be used to compensate stations and producers.  The nine stations each season could be provided with a $10,000 bonus for participating in that selection process. For every episode that goes to the national feed, a $10,000 would be given to the producer of that episode.  The process would create a motivation to constantly improve the product and the budget for those nationally- and-globally fed episodes.  It would cost  in the range of a modest $1M per year.  Four national sponsors could cover that cost at $250,000 per year which is a modest amount for the exposure and to be part of the infrastructure.