Bert, Annelies and Cynthia worked quietly every day in Soul-Printshop Bakker. They were not overly busy, but certainly not bored either. They did not print and sell extremely large print runs, and therefore remained a small business.

Over coffee, Bert started talking about this once. "Shouldn't we try to grow further? Become a big printing company? What do you guys think about that?"

Cynthia shrugged: "Can we make ends meet? Yes. Do we make a profit? Yes, not much, but we make some profit. Always useful if we have to replace a machine sometime. Are we enjoying ourselves? I am. If I may speak for myself, and yes, calm down, I know I may," she chuckled, waving away Bert's raised hand, "I actually enjoy the small scale. I have no problem with the fact that we only have two writers and two makers of picture books at the moment. We produce the finest books we can think of, and don't run into a group of half-known colleagues here. This here, as it is now, is manageable for me and, above all, feels like family. Yes, I really feel at home here!"

"That's nice to hear, Cynthia," said Annelies. "I can also tell from how you're doing here, but it's also nice that you say it so outright. And the same goes for me, actually. I wouldn't mind if we got a bit more work, but preferably not too much. No, growing in number of employees is not necessary for me either."

"Nice, then we are in complete agreement on that! I sometimes sit and look on the internet, at those big printing companies, and I see it with other kinds of companies as well, and it often feels so incredibly impersonal. Just what you said, Cynthia, the chances are high that you only half know your colleagues then. Actually, I would love it if companies were much more often small-scale..."

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More people had that desire. People who worked in large companies, and increasingly found it hard to accept that they only knew a lot of their colleagues by face and sometimes by name, but hardly had any real contact with them, because production was priority number one, and they had to work hard. Many people didn't even have a problem with hard work, but they did have a problem with impersonality. More and more complaints were heard about loneliness, people feeling lost.

The complaints came in at all sorts of addresses: to family doctors, to the police, to the media. The Soul-Journalism team got to hear and read about it too. They talked about it over coffee.

"I can well understand people finding it impersonal, feeling alone in the crowd. I actually always felt the same way at my previous job. The way we have it together now is big enough for me. We speak to each other at every break, at least three times a working day, and I feel we know each other pretty well. We can manage financially because we get enough donations, but how do other companies do it? What companies do we know that have just stayed small and still managed to hold out?" asked Jeroen.

"That printing company, Soul Print Shop Bakker. I think only three people work there," thought Eric.

"Patricia and Jonathan, that doctor and that nurse, who work via mail these days. In fact, they are not a company, but still, it can apparently work out," Patrick said.

"The discovery centre, only three companions are working there now. That is not a business either, but we are used to schools being big, well, big, at least much bigger than that centre," Anneloes responded.

"The gallery is growing tremendously, but not as a business. In fact, each artist is separate, on their own. So when it comes to making enough money, it's apparently possible."

"Exactly," Jeroen said, "apparently it is possible to work small and still make ends meet financially, just make a good living from it. I wonder what the secret is in it, how they manage this..."

"Shall I call or email them along?" asked Anneloes. "Just ask how they manage to do that?"

"I'd love that, if you want to focus on that. Then maybe we can get a picture that we can help others with. We'll hear your conclusions, Anneloes!" Jeroen nodded at her kindly and raised his thumb.

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Annelies went to work on it. She first tried to reach the people she wanted to ask about it by phone. If that failed, she sent them an email message. She had nice conversations with the people she got hold of over the phone and fine contacts via email with others. She just felt that these people were happy with how things were going, happy with what they were doing. For each person or company, she wrote in Word what the people indicated, what they felt was causing them to like the way things were, how they could also manage financially.

After a few days, Anneloes summarised it in a separate text file and came to the meeting at lunch with both summaries.

