Starting a passion business

One theme of mine is that if we buy less stuff we can work less. But what to do with all the extra free hours?

Some people choose to start a business, or more specifically, a social enterprise. These are businesses that have a social outcome as their main goal. If they make some money along the way, that's good - but it's not the main purpose.

I recently attended a webinar of social start-ups pitching their enterprise. One of these is Fruit Butcher.

The Fruit Butcher?

Elliot Carter calls himself a Fruit Butcher. After an animal safari in Africa, he and his wife decided to go vegetarian for a month but found the options limited.

A fruit wholesaler by trade, Elliot realised he could use his fruit knowledge to provide tasty vegetarian options for people who want a great meat alternative.

Here's his pitch video:

Jackfruit's back, alright

While Elliot's got plans for a range of plant-based alternatives the first is a pork-like product that's made from jackfruit.

At the moment he's selling jackfruit burgers at markets in my city (my wife and I enjoyed a couple). He's also selling pre-prepared jackfruit take-home packs to use in home cooking.

In short

Starting a business may not be for you, but it shows what someone can do with a bunch of free time. Changing the world for the better, having the opportunity to follow an interest or passion and potentially making some money while doing it. Sounds good to me.

More examples?

In coming weeks I intend to feature a couple more great initiatives from the event. It's another great reason to subscribe to my monthly updates.

Comments

Offline

Yes, by now we all know that smartphones and social media are doing us harm. How do we harness the benefits of them without the destructive effects. The book Offline makes 5 main points. If you've only got a minute, here they are: The addictive design keeps us on online platforms longer. The 'brain hacks' disrupt our brain's ability to function. Humans need "real" interaction, and social media does not deliver this. Technoference (digital over-riding direct interactions at the play ground, coffee shop, dinner table) result in something valuable being lost. Speed of the transformation is astounding. 75% of people are connected, with almost half using social media. We have no idea what the long-term effects of this real-life experiment will be. Going a bit deeper, here are some of my highlights from the book. So what are side-effects? According to various studies, the effects can be grouped into the physiological (poor sleep, neural re-wiring, and increased str...

How to retire on a boat at 40

Irish Leonard explains how his family of four lives on a sailboat. No inheritance. No lottery. Just not wasting money - or his time. How does he afford it? He explains by showing the average Irish household expenses, converted into hours worked. Here's the result shown as a working week: We work a lot to pay for our cars. As he puts it: Almost 20% of our working lives is spent so that we can afford to get to our working lives. So Leonard eliminates or massively reduces most expenses. On the family boat, he sails "in a climate that requires no heating or air conditioning, doesn't own a car and generates what energy he needs using solar panels". Remove the unnecessary costs and you remove most of the need to work. He calculates that we can feed and clothe our family on 5 days work per month, or the equivalent. By contrast the average Irish couple devotes 19 hours a day to work, including commuting. Why all this focus on time? In Leonard's words "I...

Big motivator for small living

It's been a while between posts here - mainly because we've been moving house. It's been a real motivator for downsizing. Packing each and every item we owned, really makes me wish there were fewer of them. Moving everything from the old apartment to the new one made me envious of those people who live in a "tiny house on wheels". For them moving house simply means towing it to a new location. No packing required. The whole process has reaffirmed our commitment to owning less stuff. So we're going to be intentional about downsizing. It will be an ongoing activity. My environmental heart couldn't stomach a spontaneous dumping of things into the garbage, but it's also more fun this way. Selling things online brings in some handy pocket money. Giving items away is also a great community activity, whether it is to friends and family, to charity or to people in the neighbourhood. I'm looking forward to it as a lifestyle rather than a task to do....

But wait... there's less!

Search This Blog