Reimagining Business

I’m writing to you with a little travel keyboard and an iPad. I’ve gotten through most of my to do list, or else put things on a “to don’t list”1, my computer is turned off and stashed in the dark depths of a closet2 for the next six weeks. I’m in the penumbra before my […]

In smallbusinessland, we’re in the season of turning our attentions to next year, as we always do, but amidst a vortex of uncertainty that for many feels bigger, scarier than ever. As I’ve sat with clients the past couple of weeks, we’ve shared a lot of fear and worry together; a lot of questions about […]

I serve on the board of director’s of Bartram’s Garden, the oldest botanical garden in the country and a unique pocket of nature snuggled into a historically neglected zip-code in Philadelphia. Much of the neighboring land is taken up by decaying sites of industry. It’s a dynamic, magical, and multi-faceted place grappling with ideas of […]

It might surprise you to know that there is not one agreed upon theory for how companies generate profit. Like most things, explanations for profit creation are colored by political orientation. Neoclassical economists largely explain profit via a theory of marginalism— profits are generated by the marketplace, where worth is determined by supply and demand. […]

More notes on World Building, and business as revolutionary practice, mostly about soap. I spent a lot of time last year writing about what’s not working— systemically, in the economics of small business— and while a few friends jokingly accused me of being a real downer, it needed to be said and, anyway, writing my […]

Many of you reading this (some of you are my lovely clients!) are bravely attempting to bring something into being to build a better possible world. You’re working to form a living— a business— from your art/activism/wild imaginations/deep talents. I’ve been chewing on some of the challenges around these sorts of world building projects. I […]

John and I just released our 3rd episode in a little Whiskey Fridays series on Business Partnerships, where we take on the D-word: D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Today though, I’m circling back to something that John, a true friend, generously teed up for me to talk about in the last episode on partner wonkiness and changes: a proposal […]

When was the first time you encountered a cooperatively-owned business? If you have at all, chances are it was a food co-op, maybe a with a hippie or punk edge to it; or REI, the outdoor goods empire, a member-owned cooperative. As the movement grows, and more folks seek out more equitable and social justice-oriented […]

There was this point early in the pandemic shutdown where every time I sat down to meditate, I’d start crying. It was pretty instantaneous. Sit, close eyes, cue the weeping. And so, I actually avoided checking in with myself in this way for a bit. It just felt like too much. Outside of those moments […]

This piece is a bit of a “yes, and…” to two linked pieces my friend Tara McMullin wrote last week. The first, Quid Pro No Thank You, responded to the question: when we put work out in to the world, what does our audience owe us? In her follow up piece, she breaks down her […]

On making the (seemingly impossible) decision to pull the plug. Hello! If you’d like to skip straight to listen to my interview with Heather Thomason of Primal Supply Meats, click here. True to form for The Summer of Failure, I saw a couple of days ago that one of my favorite area restaurant’s last service […]

Vermont— yes, seemingly the entire state—flooded over a few days a bit over a week ago. It made national news, so maybe you know this. You may be far away and file it away under “yet another natural disaster” in the abstract feeling that these things tend to take on. I didn’t really register the […]

Greetings! This post is part of a series called Enough is Enough, a summer of exploring failure. We kicked off with a piece on Queer Failure, and if you’d like to read the full series, find that here. Today I’m thinking my way through something that’s been troubling me these past six months or so: […]

Welcome to the Summer of Failure Perhaps you, like my partner Kha and me, have been binging on season 2 of The Bear. If you’re not, no real spoilers ahead. All you need to know is that this season sees the scrappy group working to transform sandwich joint The Beef into an upscale restaurant, The […]

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 sustain value, with a primary purpose of building wealth—then it’s impossible to square temporality or failure as positive possibilities. But if, as I’ve been […]

This post is adapted from [Im]Possible Business, a zine exploring radical business alternatives. Learn more and download the publication here. Read another 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 […]

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 […]

Last week I shared some thoughts (and a Venn Diagram!) about the different parts that make up a financial whole. A further thought: It’s not that the business is always right and your emotions are wrong—yes, the data may be more factually accurate regarding metrics, but to be clear, my message isn’t “always listen to […]

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 […]

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 […]