"There are several reasons why people manage financially to work alone or with a few colleagues. Most of the artist’s work alone. Some of them live off the proceeds of their work, indicating that their work is generally not cheap, as most of them take a lot of time to make their work. They have agreed among themselves to keep track of their working hours so that they can pass that on fairly in their price. Of course, the downside of higher prices is that fewer people will buy. They also get that complaint regularly. Most people do understand how they arrived at that price, and have no comment on it, but then say that they simply cannot afford it themselves. That does cause some artists some discord, some doubt whether you can do anything about it. They have agreed with each other, that if they are sure on the inside that they would be allowed to charge someone a lower price, they have that freedom to do so. But of course, that in turn results in less money for themselves. Some indicate that they get by just fine because their partner also has an income. Others say they can barely get by on it, and don't find it a problem because they enjoy the work they do immensely, that they are happy to have discovered what they really like doing and that they make people happy with it. I also spoke to Koos and Olivia, who publish those beautiful photo books at Soul-Printshop Bakker. For them, it is a welcome addition to their pension. They retired early to be able to do this work, the work they are totally into.

That's an important basis anyway that I've heard or read about from many of the people I've had contact with. Doing the work that suits you, with the colleagues you really connect with. So for many people, that basis is something that has to do with their deepest being, which allows them to engage in it with an inner satisfaction, with great joy.

Back to finance... Bert from the print shop indicated that they had talked about it lately, about that question of whether they wanted bigger. They agreed that it was fine the way it was. They are having a good time together. And on the financial side, he indicated that they were running at a small profit, enough to replace a machine in an emergency. They wouldn't mind growing a little, but they are not looking for it. Indeed, they work with three people. As a matter of fact, he says their building is another reason why they manage. Though it is new, it is super simple. Also, no expensive furnishings and such, no glitz and glamour.

I also called Bea from the discovery centre. She told me that there was someone who had a big piggy bank, and who had donated a lot from that piggy bank to be able to build and furnish the discovery centre. And when they need to buy new things for a child, like recently a second-hand camera for that girl, for Sita, they can always call on that man. Bea specifically mentioned that the person in question wanted to remain anonymous. It had been a soul impression for him to be allowed to do this, and that's why he does it! By the way, they will have a few new discoverers in the coming period, thanks to the changes in education land.

I have been in contact with two artistes, Katja and Maureen. They live together in a large villa. They sleep upstairs and, apart from a living room, have four work rooms downstairs, two of which they use for their work, and two of which they have recently been renting out for a sham fee to other artists who had no storage space for their work. Why a sham fee? Firstly, because that was on their minds, and secondly, because they don't need the money. Oh yes, that villa, they were able to buy it and have it refurbished, double glazing and all, because one of them had had a huge inheritance. They decided to keep up with the painting work on the house themselves, every year a part of it. It saves labour costs and they quite like doing it.

That doctor and that nurse, Patricia and Jonathan receive donations. Patients who email them regularly write along the lines of, 'otherwise I would have had to pay the doctor, now I'm paying you'. In addition, Anton, Patricia's partner, has his own business, also not overly large, but considerably larger than, say, Soul-Drukkerij Bakker, and they have an ample income from that. Joke, Jonathan's partner, earns quite a bit through the sale of her books, but that, like the gift balance Jonathan gets, is not a steady income either. They know they could turn to Anton and Patricia in case of need. They are two special couples. Two pairs of soulmates, but they sometimes seem more like a quartet, like a special group of friends.

I have typed out all the answers per person or per 'company' in a summary. I can put that in the group email if you like. I also made a summary of what people gave as reasons why it is okay for them to work in small business. What came up the most was what I called the basics, which is that you do what suits you, which makes them experience an inner peace and joy. I think, if we are going to write an article about this, we should emphasise that, that that is what came out of this little survey as the most important thing. The second thing is that people no longer need an expensive work environment. Keep it simple! And finally, income... some of it comes from their own work, but sometimes from other sources, a partner's salary, an inheritance, not to mention donations. And about those donations, I have heard several times that people gave donations because they experienced in their heart or soul a kind of urge, a desire to give. That is recognisable to us. In that way, we also receive donations.

Actually, I think in all those three points, living from your inner self plays a role, a big role. In the first point, that is the basis, doing what suits you, what you like to do. With the second point, Bert emphasised, it was expressed in sobriety, because luxury doesn't really add anything to the contentment, the joy one already experiences. And with the third point, I regularly noticed that people knew from within what they should do, also financially, both in donating, and also in what they should or should not build or buy. So following what you experience in your inner self is crucial in all this."

