Monday, August 19, 2013

Community Support Enterprise (a story about crowdfunding and freedom)

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?

Monday, July 29, 2013

I hereby establish the Mountain Fever Venture

Tip of the hat to you dear reader, thank you for taking the time and interest in Mountain Fever Ventures.

This blog here is dedicated to documenting and sharing the development of a project by an AMS fellow in Highland County called the Mountain Fever Venture.  This blog here is the living chronicles of the development of a small-scale business that was created with zero-capital and zero-experience, all in less than half of year of moving to Highland county, all the way from the pacific ocean.  This blog here will log the successes and failures of starting a venture.  It will be a venture both in the sense of a risky journey of starting such a project, an adventure, and of a new business in an unexplored area, an uncertain business enterprise.  The obvious goal is to sell my products at both the farmer's market and at local retailers in the region.  But the real goal is that this project serve as a template and inspiration for starting a small-scale, value-added agricultural based business.  If I, Ian Sawyer, with no capital, with no business experience, with less than 6 months of living here, with very little time(I'm a farmer not an entrepreneur...), can start a business, SO CAN YOU!!

It is my hope that this blog will serve as a sort of guide book, or a coach, to guide anyone interested in making lemonade out of lemons, earning some extra income out of love and passion, invigorating the local economy and community, and bringing more autonomy and independence into our lives so that we may live each day with more joy and happiness.

I will be updating any progress I make, as well as touch upon subjects such as local economy, import substitute, business plan, marketing, crowd sourcing, and utilizing local resources.  Remember, all of this is being done with zero capital, so everything completed should be able to be replicated, as well as every success will be dependent on community support.  By reading this blog in someways, you have already contributed, so thank you, and I look forward to talking to any and all.  Please feel free to contact me with any ideas, suggestions, or comments!!

May the fever be with you,
Ian Sawyer