In the permaculture community, it seems like a lot of people think making a livelihood on site has to mean farming. That is very much not the case. Not only is not everyone good at farming; there are many other categories of human needs besides growing food.
A related issue is that people feel like they need to own 10 or 20 or more acres. Again, very much not the case. And it’s a very harmful misconception. Because it encourages hoarding and scarcity thinking.
Every homesite is different, as are the needs and resources of its surrounding communities. So the livelihoods that are possible will vary from place to place.
So this is just one example of thinking about how many ways there are to make a livelihood on one’s own homesite. Example given here is Starshine House, my home and permaculture headquarters which is on 1/10 of an acre in our coastal small city.
Writer and content creator is always an occupation, possible almost everywhere.
Artist, same.
Teleconsulting; virtual educator. (I conduct my death Doula services almost exclusively by phone and zoom. And I know people who teach English to students in China and other far away places!)
Basket-weaving – we have so many palm fronds and vines and other materials that I haven’t even started to experiment with even though I have taken a basketweaving class.
Sewing. In particular, living by the beach, I often find good sturdy canvas from discarded chairs and umbrellas. A person could make a whole livelihood just from stitching bags.
Sewing machine mechanic. I can’t keep it tuned, and anyone who can would likely have lots of other business from the surrounding community as well. I believe we lost our sewing machine mechanic in town a few years ago. At a shop where I had a part-time job a few years ago, we used to have to have a mechanic visit every year from the Carolinas just to keep our machine tuned.
Bicycle mechanic. The closest bike shops are 7 miles away in either direction.
Matting and framing. There are a lot of artists around here and there’s getting to be a critical mess of galleries downtown.
Candlemaking. I started getting good at making new candles by melting down leftover chunks of old candles, and making wigs from old T-shirt material. There’s a knack to it but I seem to be getting better at it. A person could probably make a whole business out of this.
Yogurt making, kombucha, sourdough — really any cottage food industry.
These are just what I can think of off the top of my head, on a little 1/10 of an acre home and yard.
Of course there’s no need to make one’s entire livelihood on one’s homesite. A person could get a job nearby. My thinking is that the job wouldn’t have to take over all of one’s waking hours, because we always have our home livelihood.
Neighborhood lawn-mowing and landscaping business, neighborhood delivery business, all manner of neighborhood-based businesses where a person draws their entire customer base from just a few square blocks.
If you’re trying to live within the default settings of the mainstream economy, the aforementioned occupations will sound like they wouldn’t provide enough money. But, coupled with the lifestyle of thrift and mutual aid, sharing a home and either sharing vehicles or not needing a vehicle at all, it becomes more and more viable.