Business as Queer Failure
This post is adapted from [Im]Possible Business, a zine exploring radical business alternatives. Learn more and download the publication here. Read the first post in this series: On the Limits of What a Business Can do. Failure, of course, goes hand in hand with capitalism. A market economy must have winners and losers, gamblers and risk takers, con men and dupes; — Jack Halberstam, The Queer Art of Failure We tend to think of businesses as enterprises that need to last, sustain, grow, and grow some more. If you view a business as an asset—an entity that can grow and […]
Continue ReadingOn the Limits of What a Business Can Do
This post is adapted from [Im]Possible Business, a zine exploring radical business alternatives. Learn more and download the publication here. Read the second post in this series: Business as Queer Failure Utopias have always entailed disappointments and failures. — Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother Étaín was an “underthings” store in Portland, Maine, that offered an inclusive mix of femme-forward lingerie, nonbinary undergarments and binders, and other forms of under-apparel. They created some of the most gorgeous and inclusive photoshoots I’ve ever seen. Innovated Q.U.A.D, the Queer Underwear Accessibility Department, a community-funded program distributing free gender affirming undergarments. There was a […]
Continue ReadingThe {gnarly, beautiful} questions I’m asking right now.
The poet David Whyte talks about seeking the beautiful question: a question that resonates, begs to be unspooled, and, ultimately, leads the questioner towards a more engaged, heart-centered, aligned way of being. My questions are not always beautiful, but they are at the heart of guiding my work and ways of showing up in the world. By nature, they are questions without answers, designed to provoke and create a sense of wobble just by asking. Here’s a collection of some of the beautiful, gnarly, confounding questions I’m currently asking: What would each of us build if the goal was to […]
Continue ReadingThe most essential feedback loop in your business.
Running a bookkeeping service is like having VIP backstage access to what really works and what doesn’t in business; you want to know who has the best champagne back there? Ask the bookkeepers. Now take a cross section of 50-odd different businesses – products, services, micro, million-dollar, whatever: want to know the what most often separates the folks that do well and make it from the ones that slide backwards or stagnate? The leaders that engage with their financials regularly are the folks that thrive. The people that avoid or ignore them, are the ones that don’t. Throw a multi-year […]
Continue ReadingAre you having cash flow problems, or are you just not profitable?
Cash flow and profit are not the same, and mistaking a profit problem for a cash flow problem can be deadly to your small business.
Continue ReadingOn Giving & Redistribution, Part 2: Defining a Strategy for Giving
To read Part 1, how to think about redistribution and giving within your business, click here. In the Part 1 I wrote about the opportunity in stewarding business resources to create more resilient ecosystems. Since businesses are set up to generate more resources than individuals, we can also use them to channel those resources into community care. In this second part I’m going to get into the actual how-to: the how much, how often of giving and redistribution strategies. How to Calculate? In my first post, I wrote about two “buckets” of giving: giving as marketing expense and giving to […]
Continue ReadingOn Giving & Redistribution Strategies: Part 1
A client recently asked for advice on how to think about a consistent giving strategy — they work with many non-profit clients, who of course fundraise, have galas, and all the other modes of raising money. Since the summer of 2020, I’ve been seeing more businesses with regular giving lines in their budgets, but just as many with ad hoc giving and redistribution. We’ve seen spikes in publicly announced giving, but ultimately riding a public wave and embedding redistribution as an operational policy are different things. The query prompted my to write out my thoughts around giving within a small […]
Continue ReadingThe counter intuitive reason to distribute profit to employees in your small business.
There’s a whole mess of reasons why all businesses should distribute profits to their employees: -Redistributing money = redistributing power -You didn’t build your business to only benefit yourself -Your employees should benefit from the value they create Those are just three of many, but you get the idea! I’m not talking about the folks who believe it’s their divine right as Capitalists to amass capital for themselves. For anyone that takes a people-centered approach to business, how can the resources my business creates benefit the people within the business and my greater community, should be a guiding question. So […]
Continue ReadingMaybe don’t offer a sliding scale.
As more leaders are considering issues of justice and equity in their businesses the go-to, especially in the online and services business community, has been to offer lower priced spots and sliding scales. While it’s great to create access and ensure that you’re not boxing out people who, for structural reasons, don’t have access to money or resources, accessible pricing isn’t the best place for many folks to start making changes. Equity isn’t just about making things cheaper. The folks at Crust Vegan Bakery took to Instagram recently to respond to a review complaining about the high prices at their […]
Continue ReadingOur work is all three parts.
I was reminded in two separate meetings this week that the actual work of making our visions and values real & concrete in the world (ie, running an anti-capitalist business under capitalism) is always imperfect. In the first, I was speaking about my discomfort with where I feel like I’m falling short in my own work and leadership of Wanderwell — with the ways in which I wish I could support the team, and the resources that we don’t have to do so, as a very small business. And the reality is, of course, my own tiny business is not […]
Continue Reading