Washington, DC: A weekly television show airs on most PBS-member stations to teach people how to follow their dreams. Not esoteric dreams, financial dreams. This show lifts up those 24+ million small business owners in the USA who pay taxes -- over 50% of all tax dollars, 99% of all businesses. It is called, Small Business School.

"These men and women are the unsung heroes of our economy and culture. Often millionaires next door living quietly and contributing greatly," comments Hattie Bryant, the host and a creator of the show.

Bruce Camber, her husband and founder of Small Business School, added "We believe -- as Hattie says in the opneing of every show -- 'Everybody adult American has an idea for a business.' It is in our bones, in the fabric of America." Gallup polls indicate that one out of five Americans are somehow involved in a new business startup.

In 1995 when the budget did not balance and the deficit was running up, Hattie and Bruce proclaimed that the future of America is not in hands of the politicians in Washington, but in the hands of a new breed of citizens they call the new American heroes. "These small business owners are quietly starting thousands of businesses everyday; they are creating hundreds of thousands of jobs," Hattie Bryant continues.

SMALL BUSINESS SCHOOL airs well beyond the USA. The show airs twice weekly in every principal city of the world outside of North America through the USIA's Worldnet.

Quoting recent figures from Dun & Bradstreet and a Gallup poll, Ms. Bryant explained how many of these companies have grown quickly, most are expanding internationally, hiring people, and creating new jobs and new wealth. " While these people make our world a better place to live, they are also unwittingly seeding a new business revolution," claimed Ms. Bryant.

This is one half-hour television program that is bullish on the future of the USA and any country that empowers the growth of their small businesses. The show has been on the air since 1994 and globally since 1995.

Camber further stated, "The revolution is not the Internet; it is what people are doing with these new technologies, that they are empowered, dare to take on the world and begin to win! A case in point is a story we just did on a new company in Priest Falls, Idaho; they have just eighteen people, but one of them is in their Beijing office and another in Mexico City. The company was started by an ex-Los Angeles policeman whose first love is old analog telephone switch systems. After thoroughly refurbishing them as digital systems, they sell them to hotels everywhere. These new technologies give small businesses the power to act and move like global corporations."

Camber continued, "This new wave of technologies is unlocking human creativity like no time in the past. And I predict that is just a first wave. We are on the edge of explosive business development. This is so large it will be the Japanese who will worry about the balance of trade with the USA. This is so large I believe the national debt will have a short-lived history." While reflecting on the course of business over the past few decades, Camber said, "What is unprecedented is that people are looking within, building on their unique talents, and starting specialized businesses to capitalize on them. It is a people's revolution if there ever was one. And it is everywhere. It is emerging from every corner of this country."

This optimism is not without foundation. In a recent Gallup study commissioned by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) there were about 3.5 MILLION new business startups in 1995. And though statisitics can be used to prove anything, even the most conservative figures put new business atrts at over 700,000 per year for the past three years. Bill Gardner, economist with University of Southern California Entrepreneurship Program, says that this level of startups has not been seen in over 100 years. The downside is that as many as 50% of these businesses will not make it past their first year.

Ms. Bryant continued, "The singular purpose for SMALL BUSINESS SCHOOL is to help people be successful. We want everyone who works hard to succeed. We want to give people new ideas and models based on the successes of people just like them. We want to lift them up and give them inspiration when they feel like quitting. We want to give them hope and strength." SMALL BUSINESS SCHOOL, according to Ms. Bryant, is the only "how-to" series on television about starting and growing a business. She continued, "Although many television programs report business news, SMALL BUSINESS SCHOOL actually takes the viewer on location where a successful business owner talks about how they started, how they manage and how they grow their business."

Bryant and Camber have over 40 years of combined ownership of small businesses, yet they watch very little television "because there is nothing on television for us." Camber said, "Running a business is hard and frustrating; at the end of a long day, it would be refreshing to see how somebody else is coping and maybe pick up a few tips and insights along the way. It is also good to see that I am not alone in my daily struggle."

As a result, Bryant and Camber created SMALL BUSINESS SCHOOL.

The series is aired on over 200 public television stations around the country. It is broadcast by the PBS Adult Learning Satellite Service to over 3000 colleges and universities in the USA (to be used as case studies in business courses). Professors who take the series receive an instructor's guide that challenges students to look at their motivations and work habits. The United States Information Agency also broadcasts the program around the world to every other country into most principle cities. In Latin America, the series is in Spanish and has aired on over 3500 cable stations.

The core of each 30-minute program is called the "Master Class." As Ms. Bryant explains, "The entrepreneurs become like a Maria Callas when she teaches others to sing. These people have learned the fine art of running a successful business. They not only have the knowledge; they have a business intuition that picks up on subtle nuances." According to Ms. Bryant, "There are no academics, no gurus and no journalists inside our Master Class . . . only small business owners telling us exactly how they do what they do."

Everyone involved in the making of SMALL BUSINESS SCHOOL is a small business owner. Hattie Bryant and Bruce Camber, partners in Flying Leap, Inc. the production company for SMALL BUSINESS SCHOOL, raise the capital and do the marketing, content development and distribution of the series.

The "MasterClass" is taped on location all over the country. When St. Louis-based Jerry Shapiro tells how he captured 99% of the bagel market in Tokyo, the viewer sees bagels dropping into boiling water then moved by conveyor belt into a freezer to prepare for the trip to Tokyo. "People always ask me how we decide which small business owners we select for the Master Class." Ms. Bryant responds, "They must be profitable; they must be able to articulate how they do what they do; and hopefully, both the entrepreneurs and their business are fascinating to watch."

According to the Small Business Administration and the NFIB, small businesses in the US account for 52% of the dollar volume of private sector sales and 54% of private sector employment. Somewhere between 750,000 (Dun & Bradstreet) and 3.5 million (Gallup) Americans will start a business. But, within five years, 75% of those companies will be out of business. With such a high failure rate, this is singularly the most important topic for the economic and emotional health of the nation.

More education is needed to help more people succeed. Public television is doing its part by airing this important series. Check your local listing for times and stations.

National underwriting for SMALL BUSINESS SCHOOL is from IBM, US Postal Service, and local underwriting is provided by many companies like Verizon. All these companies want small businesses to succeed.