Business isn't music, but it can still be a great thing to write about. I think the reason why there are so many magazines and books and, now, television shows about starting and running a business is because that process is so interesting. For the small businesses I'm so familiar with, so much is on the line, it's their houses and relationships and futures that small business owners are fighting for every day. The dramatic possibilities are endless.
It's that drama that my favorite reality show is all about. "The Fabulous Beekman Boys" follows a couple from Manhattan who buy a farm in Upstate New York as a weekend home and then get the idea to turn it into a business and lifestyle brand. In the process, their lives and relationship are turned upside down. The show's second season comes to an end tomorrow night and Planet Green is running a Season 2 marathon that afternoon.
If you haven't seen the show yet, tomorrow's a great day to start.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell, an author and advertising agency executive, and Dr. Brent Ridge, a former Martha Stewart advisor, are The Beekman Boys. They've been together for more than 10 years and have sacrificed pretty much everything to make Beekman 1802—the farm, the line of goats' milk cheese and other products, the store and the website—a go.
The story of the couple's first harrowing year on the farm, in which they both lose their jobs, almost give up the farm, and almost give up each other, is honestly and openly detailed in Josh's memoir "The Bucolic Plague." I enthusiastically read the book in a few sittings during my vacation last year. I'd already gotten to know Brent and Josh a bit after the watching the first season of the TV show, but the book goes into details a half-hour of television just can't.
The first season of the show takes place the year after the book ends, the "Year of Sacrifice" where Brent stays on the farm to start and grow the business, and Josh spends his weeks in the city, earning a living that will support himself and Brent, and pay for their two mortgages and other expenses. At the end of the first season, the business hadn't yet grown to the point to where Josh could move to the farm full time.
The last episode of the season closes out with Josh speaking directly to the camera about knowing when sacrifices are worth making and deciding to push ahead. I know that's a realization so many small business owners have had to make when all doesn't go according to plan—do you give up or forge ahead?
The second season of the show started with the business now enjoying a national profile thanks to the television exposure, the publication of Josh's book and national media coverage. That, sadly, isn't enough to bring Josh to the farm full-time so a second "Year of Sacrifice" is underway. Is two years spent away from the love of your life, burning the candle at both ends to build something you might not be able to enjoy really worth it? Brent and Josh spend the entire season fighting that out.
Every episode of this show offers a peek inside a growing business, a quirky small town and a thriving relationship. It has fun moments and serious moments, offers laughs and occasional tears. Most of all, it tells the truth about how hard it is to start, grow and run a business with the person you love, an adorable cast of goats, one diva llama, and the support of your family, friends and community.
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