The whole zine, written out
(So it’s readable for anyone using a screen reader, and findable by anyone searching for it.)
What if your business was a garden? By Leonie Dawson.
Sometimes we see business in an odd way: mechanical, artificial, unnatural, masculine. When we do, we lose our direct and divine connection to what is true.
In truth, our businesses can be gardens that provide us with delight, sustenance, abundance and joy.
What if we felt like working in our biz was like tending to your garden? It is work, but it is good work. Satisfying to the soul. Dirt beneath the nails. Learning new skills. Becoming a better gardener every day.
When we start our businesses, it is like beginning a garden. Your job is to:
- Till the soil (get started)
- Plant many seeds (share your offers)
- Water and tend to them (keep sharing and trying new offers)
- See what grows and what doesn’t (look at the results)
Then as our garden grows, our job is to also prune when plants overtake the rest of the garden and threaten to stop other crops growing. In business, this might be when one offer, marketing method or client takes up too much time, energy or headspace for your priorities.
“Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are.” — Gretel Ehrlich
Just as in gardens, our businesses have seasons. Sometimes our fields are fallow. Sometimes harvest is full.
We also need to learn how to time our crops.
To be able to live off our garden, we need to plant short term and long term crops. You might want to plant avocados, but they take ten or more years to bear fruit. So you also need to plant spinach and potatoes.
In your business you might want to build income streams that take longer to pay you, so you need offers to pay you now.
- Long term offer = pays you in three to six months or longer. A more passive income stream. (Macadamias!)
- Offers and crops to pay you now = for example, 1:1 services. (Spinach!)
“All good things are wild and free.” — Henry David Thoreau
Leonie Dawson is a farmer’s daughter. Her business garden has been flourishing for 24 years, has created a $16 million bountiful harvest, and has served over half a million customers.
