Opportunities for Economic Achievement

Opportunities for Economic Achievement 

We are listing some of the many ways we can ‘make money’ naturally. Having choices for making money and forming micro-enterprises empowers individuals and communities. This list offers a variety of suggestions meant to spark our imagination. Living in a community makes it easier to form teams and creatively do great things together. Some of these suggestions are specific to south Florida. Other climates will offer different opportunities. We recommend people think about what they want to do, like to do, or are already doing to imagine their ideal micro-enterprise. 

Tourist attraction
Here are some ideas to attract tourists who bring money.

• Natural Building workshops 
• Nature therapy 
• Farm Market 
• Offer wilderness survival skills 
• Salvage Yard/Resale Shop 
• Wildlife rehab, get donations 
• Community gardens 
• Petting farm - families come to be with farm animals 
• Plant walks, learn foraging for food and medicine 
• Events, workshops, music, peace feast, drumming, dancing 
• Grow a specialty garden: examples include an aromatherapy garden, garden of bathing herbs, herbs for skin. How about a bible based garden? Figs, pomegranate, olives, dates, Frankincense 

Grow 

We can grow lots of plants for sale, specialty plants will provide larger income. So many options to choose from, here are a few selections. Look for specialty plants and their produce that can sell for top dollar. 

• Mango ginger 
• Turmeric varieties: red sweet 
• Sugar cane 
• Bamboo shoots 
• Moringa 
• Mint teas 
• Watercress 
• Ramps 
• Seeds 
• Potted plants 
• Sprouts 
• Gourds 
• Floss Silk pods for stuffing, dream pillows. Grow them along edge of property  
• Mushrooms. Select good varieties for growing and for the market. Can grow indoors, on logs, in mulch. 

Forage 

We can forage for items of value to ourselves and others. Always ask for permission before foraging on other people's property. To get permission, contact the owner, see what they want, offer something, even $20 to have access to the property for harvesting. Check with land clearing companies to collect free plants before they are plowed under. 

• Coconuts. chemical free 
• Bananas
• Pesto production from foraged herbs
• Coconut palm weaving 
• Clay for potters. Find clay pit, sell in 5 gallon buckets
• Culinary and medicinal herbs, fresh, dried and tincture
• Broom sedge. Get for free, sell for $5 bundle, can pick $1000 of this in a day
• Brazilian Jasmine vine. Found in south Florida, get free from orchards, they want it gone
• Seaweed. Dead Man’s Fingers, for example, are delicious, can be dried. Best fresh, must be refrigerated. Also best to harvest in the Keys because it is less polluted there
• Feral fruit, citrus, blueberry and more, find old groves not being used or sprayed, get permission from owner
• Dyeball fungus, also called Dead Man’s Foot and Dog turd fungus spores. Valuable to make a purple dye, and to remediate land. 1 $100 for 8oz jar

(Pisolithus tinctorius is an ectomycorrhizal fungus that has been used worldwide as an inoculant to promote the growth and health of plant roots of forest importance. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2452219821000938)

 

Specialized enterprises 

These are some of the many possibilities for enterprises that make money.

• $30/hr. or more for landscape maintenance or installation
• Plant nursery, possibly growing native and specialized plants
• Sell potted plants and veggies on site or deliver
• Making compost from wood chips. All organic (big rows can make 2 million a year)
• Aquaponics. Grow fish and veggies like water celery and watercress.
• Freeze drying, dehydrating
• Make cider and juice
• Produce maple syrup
• Fermentation. Pickles, sauerkraut and much more
• Brewery - beer, wine, kombucha
• Pizza oven
• Make tinctures, salves, herbal tablets and more
• Basket making
• Broom making
• Cordage, Rope making
• Fiber Arts related
• Pottery
• Tannery. Tanning hides
  
• Making jewelry from natural items
• Prepare designs for gardens
• Dyes for fabric
• Candle making, local beeswax
• Beekeeping. Honey production
• Jams and jellies, other preserves.
• Elderberry syrup production
• Kayak tours, leading the tours
• Teach fishery off the coast
• Midwives and doulas
• Fix it skills. Repair, sew, weld, handyperson
• Solar
• Saw Mills
• Bamboo building and crafts, make bamboo flutes
• Wood turning
• Timber growing. Coppicing, pollarding
• Ferment bamboo shoots, chopped, fermented in jars.
• Make food from what is foraged and/or grown and sell it.
• Pies or tarts from elderberry, blackberry, loquat and more

Natural Building Topics

There are many topics to explore as we learn to build with natural and repurposed materials using building techniques that cause minimal damage to the ecosystems. Learning about these topics, then teaching others is rewarding. Natural building workshops are popular. They are a good way to raise money, awareness and can produce an actual building. 

• EarthShips
• Sugarcrete 
• Hempcrete 
• Tabby - oyster shell cement, use as is or mix with cement 
• Bamboo building 
• Natural paints and dyes 
• Earth floors
• Earthbag building 
• Masonry stove/heater/oven 
• Rocket stove 
• Natural plaster 
• Building with cordwood 
• Timberframe building
• Coppicing for timber production 

Forming Teams Opportunities for Economic Achievement - Making $$$ 

Getting things done often goes better when we are on a team. Teams are often needed to get some things done. Being on a team that makes money offers a variety of opportunities and challenges. Let’s explore a simple example of how we could set up a team for making money.

Let's make and sell quilts. Our market research tells us quilts may sell somewhere between $30 to $300 depending on the size, the materials used and how detailed and attractive the quilt becomes. One (or more) people are needed to create and manage the team. 

Team leaders secure the space, gather necessary materials, tools, or equipment. They keep track of the expenses. The hours people put in are logged, and the profit is shared between the people involved in a way that is in agreement with the team. 

In our example of quilt making, a space is set up in the craft room for quilting. It might require a sewing machine and quilt frame. Fabric and sewing supplies need to be available. Workers can come anytime, alone or with others. As hours are worked, people log them. When a quilt is sold, the money left after expenses is shared to the workers. When a quilt sells for $100, then $20 goes to the place that sold it, $10 goes to acquire more materials for future quilts, the rest is divided between the people involved, based on hours logged.

Sam enjoys quilting 2 nights a week and usually logs in about 4 hours a week. Sam could get a monthly check for doing something fun, along with enjoying the company of the quilting team. 

There are other ways to manage a team and offer fair share of the payout. We recommend the book Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstien as a good starting place. https://sacred-economics.com/ 

In conclusion 

This list is meant to spark our imagination by suggesting some natural ways to make money. It is good for any community to have multiple streams of income. Look for what is needed, what would help, along with the things we enjoy doing. Some activities will bring in more money, for example child care and elder housing. It is valuable to have multiple income streams, often they may be seasonal, like producing maple syrup. A large eco-village could have 50 or more micro-income streams. 

Doing something special? Making something special? Do or make more of it for sale. 

All of the examples listed are from ‘real life’, meaning they are examples of things that people have actually done to make money. For example we might not think that making compost from wood chips could amount to much. Yet we know someone who has earned over 2 million dollars in a year just making compost in big rows. On another note a large compost operation could also be used for heat production. This list is meant to help us find natural solutions to providing for our needs and wants.

Masonry oven, burn wood to heat for
12-24 hours from one fire, lack of
combustion odor and creosote build up. 

If you ever doubted the use of natural materials to build a
home these nine buildings are a testament to its longevity. 
http://naturalhomes.org/naturalbuilding900years.htm#500