Dust off an old Dream

Thanks again to Nicole Antoinette for shaking up my world yesterday. Her blog post was all about redefining failure. Instead of viewing failure as not achieving our goals, we should view failure as not stating or chasing after your goals in the first place. Hear here!

Nicole suggested you ask yourself these questions (among others), "Who do I want to be?", "What do I want to experience?" and "How can I fully show up for myself?" Each question was it's own summit to climb and I stared at that first question for what probably added up to hours in total.

Of course I wanted to distract myself, to check my emails or walk away, but I sat there and determined not to move until the question was answered. Who do I want to be? Who DO I want to be? Dammit I don't know!

I knew I didn't want to be employed. I think wage slavery is a mugs game I've been playing far too long, but I've never been one of those people who had a talent they could make money from. I have researched a MULTITUDE of home-businesses from sewing to market stalls but never found one that could make a comparable income.

A few years ago I quit my administration job to become a kennel-hand; this was by FAR the closest I had ever been fulfilled by my employment (I love animals), but in the end seeing all the good animals put down every week was too much to bear. At least I found my beloved Winstan there and I managed to save just one.

Winstan lying on Jess

So all I had to go on was: I want to be self employed and I want to help animals. Then the little light bulb went on over my head; although the better analogy would be, then the fog cleared away and I could see the light bulb over my head. You see I remembered rather than realised that I have always wanted to run an animal sanctuary. Big or small, it doesn't matter.

However everyone had always said, "You can't do that, they're money pits" which, of course is true. So I chalked it up to a pipe dream and forgot all about it. Until yesterday.

So here, now, I say to you all. I WILL have an animal sanctuary. And if I don't make it, at least I tried, and then I haven't failed at all.

Anarchy at Work: Self Managed Organisations

Are you sick of your boss? Most people would answer yes to that question without much thought and yet we are so often 'stuck' in our working rut that we don't even question the options out there. Why are so many companies based on a hierarchical setup when quite often, the wrong people are in the highest jobs on the ladder?

The quick answer is control. When creating companies, the creator wants to control 'their' company and so the hierarchy is created and continues to exist long after the creator has moved on. However companies don't HAVE to be organised this way.

Morning Star and Gore-Tex are two self-managed companies with well documented histories of success: http://www.managementexchange.com/blog/when-nobody-and-everybody-boss

To me, the fact that these self-managed (anarchistic) organisations work as well as they do, proves that anarchy works in small communities. I've previously described my experience at an anarchist camp site, so I know first-hand how well they can be run and how conflicts can be resolved. All it takes is willing participation by all involved. 

The real challenge begins when we try to up-scale anarchism to larger communities and to countries. How do you deal with the minority of people who aren't capable of active participation in self-management (for example due to mental illness or drug abuse)? 

I expect the active community would have to decide how to deal with these people on a case-by-case basis. At least the result would be far more compassionate than the mandatory sentencing handed down by our current judiciaries. 

There are many challenges to be faced by modern anarchists, but at least we have working, self-managed organisations that are profitable and fully-functioning, that can act as inspiration for those of us who are considering starting a business.

Want to learn more about Anarchy? Read: http://www.wikihow.com/Be-an-Anarchist

Upholstery Course Result: view my amazing bench!

On Saturday I finished my Upholstery Course at the Perth Wood School and am thrilled with the result. The course took an extra week (five Saturday afternoons instead of four) to complete, however the time spent learning the details was definitely worth it.

The toolkit we used to make the benches were for sale so I bought mine (for $320AU). This included:

• an apron or 'pinny' made from leather which holds the tack hammer, scissors and staple removers
• tool basket for needles, loose tacks, staples etc.
• tack hammer
• scissors
• staple remover
• pincers
• regulator
• buttoning needle
• hand-made web stretcher
• the pneumatic staple gun

Thus, the first purchase as an upholsterer has been made. I've already started listing the materials I will need to source, cost and purchase to cover my next project: a huge armchair.

I think it is important to start on that project in less than two weeks so I don't lose the momentum of the course. Randa has been kind enough to give us her email address so we can stay in touch, which I imagine will come in handy when I need help.

I'm still contemplating starting a home business doing the furniture upholstery at weekends; most nice fabric stores in Perth only sell wholesale so I would need to in order to buy the nicer fabrics available. In the meantime I'll stick with lower-end fabric and online stores until I can test the market.

Here is my finished bench! (Randa did the corner folds for me).

AnnaKist Upholstery?

I'm thinking about setting up a business. Over the last few days I've been looking for fabric for the Upholstery Course I'm attending. Of course I want the fabric to be fabulous so I'm calling/emailing/visiting all the gorgeous fabric stores I can find; there's just one problem... most of them only sell to businesses!

Even the ones that DO sell to people then charge exorbitant (i.e. recommended retail price) per metre for the fabric in comparison to the wholesale price. Then there is all the equipment required for upholstery - if I'm going to do upholstery at home then I'm going to need to purchase it, at least if I were a business then the cost of the equipment would be tax deductible.

My understanding is that to set up a business you need to plan to make a profit (and not just do the work as a hobby). Well I DEFINITELY plan to make a profit out of upholstery, I'm hoping it will remain an income source that will help me move to the country a bit sooner.

I will need to continue my full time job for the foreseeable future but making a profit from upholstery jobs at the weekend still seems a possibility. Of course I'm getting WELL ahead of myself here; I've attended one upholstery class out of four and am super excited about how much I enjoy it.

Everything always seems like fun at first (OK, not EVERYTHING!) so I will definitely need to wait until the honeymoon period is over with upholstery before making any big decisions. But there is nothing to lose from looking into the costs and options involved in a company, should I decide to start one in the future.

Do you have any advice?