QUESTION: Anarchist business models

question / pregunta: 

An anarchist friend of mine has started a business and could use some anarchist friendly business models to get things off the ground.

The type of model I'm thinking of would involve allowing employees to buy in, etc. Any other information or sources you could point me to would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Answers

Even though it's past the time when you needed an answer, I want to post a link to the following article that I think is relevant:

"Precarious & Pissed Off: Lessons from the Montpelier Downtown Workers' Union (2003-2005) and Beyond" by Sean West
Northeastern Anarchist #12 (Winter 2007)


Answer posted by:
jim miller

Quite possibly, most anarchist organizations will be reluctant to describe the way they are organizing themselves as a "business model", because of possible negative connotations related to large corporations who routinely use the term. You may need to browse through many websites, using subcategories of directories such as Google.com/dirhp, which can lead you to dozens of sites such as Anarchist Freedom Links, which in turn might lead to ideas on organizing an anarchist enterprise.

But it also can be quite wise to learn from folks who don't at first glance appear to share your major values or goals. The Small Business Administration has many resources for starting and planning a business, including its Free Online Training, that includes How to prepare a business plan. SBA's "Library and Resources"/ "Publications" leads to their Management and Planning Series that includes a few sample business plan outlines. Their Write a businessplan page links to Palo Alto Software's Sample Business Plans, dozens of free samples in about 28 major categories from consulting and publishing to manufacturing.

One potential place to talk

One potential place to talk to is the Hub Bike Co-op in Minneapolis. http://thehubbikecoop.org.

dc dog walking collective

just a best practices kind of example- and i think they would be willing to give insight on their model.

http://brighterdayscollective.com/index.php/Static-Website-Content/Our-Dog-Walking-and-Pet-Sitting-Committment.html

another resource

Just came across this article from Rivista Anarchica, translated from the Italian, about worker-owned cooperatives in the U.S.

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