Remember my resolution to learn how to better manage my business and create a mindful and sustainable plan?  I’m proud to report that it is a resolution I have been keeping.

This morning was the first meeting of my ‘Simple Steps‘ class at Women’s Initiative.  The morning was dominated by introductions: the teacher’s to us, the course to us, and ours to each other.  The diversity of the student body is exciting: there’s a handful of healing practitioners, a couple of aspiring vintage store owners, a web designer, an importer, an eco-tourism agent, a videographer, a florist, a caterer, an aspiring restaurant owner, an eco-interior designer and home consultant, at least one other jeweler (yay!) and a few others I can’t remember.  I’m particularly excited about talking shop with the other jeweler, who in addition to being totally friendly and sweet, just finished up her JTI at Revere Academy.  Smart cookie.  If I could go back in time, I would have taken the JTI at Revere and Simple Steps at Women’s Initiative before launching a jewelry business.  That combo probably could have saved me from quite a few missteps.

The class is an eleven-week walk-through of creating a viable business plan.  Although I already have a business that has been viable and supporting me for nearly three years now, I feel like I’m at a plateau of just eking out a living of poverty wages.  More profoundly, though, I feel like I’m not living up to my potential and vision.  I want to contribute positively to the local economy and culture and promote good stewardship of the earth through sustainable practices and treading lightly on the earth.  I really need a plan to match that vision if I seriously want to obtain it.

One thing I like about this instructor is that she emphasizes that businesses reflect and manifest a set of values, reminding us to stay mindful of our values as we envision our future businesses and draft our plans.  She even, in typical California-style, lead a deep-breathing, eyes-closed, relax-and-envision-your-future exercise.  A little cheesy?  Sure.  Helpful and inspiring?  Definitely.

I keep thinking about the contrast between this instructor’s approach and the one presented at at last year’s Craft Congress in what was, for me, a very frustrating panel, where one of the panelists urged the audience of (almost entirely female) crafters and business-owners to aim small and be satisfied with less.  The feminist in me really took issue with someone telling a audience of women to be lower our aspirations and be content with less– less money, less accomplishment, less power, less recognition.  But what really frustrated me was the dangerous and disempowering assumption that the only impact a business worker-owner can have in the world is a negative and destructive one.

I believe in treading lightly on the earth, in treating its inhabitants with fairness and respect and in inflicting no harm.  I don’t think that capitalism’s mandate for endless growth and expansion is sustainable or good, and growth for profit’s sake is not a value I hold nor express through my company’s practices.  But, let me be clear, here.  I have goals– big ones.

I don’t accept the premise that the best impact I can have on the world is no impact.  I believe I can have a very positive impact– for the earth, by upholding green standards for my own manufacturing processes and by applying pressure up the supply chain to demand that industrial manufacturers, refineries, mines and mills use earth-friendly practices; for working people, by sourcing my supplies from companies that treat their workers well and create domestic manufacturing jobs and by (eventually) providing creatively-meaningful and well-paying jobs in my local economy; on my community, by running a stable and independently-owned business and playing an active and mindful role in the economy and in our democracy; on the arts and crafts traditions, by sharing knowledge and by passing on the history and skills of my trade.

My dream is to, one day, run a worker-owned jewelry design and production co-operative.  That’s a huge, huge goal that won’t be easy to attain.  I’m grateful and excited to have found the support of women who, rather than tell me to lower my sights, help me to understand and take the steps that will lead to my eventual achievement.