Anneloes sighed deeply. "Sorry, that was a long story, and I think that last one was silly repetition..."

"It was mostly a great overview," Eric thought. "And I must honestly say that it touches me, even though it doesn't surprise me at all, that the soul is the basis in these things. It is our own basis, why we started this work here, in this way. And we are not alone in that. We already knew that, but it is incredibly beautiful to hear that so many other people feel the same way, that they also experience it this way, even when it comes to something like money... Money, which has been the source of power and position for so many centuries. People don't really seem to care about it anymore. Sure, you need it, but you don't have to accumulate it. And if you do collect it, you just use it to help other people, like at the discovery centre. Yes, really nice! Quite an improvement!"

"Would you like to write an article about it yourself, Anneloes?" asked Jeroen.

Anneloes nodded: "Happy to do it myself, it was fun to do this little research, so I will be happy to summarise it in an article! Shall I include references to the websites? The websites of the people I spoke to?"

"Seems like a good idea, maybe even include in your text a link to interviews we did with those people. Go your way, make something nice out of it!"

.

From one thing came another. Ideas were passed around, and above all, the power emanating from different people and companies was propelled by Anneloes' article. She translated it into English and gave readers the option to choose the English version at the beginning of her article.

Tineke soon received responses, from people thanking, people asking questions, people who couldn't imagine it being feasible. She made, as she always did, standard replies, which she could often send as replies via copy and paste. And the messages where she could not suffice with that, she answered them personally. And in her correspondence, she did not shy away from urging people to listen to their inner voice and regularly to go and check out the links Anneloes attached.

"Tineke, do you have any idea what the significance of your work is?" asked Anneloes, who stood beside her for a moment watching her work.

"To be honest, I sometimes have doubts about that. You are the ones who bring out the articles and interviews. That seems more important, but I feel my work is just as important. I dot your i's and cross your t's, I push a bit more, and I radiate my soul power with the emails. Usually the latter goes unnoticed, but sometimes I can experience a pressure when I try to answer a message, like I have to break through something. The person on the other side will probably need that..."

Tineke looked up at Anneloes, saw that she was smiling. "I'm glad you realise this, that you feel it. Your work is just as important as ours! And because of the personal contact, maybe even more important in a way. I'm curious to know if you also get responses to my article from people who have changed jobs or perhaps types of work."

"Oh yes, good of you to mention it," responded Tineke, "I've already had two from people who resigned, because they knew in their hearts that they actually wanted to do something completely different, and that your article had been just the push that helped them to take the step. Shall I just copy such messages into Word and send them to you by day?"

"Super plan, thank you Tineke, I look forward to it!"

Tineke collected those messages, and noticed that the lists of responses grew longer just about every day. And they kept coming, for weeks, even months.

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One day, Jeroen indicated that he wanted to start a new study, looking at Anneloes. "I wouldn't be surprised if this is just the thing for you again. It is about an investigation into companies that are getting smaller, maybe approaching bankruptcy, and at the same time new companies. I would love it if you or someone else from our group wants to contact such companies, to find out what the reason, the cause is."

"And how they experience it, what it does to them, and what the financial implications are," Anneloes complemented. "It will probably be a search party for a while to find such companies, but in itself it seems like a fun assignment. Totally in line with that article I had written a few months ago, about keeping your business small and all that."

"Exactly, that's why I thought of you," Jeroen grinned.

"Work to do, Tineke, first for me, but probably then again for you. It's incredible people! From the beginning, a couple of days after I wrote that previous article, Tineke has been putting all the messages from people who were taking a new path into a Word file for me, every day. I kept them, in a separate folder. If you see the list of daily files just below each other, you can already see from the space they take up how the files grow every day. For a few months now, Tineke has been getting more and more such responses every day. So it has caused quite a stir!"

Tineke jumped on that with a clever idea: "You should check those reactions, Anneloes. I think you can use a lot of them to start enquiring now. I have copied the email addresses in by default, so you can approach them with ease!"

Anneloes beamed: "Tineke, really a great idea! I'm going to do that! I can just refer back to their own responses... clever!"

