What is the Challenge?

The Great American Small Business Challenge is a new, non-profit, national business competition that features online software, training and support. The Challenge is like the Malcolm Baldrige Award, but right-sized for smaller businesses. It's designed for high-impact and high-potential companies who lack the organizational infrastructure they need to break-through to their next level of success. It's the right medicine for these difficult economic times where small companies need to learn how to get lean to stay competitive and survive. Best of all, the Challenge features an easy-to-follow, step-by-step, prescriptive approach.

The goal of the Challenge is to help you:

• Identify A Vision For The Future: Clarify what you are creating and articulate what success looks like for you.
• Create Objectives: Determine what efforts and actions you need to take to accomplish your goals.
• Plan Strategies: Create an action plan that outlines how you will meet your goals.
• Track Your Success: Identify the key indicators that will help you measure whether your goals have been reached.
• Document Processes: Identify how each part of your business works.
• Develop a System: Create a coordinated and organized way in which each part of your business can effectively work together to accomplish your goals.
• Create Roles and Procedures: Decide who is responsible for performing work and how work is to be carried out.
• Continuously Improve: Adapt processes and systems to achieve better results.
• Document Know-How: Keep a record of the (technical) knowledge and skill required to perform a role or procedure.
• Identify Best Practices: Discover the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way to accomplish a task.
• Develop Professionally: Utilize the tools, training, people and resources at your disposal to enhance your skills.
• Innovate: Create opportunities to deliver more value to customers.
• Develop Core Competencies: Develop the skills and expertise that allows you to outperform and outshine your competition.

Bottom line: The Great American Small Business Challenge is designed to help you work less, make more money and finally enjoy building a successful company.