(FORTUNE Small Business) – By Showbiz Standards, Shadowbox Cabaret is a smash hit. The theater troupe, based in Columbus, employs more than 80 salaried actors who put on five different live shows each week. The main act is an engaging mix of rock music and raffish sketch comedy that routinely packs the house. (One skit: a sultry Paris Hilton-esque vixen teaching grade-schoolers about the birds and bees.) Shadowbox's TV variety show airs every Saturday night in Columbus and Cincinnati.

Last year the for-profit group broke even on around $3.25 million in revenues. That's not good enough for Shadowbox founder Steve Guyer, however. Guyer is convinced that Shadowbox can go national, even international. First, he wants the TV show to run in markets all across the country. And when the program has made Shadowbox famous, he wants to put on a live show in Las Vegas that will draw fans from every state. After that, maybe London, Melbourne, and Paris.

Those are big dreams for a guy who once sold life insurance and went into sketch comedy after his rock opera bombed in Columbus. "The worst show ever," declares Guyer, 50, a tall, affable man with a graying ponytail that dangles halfway down his back. Guyer and his staff know Shadowbox isn't yet ready to displace Cirque du Soleil on the Strip. Branding is one issue. There's no catchy slogan, and the name "Shadowbox Cabaret" doesn't reveal much about the actual performances. Even in Columbus, where the troupe is well known, it takes a lot of work to fill seats. Six employees spend much of their time on the phone, urging previous patrons to come see another show.

Guyer faces managerial headaches as well. Virtually all the performers are required to spend hours each week on unglamorous in-house chores, from running the restaurant to selling tickets and paying bills. Since most actors aren't born managers, the company needs better ways to keep employees focused on its business goals. Finally, and key to all their ambitious dreams: How will Guyer's TV show make the leap from two cities in Ohio to national distribution?

We recruited three talented consultants to tackle the big items on Guyer's agenda. For branding help we turned to Mary Rawlinson, 55, a marketing whiz from Atlantic Highlands, N.J., who started her career acting on Broadway. We also recruited management expert Alan Rudy, 41, a successful entrepreneur who runs a small-business incubator in Columbus. And for advice on the TV industry we tapped Sara Rutenberg, 53, a veteran TV executive who is director of business development for National Lampoon and a consultant to fledgling entertainment companies.

'A brand is a promise of an experience," Rawlinson declared soon after arriving at Shadowbox's home theater in suburban Columbus. But any notion that she's going to spend her time trying to come up with a snappy one-liner that instantly suggested bawdy skits and rock music is soon dispelled. She spends three hours grilling Guyer and general manager/actress Katy Psenicka, 36, on their marketing strategy. "A brand is a living organism," she says. "It's how you answer the phone. It's the food you serve. How employees interact with the audience."

Rawlinson is taken aback to hear that many Shadowboxers work 70-hour weeks and haven't taken a vacation in years. She asks Guyer to describe his corporate ethos. "I only ask that you give 100% effort 100% of the time," Guyer tells her, adding that anyone who doesn't work that hard--on stage or in the kitchen scullery--probably won't get top acting slots and will eventually drift away.

"Why use an old-fashioned word like 'cabaret' in the name?" she asks. Guyer explains that in Ohio "cabaret" often means strip joint. Its use in the Shadowbox name suggests a certain naughtiness that might lure some customers to the show. Rawlinson nods but points out that given Shadowbox's national ambitions, Guyer should probably figure out what "shadowbox" and "cabaret" mean to potential customers in markets outside Ohio. Since shadowboxing suggests an athletic activity to most people, the company might also consider adding a line of explanation below the name, such as "America's original in-your-face comedy club."

"What image do you want to project?" she asks. "Super-high energy," replies Guyer. "Great sketch comedy in a relaxed atmosphere. A show worth getting off the couch and spending $25." Fine, says Rawlinson. But to project that image effectively to potential patrons, Shadowbox needs to do a lot more research. Guyer should start by surveying audience members. "Ask them what they think you are and how you're different from others," she says. The consultant also urges the Shadowboxers to visit competitors in other markets. In short, she says, "find out how you're perceived, and use those perceptions to shape your brand."

Having gathered this field data, the Shadowboxers should come up with a short phrase that describes precisely how they want customers to view Shadowbox. It could be "funny live performance in a relaxed dinner club" or "entertainment for grownups." That, in a few words, will be the Shadowbox brand that is presented to the world.

Once the brand is clearly defined, it should be easy for Shadowbox to develop brochures and marketing materials with a consistent look and feel. The key, Rawlinson says, is to capitalize on the extraordinary zeal and energy of those hardworking actors, whose friendly interactions with audience members before the show are an important part of the Shadowbox experience. Include photos and descriptions of all those "great-looking great personalities" in press kits and on the Shadowbox website.

Alan Rudy is a tall, balding polymath with a goatee and a droll sense of humor. Trained as an engineer, he also holds a law degree and an MBA. In 1994, Rudy started a mail-order medical-supply company called Express-Med. Two years ago he sold the firm for $40 million and launched Into Great Companies, an incubator that helps startups in the Columbus area.

Rudy's task is to help Shadowbox organize and manage itself better. Problem No. 1: At 85 employees, Shadowbox is facing new administrative challenges, says general manager Psenicka. "We've been through the mom-and-pop stage and the small-business stage," she says. "Now we're going to medium. We have growing pains. It's hard to pursue everything, and hard to hand things off."

