I hear a lot of you thinking “Oh great, yet another reality show”. But now here’s something completely different. Optus has announced the launch of its ‘Yes Coach’ online reality TV series aimed at small business.

The online webisodes, broadcast on Optus’ website BizThinkTank.com.au, will follow the three finalists of the competition through a 12-week intensive business training program.

The contestants are:

• Paul Jowsey, who’s company Jtagz manufacturers ID tags;
• Anthony O’Toole a young bloke who’s company O’Toole Plumbing is growing quicker than he can cope,
• and Sarah Hillier of Raw Marketing, which specialises in marketing services to the IT and professional services industries.

Phil McDermott, head of product marketing for Optus SMB, says, “The ‘Yes Coach’ competition was designed to give three finalists practical counsel on how they can solve day-to-day business issues. Broadcasting the journey of these finalists on the BizThinkTank website… gives viewers advice on how they can deal with their own businesses challenges.”

As part of the competition, three small businesses were selected to receive 12 weeks of professional business coaching with Switzer Business Coaching, to help take their business to the next level.

The finalists’ experience with the business coaching is being filmed as a reality TV-style show and broadcast as ‘webisodes’ on BizThinkTank until November 2008.

The series will end in a gala show where a winner will be announced and awarded with a $10,000 holiday voucher.

Peter Switzer, founding director, Switzer Business Coaching, says, “I’m very excited about working with these three businesses over the next twelve weeks… these webisodes will provide small businesses with practical solutions to deal with real-life situations that they are likely to come across in their own operations.”

Is participating in a reality TV show the answer for small businesses? Perhaps having the information available is the important message. 

The click-throughs might be higher if all the participants were trying to start the business together, with one of them being a raging nudist. That’ll get the site views up.