HATTIE: Part of All Brand's success is based on location. They're easy to find and they've been in the same place for years.

Unidentified Man #4: And you know what else I need, Rick? I need a washer belt.

RICK: You need a washer belt?

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Small-business owners often make many mistakes on the path to growth. And Rick confesses when he tried to automate the business, he had headaches until he found the right supplier.

RICK: OK, we got five items altogether.

(Voiceover) And as we grew and I found I needed some information on my customers, some sales history, that it just didn't give me is when I decided to purchase a new system. I had downtime where I was down two, three days at a time without a computer. And one day I just decided, you know, I can't afford another computer right now, but I can't afford not to buy another computer right now. The immediate benefit: It reduced the accounting bills and it also gave me more insight, you know? I was looking at reports, the financial statements from my accountant. I thought I was reading them. But when you sit down and you're making the entries and you format it, I saw things that I was missing when they were doing it.

HATTIE: OK. So it gave you some insight...

RICK: Yes.

HATTIE: ...that, you kinda thought you understood what was going on, but now you really know.

RICK: Now I do.

HATTIE: So do you lean on the information that the reports print out for you, or do you do this from instinctive 20-something years of doing this business?

RICK: Well, the below-order reports are a guideline. There is a feature where--it's autopoint calculation. They can tell you when to buy more or less, but I rely on myself for that.

HATTIE: So what would your business be like today if you were still using this original accounting system or inventory system that your father started with? This looks like a library card.

RICK: That's right. I can't imagine. I know I would need twice as many people to do what I'm doing now. It basically would be impossible. And whoever was pulling the order, if they saw they had one left and it said to reorder when you get to one, they would take it, put it in a box up front. And every night, you came up and took the cards out, and you sat down and you had 10 purchase orders and GE, and you wrote down, Frigidaire, and this goes here. And that was the way you did the ordering.

HATTIE: And now you just type into your terminal upstairs.

RICK: That's right. How'd I ever do without it? When, you know, we're doing changes and the computer is down the few times that it is, we're in trouble down here.

HATTIE: It's like, `Wait a minute. We're hooked. We're stuck. We have to have it.'

RICK: Having to go to the price list even to find a price, just that act alone...

Unidentified Man #5: OK, 459211, is that thermostat knob in that kit?

RUTH: Right. Right.

RICK: We run out invoices with 40, 50 items on it with different price structures, quantity breaks. If it took one person, it would take them four hours to do what they're doing in maybe, you know, 10 minutes.