Rudy sympathizes. A lot of companies struggle when they have about a dozen employees, he says. That's too big for one person to manage effectively but too small to afford a second layer of managers. And the problem repeats itself when companies grow to around 80 employees, which is too many for the second tier of managers to handle well. He grills Guyer on how Shadowbox managers communicate now. The managers share written reports, Guyer says, but some are almost indecipherable. There are staff meetings too, but they sometimes result in hurt feelings. "We try to avoid the blame game, but sometimes things get dark," he says.

Rudy's solution: a process of identifying goals, setting deadlines, and identifying impediments for every employee. He calls it "huddles." Here's how huddles work: Divide the 85 Shadowbox employees into functional teams of five to ten people. Every day, every group meets briefly--for seven to ten minutes--at its own whiteboard, permanently posted somewhere in the building. Rudy turns to Psenicka, whose duties include publicity for Shadowbox. "Let's say your objective for the next month is to place Shadowbox articles in three local magazines," he says. "In a column on the whiteboard, your name is at the top. Below it is the main objective--three articles--and below that is your goal for this week. Say, writing a first draft of your press release by Wednesday."

Every day, Rudy explains, all the members of the group describe the progress they've made in meeting their individual goals. Maybe, by Tuesday, Katy reports that she hasn't begun the release yet. Maybe there's an impediment. "You've tried to reach Steve to discuss some important item in the release, and he hasn't returned your calls. Don't start discussing the item in the huddle. That will just bore and alienate everyone else. But use the huddle to set a time to meet later in the day." However, it will be obvious to her colleagues if Katy is missing her deadline because she hasn't knuckled down to an odious chore. Any slacking will be noted on the whiteboard for every Shadowbox employee to see. "It's a very effective tool," Rudy says. "A person who keeps missing deadlines will eventually fade away."

For all his success in Columbus, Guyer yearns to expand Shadowbox's presence on television. "It's economics, not stardust," he says. Though Shadowbox is breaking even, salaries are paltry--the average actor salary hovers around the minimum wage. Opening live shows in lots of new cities isn't the answer--they are expensive, and recruiting actors is difficult. "We need something that makes money while we sleep," he says. That would be Shadowbox's sketch comedy program, which currently airs at 1 a.m. on Sunday morning in Columbus. So Guyer and David Whitehouse, 32, who helps run the troupe's TV effort, traveled to Los Angeles for a meeting with Sara Rutenberg, the entertainment attorney.

At a hotel overlooking the Pacific in Santa Monica, Guyer and Whitehouse explain their aspirations to Rutenberg: to develop a profitable TV program that will attract fans to a live show in Las Vegas. Two years ago Shadowbox started buying time on TV stations in Columbus and Cincinnati. They persuaded local companies to run ads during the shows. The show in Columbus has the third-best market share among six competing broadcasts. But getting picked up in other cities is tough. "We have nobody in these other places to represent us," says Whitehouse. How can Shadowbox find a syndicator--a company that helps produce shows and places them in scattered markets?

Rutenberg warns them that the syndication business has been in decline since the early 1990s, when the FCC relaxed regulations that had prohibited networks from owning or syndicating their own shows. Shadowbox might be better off bypassing syndicators and going directly to broadcast and cable networks, she suggests. Some of them, such as ABC, have taken real risks with new shows, such as Desperate Housewives, and might be responsive, she says. The Shadowboxers should consider pitching their program to run in the summer, when college kids are home and the networks need fresh material.

Although it's tough to predict what the networks will want, sketch comedy may be experiencing a revival. Established programs include NBC's enduringly popular Saturday Night Live, Comedy Central's MAD TV, and ABC's Whose Line Is It Anyway? (The last show is produced by Warner Bros. Television, which, like FSB, is owned by Time Warner.) And two new comedy shows are debuting this spring: The Lance Krall Show on Spike TV and Kelsey Grammer Presents: The Sketch Show on Fox.

To approach the networks, Shadowbox will need an agent. "TV networks abhor unsolicited pitches from unknowns like you," Rutenberg says. "They're afraid they'll get sued for stealing story ideas." A good agent will open network doors and hopefully pair Shadowbox with an established producer, which automatically boosts the appeal of any new program.

Finding an agent is a tough catch-22. Most want to deal only with those who are already successful, and Shadowbox isn't there yet. Still, there's hope. "You've got a track record on television," Rutenberg says. "You've got Nielsen ratings and demographics you can show to an agent. You may be unknown, but you have a leg up on the other unknowns."

Guyer should pick up the phone and cold-call a few agents, Rutenberg says. He can find them in Hollywood Reporter Blu-Book, a $75 directory that lists virtually everyone in the TV and film industries. To get an idea of what genres are currently popular, the Shadowboxers should visit a website called Cynthia's Cynopsis that describes new shows in development. The site will give them an idea of what kind of shows are popular and is also a good way for newcomers to introduce themselves. "Send her an e-mail and ask her to include you in her report," Rutenberg says.

And what about Vegas? "If you get a TV show, that will help," says Rutenberg. "A TV show is great advertising. I don't know if a casino will pick you up, but maybe a beer company would sponsor you out there." Guyer emphasizes that he's determined to take Shadowbox national, and maybe even to the capitals of the world. "We started with nothing," Guyer adds. "We will beat the door until it falls down." So keep an eye on your TVs, folks. Shadowbox Cabaret just might be there some day. We'll keep on eye on them as well.