Anneloes started by sending a general message to all the people who had responded in recent times:

"A short while ago, you responded to my article about small businesses and people who even worked alone. You wrote that you had started doing other work, something that suited you more. I would love to hear from you how you and your work are doing now. I am thinking especially of terms like satisfaction and enjoyment, how you organise it and, in addition, whether you are also managing financially. The aim of Soul-Journalism is to find out how people are living and working nowadays, and I want to write an article about that on behalf of our team, which will also appear again on the website. I hope you can help me with your personal information!'

She also approached companies that were clearly not doing as well, companies that were getting smaller and had serious doubts about whether they could continue.

She also thought of the company Patricia had mentioned, her partner Anton's company. She phoned him to ask how his company, which was quite large, was doing. Were employees quitting his job too? Were they doing other work? Anton explained to her that his company had indeed shrunk for a while. In his case, it no longer had to do with the impersonal nature of the large number of employees. That had been the case in the past, but he had developed a desire over a year ago to really get to know his staff, not just as employees, but as people.

"That brought about a big change," he told. "The atmosphere got better, people felt heard, seen. In consultation with them, I divided the company into different departments. Each department has specific tasks and only a small number of employees. The advantage of this is that they also got to know each other better. And yes, so for a while the company got a little smaller, people left. But fortunately that was not because the atmosphere was not nice, but because they discovered the work they would much rather do and saw opportunities for it. I have since found other people to take their place, so it didn't make the company any smaller in the end. In fact, we have grown a bit. But because of the smaller departments, the good relationships among each other, it is good to work here."

Anneloes received a huge number of responses to her e-mails, and tried to make an overview of all the replies she received. That wasn't easy, there was such an incredible amount!

However, what she did notice after processing dozens of responses was that she could sum it up very simply. Many people were enjoying their new jobs much more than in their previous jobs. Some were now working alone, others with a few colleagues. Several people had encountered financial obstacles but, following her advice and Tineke's advice, had listened to their inner voice, had followed their intuition and had therefore been able to bypass or knock down the obstacles.

Anneloes summed everything up within the team and emphasised, "The best thing is, there is so much more joy than in the previous survey. So many people have found their place, at least their temporary place."

"Sounds wonderful, Anneloes, and if you think you are ready, I would suggest to write your article!"

Anneloes smiled, "I will definitely do that, with great pleasure!" She started it that same day, was able to post the article in Dutch and English on the website and announce it on social media by the end of the day.

In her article, she explained the background of her research, that it was actually a logical follow-up to her article from a few months ago, in which she shared the link of that article.

She mentioned in this new article, that she had mostly approached people who had indicated some time ago, in response to that previous article, that they were going to look for or had found other work. Many people had started doing something completely different, something that suited them better, something their heart was set on, and not infrequently something they had actually always wanted to do. That work that suited them gave them pleasure, deep satisfaction and fulfillment.

Some people were now working alone; others had found a few colleagues. Not infrequently, they had also relied on their intuition in finding the right colleagues. The same regularly applied to financial decisions to be made, financial obstacles that had been bypassed or overcome by following their inner voice and intuition. Several people had been surprised by others who started supporting them financially, once or for a longer period of time, enabling them to move on. Those supporting people had also followed their hearts in this, had known who to support, with what amounts, and for how long.

Anneloes wrote, that she had also approached larger companies, sharing Anton's story.

Another remarkable point she shared was about the various companies struggling with departing employees. Most of the company leaders understood this in itself, understood why people were going to do something else, and therefore also started to wonder about their own, what they themselves really wanted.

She approached the end of her article by summarising it as a huge shift that is going on and that that meant that our economy is being shaken quite a bit, but in her opinion not in a negative way, quite the contrary. From almost all the responses she had received within the framework of this research, it was clear that people's souls knew exactly what they needed to live a fulfilled life, doing work that they were deeply satisfied and content with inwardly.

Summing up, she concluded, especially for those who were still searching:

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Your soul knows

Your soul knows everything you need, including financially.

Listen...

Feel...

And follow the impressions you get!

To chapter 112. Everything is going to be new in the world of finance

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