A good friend of mine, an older friend of me, gave me the ultimate recipe to happiness the other day. He said "The secret of happiness, is to be self-employed, and to be your own boss."
As the global economy self-destructs, and young people increasingly feel alienated from the formal job sector, self-employment and small businesses are on the rise. Unfortunately, capital seems to be one of the many obstacles to starting off a new business; it's the age-old conundrum of needing money to make money. So how do we get around that wall? How do I plan to get my hot sauce off the ground even though I have zero capital?
Community Supported Enterprises (CSE) is an old model that has been gaining much support recently. Modeled after CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), which have played a key role in the rebirth of small-scale farms in the United States, CSEs are helping seed a new generation of independent stores and businesses. Through gaining finances through neighbours, customers, and community members, entrepreneurs are able to by-pass the problem of lack of access to capital and the tightening up of banks.
In the CSE business models, businesses gain capital through community shares, micro-loans, equity investments or certificates (loans paid back over time in food, products, or services), or in my case pre-sales!
CSEs are ultimately about community supporting community. In the words of Wendell Berry, “A good community insures itself by trust, by good faith and good will, by mutual help. A good community, in other words, is a good local economy”. Locally owned businesses support community. Community supports locally owned businesses. Let’s build that good local economy together by supporting my hot sauce! Just kidding. But seriously, would you like to buy a share of my hot sauce and support localism?
As the global economy self-destructs, and young people increasingly feel alienated from the formal job sector, self-employment and small businesses are on the rise. Unfortunately, capital seems to be one of the many obstacles to starting off a new business; it's the age-old conundrum of needing money to make money. So how do we get around that wall? How do I plan to get my hot sauce off the ground even though I have zero capital?
Community Supported Enterprises (CSE) is an old model that has been gaining much support recently. Modeled after CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), which have played a key role in the rebirth of small-scale farms in the United States, CSEs are helping seed a new generation of independent stores and businesses. Through gaining finances through neighbours, customers, and community members, entrepreneurs are able to by-pass the problem of lack of access to capital and the tightening up of banks.
In the CSE business models, businesses gain capital through community shares, micro-loans, equity investments or certificates (loans paid back over time in food, products, or services), or in my case pre-sales!
CSEs are ultimately about community supporting community. In the words of Wendell Berry, “A good community insures itself by trust, by good faith and good will, by mutual help. A good community, in other words, is a good local economy”. Locally owned businesses support community. Community supports locally owned businesses. Let’s build that good local economy together by supporting my hot sauce! Just kidding. But seriously, would you like to buy a share of my hot sauce and support localism?
