How to Start a Sanpo-Yoshi Business Part 5: Making it Sanpo-Yoshi

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This week, I have been talking about how to start a Sanpo-Yoshi business, and yesterday, I discussed the aspect of Seken-Yoshi, which means society is happy.

I covered 5 elements, which are small, local, environmentally friendly, socially just, and holistic. You can apply them as much as possible.

With that said, it is usually not that easy for you to get a business that will meet all requirements of Seken-Yoshi. For example, if you live in a rural area, sometimes it is difficult to make it local. This is because the population there is usually small, most rural areas lack people diversity, and the types of businesses you can do there are limited. For my English coaching business, I had to reach out to people in other areas since my town lacked people who wanted to study English.

This is an example of one of the dilemmas you can face when choosing a business. However, that doesn’t mean that you need to move to the city to create a Sanpo-Yoshi business, because you might encounter other problems in the city.

You just need to be flexible and not get too particular about it. You need to accept the fact that you can’t make everything perfect. The problem of the people who are environmentally conscious is that often we are perfectionists and we pick every flaw we can find and point it out. If we keep doing it, we can never start anything. Even if we can’t meet all requirements, a business of two-way-satisfaction is better than a business of one-way satisfaction, and it is better than not doing anything. You do need to take Urite-Yoshi into consideration, too. You don’t want to make it too difficult. If it isn’t doable, it won’t be sustainable.

I chose to remain in the countryside even though I couldn’t make my business local, because there were a lot of other benefits. By earning money elsewhere and spending it locally, I can enhance the local economy. It is important because money has been going out of the community in the last few decades.

If you live in an urban area, it may be difficult to engage in Satoyama economy, but there are advantages in the city. Sometimes living in the city can be sustainable, because you can use bicycles to get around and bartering can be done more easily. So I wouldn’t rule out doing your business in the city area either.

The bottom line is find something that you can do within your circumstance.

Now that I covered Urite-Yoshi, Kaite-Yoshi, and Seken-Yoshi, you know what to do. You want to take all those aspects into consideration. Find something you enjoy doing, or you are good at doing, which has enough demand and low supply, and meet some of the Seken-Yoshi elements. You also want to be specific about your target. Who do you want to help?

Since I can’t cover everything in the blog, please read the book, if you want to know more. The book goes into more detail, and it also covers many other subjects such as how to set your goal, how to make a plan, how to motivate yourself to take massive action, and many more which are all useful for starting your business.

In Japan, we have a long weekend starting tomorrow, so I won’t be able to write a post on Monday. I will see you on Tuesday.