Picture you’re sitting in a room full of vegan business owners. What do you imagine they do? If you’re like most people, you might think, “restauranteur”, “food product developer”, or maybe even “cruelty-free clothing designer.”
The truth is there are probably lots of those, but there are likely also a wide variety of other professionals…anything from web designers to financial advisors to real estate professionals. Because while people might enter the vegan movement thinking about food, they soon realize that true veganism touches every part of life.
No matter what work we do, most of us want it to be meaningful and in alignment with our values, and that often means transitioning to a vegan profession of some kind. What does that mean? It’s not about quitting your career and going to work in a vegan cafe – it’s about using your strengths and skills to strengthen the vegan movement.
Our passion at Vegan Mainstream is driven by the desire to create a mainstream vegan movement. This means ensuring that veganism is accessible to everyone, everywhere. To achieve this we need an infrastructure to support society so that choices made on a daily basis will support the ideals of veganism.
How does that happen?
It starts with the development of businesses and organizations that provide products and services that support the vegan lifestyle. This obviously points to businesses like restaurants and other food-related products/services, but the world’s cruelty-free needs are much larger than food.
How to turn your great idea into a concrete business concept
If you’re not a chef or a foodie, is there space in the vegan business world for you? Hopefully by now you know the answer….absolutely!
If you are an accountant, artist, musician, seamstress, motivational speaker, nurse or engineer we need you too! ‘
No matter the profession, the love that defines the true heart of veganism can be applied. We need art to bring attention to animal cruelty issues and reflect the care and love we should show all living beings; we need authors to create stories with characters making important ethical decisions and filmmakers to show the diverse representation of the vegan movement.
We need spas that offer vegan manicures and cruelty-free products; we need health coaches and fitness instructors to teach the benefits and realities of whole foods plant-based diets. We need financial advisors to help us invest in brands that support our ethics, and developers who consider the environment and all the affected creatures on a site, instead of just the profit to be made. You can see where I’m going with this…the list goes on and on.
The fact is there’s room for everyone in the vegan business world. The vegan business landscape needs to be just as diverse as the people who make up this amazing movement.
All it takes is one idea.
A great way to get started is to brainstorm three lists.
First, what are your skills?
Second, what are your passions?
And third, what group do you want to serve?
I’d recommend taking about 15 minutes to brainstorm each list.
Then, converge these ideas to find your unique combination of skills, passion and audience.
This should provide you with some solid business ideas to consider!
Take Action
Brainstorm the 3 lists mentioned above. 1) What are your skills? 2) What are your passions? 3) Who do you want to serve? While you are doing this it’s important to think past your conventional ideas of skills that “fit” a vegan business — all skills are needed! Then, considering these lists, brainstorm a fourth list of possible business ideas to consider. No idea is too crazy — consider them all! In fact, the more unique the idea, the more chance you may have of making it fly!
