Info, news & debate

Self-employment


New owner sought for low-impact pub and glamping site in rural Suffolk

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Aldegarden is a wonderful site in Suffolk, with accommodation, a community pub, and a ‘glamping’ site with yurts, timber structures, a cob roundhouse, gypsy caravan and a converted barn, communal areas, solar hot water and electricity and compost loos. They’ve been in our directory for years. But now they’re looking for new owners for the property and successful businesses.

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Career change? Making a living from weaving

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Career change? Making a living from weaving. At Lowimpact.org we’re interested in helping to bring production back to communities, and so we’re talking with craftspeople, smallholders, natural builders, renewables installers and small business owners in our range of topics. I’ll be asking them about their jobs, and for advice for people who might be interested

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Why we should support small fishing boats over super-trawlers, Part 1

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Here’s Part 1 of our interview with Caroline Bennett, founder of ‘Sole of Discretion’, a community interest company that sells fish caught by a collective of small fishing boats in Devon. Here we’re talking about the sustainability and community benefits of small fishing boats, the barriers that they face, and how her business can help

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Career change? Making a living from making pottery

Career change? Making a living from making pottery

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At Lowimpact.org we’re interested in helping to bring production back to communities, and so we’re going to be talking with craftspeople, smallholders, natural builders, renewables installers and small business owners in our range of topics. I’ll be asking them about their jobs, and for advice for other people who are interested in doing similar things.

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What kind of work do we want to do?

What kind of work do we want to do? Is working with our hands passé?

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There’s an approach to life that sees craft jobs, or smallholding and food production, including baking, brewing and beekeeping, as well as any kind of job that involves manual work and dexterity as somehow retrograde and passé, and that ‘work’ now means mainly putting on a suit and travelling to an office to do something-or-other

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Keeping small businesses alive during the coronavirus economic crisis

Keeping small businesses alive during the coronavirus / economic crisis

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The coronavirus crisis is causing an economic crash that will only get worse. Research has indicated that a shortage of money will mean that up to a million UK small businesses may close in the coming months. To prevent the devastation of small businesses, and therefore our communities, there needs to be an alternative means

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Together we can build a new economy

Coming together to build a new economy: Matthew Slater, barefoot economist and Credit Commons co-designer, Part 2

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In part 1 I described why a resilient economy needs be to separate from the failing capitalist juggernaut and that we need to start by finding new economic partners from without the Market.

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Perception dollar by Matthew Slater of XR and the Credit Commons Collective

Starting from scratch: Matthew Slater, barefoot economist and Credit Commons co-designer, Part 1

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Donald Trump recently derided Greta Thunberg and everyone pleading with government to heed environmental science as ‘doomsayers’. The more imminent peak oil or environmental collapse appear, the more intransigent our political system seems to be. Whatever the reasons for this, responsible citizens can only accomplish so much while the political and economic winds are blowing

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We're talking about the new economy with Micky Metts of Agaric

Networking small businesses and co-ops to replace corporations: Micky Metts on the new economy

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This is part 2 of a conversation with Micky Metts of Agaric – a co-op in Boston, Massachusetts that provides online tools for other co-ops. Part 1 is here. I told Micky about some of the meetings and discussions we’ve been having in the UK with people working to build ‘new economy’ infrastructure, like community

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