The Boss of You

I’m always on the lookout for business books that embrace, promote & celebrate small & locally-owned businesses. I don’t believe that small & local are always or inherently better, but I have a strong affinity for spending my dollars on products and services that help support the livelihoods of good people, and supporting my neighbours is even better. I like to get to know the people who create the products I buy, because service means a great deal to me, and because I enjoy knowing a little bit about the ethics and values of the people I’m giving my money to.

So I am intrigued by this book: Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy

The blurb begins:

In an era when incomprehensibly complex issues like Peak Oil and climate change dominate headlines, practical solutions at a local level can seem somehow inadequate.

In response, Lyle Estill’s Small is Possible introduces us to “hometown security,” with this chronicle of a community-powered response to resource depletion in a fickle global economy. True stories, springing from the soils of Chatham County, North Carolina, offer a positive counterbalance to the bleakness of our age.

This is the story of how one small southern US town found actual solutions to actual problems. Unwilling to rely on the government and wary of large corporations, these residents discovered it is possible for a community to feed itself, fuel itself, heal itself, and govern itself.

If any of you have read Small is Possible, I’d love to hear your thoughts — or indeed your thoughts about small/local businesses in general.

(I also spotted another interesting-looking book from the same publisher: Ecopreneuring: Putting Purpose and the Planet Before Profits.)