Michele Beschen

The heirloom vegetable seed business is tough. After four years we are now in the top five rare seed companies in the world, a little behind the giants like Seed Savers Exchange and Rare Seeds. Our advantage and disadvantage is that we are a family business that operates on a cash basis, no debt, no credit, no bank loans and no personal loans from family. Every dollar we earn goes back into the business.

We recently had a surprise visit from Bank of the West, the place where we put the proceeds before they go out to farmers to buy seed and envelopes and employees and about two hundred other things. Now keep in mind that as Founder and President I’m a little eccentric in my ways, and I have refused to show our bank any of my personal information, including my driver’s license and social security number. Now that has meant that I’m the only member of our family business that cannot withdraw money from the bank. I can’t even cash my $1,000 monthly paycheck at our bank, forcing me to deposit it into a savings account. I have nothing to hide; I just don’t like the game.

Anyway, the bank manager and her regional loan officer came by a few weeks ago to take a tour and see what it was all about. After twenty minutes they offered to loan us a lot of money so we could expand and buy our building and the restaurant next door. I said thank you but no thanks. We will never leave the bank because they are awesome but we really are trying to lead by example and show people that you can start a business with $2,000 and in four years, with no credit and debt, build it to a ten million dollar company and be at the top of your industry. Not sure if anybody is taking notes but we are walking slow just in case.

A few days later I began to regret my hard line, knowing that we would never be able to reach the heights that I envisioned. What are they? To compete with 125 year old seed companies like Gurney’s, Parks and Burpee. Although they specialize in hybrid vegetable seeds and flower seed, they got into heirloom vegetable seeds a couple of years ago after seeing our waves.

But then I received an email and then a follow up phone call from a celebrity that had stumbled upon our website and read every page- all 62, and then wanted to offer to help us. Her name was Michele Beschen and she is the host of a few television shows on PBS and HGTV called b-organic and b-original. As our family began watching her shows and reading her website, we quickly realized that Michele is not only one of the premiere celebrities but has very similar principles, believing in working hard and leading as example. Then she offered to make a video and commercial for our heirloom seed company and we knew that we really needed the bank to help us finance such a venture. I doubt that many people realize the power of an endorsement like Michele’s can easily cost $100,000. It was one of those instances that can remind you how insignificant you really are. We were so close but so far away. There just was no way we could afford that kind of value, yet, we knew the bank would cover the cost but we would then be forced to surrender our principle of building a company without bank financing. Our hearts were torn.

Then Chad, Michele’s representative told us that Michele wanted to forgo her normal fee and offer us the commercial and video endorsement as a gift and even cover the cost of producing both.

I have never been a lucky man. I was never talented. I believe in working harder and smarter than my competition. And I have never been given anything in my life. And I rarely cry but everything changed when Michele Beschen gave us this gift and saved our heirloom seed company. Please take a look at this incredible lady at www.borganic.net and our website www.eldoradoheirloomseeds.com