Permaculture in Your Life :: BUSINESS

Permaculture is about diversity. Business is about diversity and turning it into opportunities for growth. Its about one thing being in service of the other and the reciprocity that contributes to village harmony.  All entrepreneurs know that every last skill they have- their diverse gamut of tools gets applied in creative ways in order to establish a business. This is a lot of work, and your own steam it can only take you so far.

In order to really grow, your business requires village support.

It requires a guild. A guild is a permaculture term for a small grouping of collaborative plants. Don’t mistake this for what passes for craft guilds today. A permaculture guild is always diverse. for example instead of having a spinning and weaving guild one would be better off having a spinners/shepherds/knitters/designers/homeschool/bed-makers guild.

See what I mean?

According to Lazy-Lady Living and permaculture, some plants grow best close together. They actually help each other grow just by growing next to each other.

Imagine that?!

In a guild that accomplishes the same thing, you need complimentary diversity. It’s not getting into the same flower bed as your competition. It’s about knowing who else’s business could thrive next to yours. You might be selling at the same market, but your contributing something new. It’s about partnering up with people who are similar but different.

They share the same values and needs and make working together about optimizing everyone’s growth.

For example, in order to make your Greek artisan baking company thrive you need to make friends with your neighborhood bee-keeper, who supplies you with the very best honey for your baklava. They introduce you to the village mead maker who connects to the the best artist making labels around. The artist is experimenting with the natural cosmetics business as well and she finds lovely organic beeswax through the bee keeper and… et cetera.

Everyone benefits and there is abundance for all.

*note: Thanks to Emily Connell for her help in creating this series!

Tell us what you think in the comments below!

Intrigued? Wanna learn more?

There is a whole week in our Lazy-Lady Living program devoted to the topic of Ethical Business. Click the image below to read all about it: