Category Thrive

Nineteen year old Madelaine Scott is an egg farmer and has been for twelve years. While people her age are often studying or still trying to find their feet, Madelaine is a full-time farmer running her own business.

How did Madeleine come to being a successful egg farmer at her age, a business she has built up herself from scratch? Well a lot of it comes back to being homeschooled by her parents Rob and Colita. Rather than sitting down in a classroom and learning addition and subtraction, and biology, Madelaine’s parents thought the best way for their children to learn was by doing. So they encouraged all their children to start up a small business. When she was seven they helped her get a few chickens and start selling her eggs.

‘By running that business she learnt maths, science, how to kill animals, how to nurture, how to use an incubator, how to read, public speaking and finance’, says her father Rob.

Economics has always been driven by supply and demand: you make something, and if people buy it in enough quantities it gets made again, usually in greater quantities. Supporting businesses with good ethics not only supports them to offer their products and services, it has the potential to empower all involved in the transaction.

Many of us choose to shop locally, shop organically, shop in accordance with our ethics and really live the catchcry ‘put your money where your mouth is’. By shopping at big chain stores, and with non-local businesses that have money making as their prime motivation, our money supports their ethics rather than what’s close to our heart.

By supporting businesses with environmental, social and heart-based ethics we enable them to continue, grow and thrive. This creates a continuing cycle of love, support, passion, creativity and good service, as well as supporting a healthy mind, body and spirit, for the patron as well as the business. It’s so important to remember that every cent we spend is making a statement and contributing to the world we want.

The term ‘social enterprise’ is becoming more commonly used by those of us who run small businesses as a basis for offering our gifts to the world