Last updated: 25 Oct 2022
What is a business?
A business is an entity that sells something, whether it’s products or services. A business engages in trade or commerce.
Businesses can look vastly different though. There’s a world of difference between a multinational corporation and a small business. Besides differences in size, there’s brick and mortar stores and those with only an online presence. There’s what they sell.
Basically, a lot can fall under the large umbrella that is “business.”
Businesses have existed long before capitalism.
Capitalism is not a prerequisite for businesses existing.
Humans have been engaging in trade and commerce for a long time, even during the prehistoric era, before the invention of money.
There’s a misconception that business and capitalism go hand in hand.
The notion that, if you want to make money, you must like and support capitalism is plain wrong.
I think this IG post from Jane Charlesworth breaks it down effectively:
Commerce is selling things to make money.
Capitalism is maximising your profits by exploiting other people's surplus labour.
There's nothing wrong with making money.
In fact, an ethical business needs to makes enough money so that everyone on the team gets paid enough to live a good life, in both money as well as time off.
There’s absolutely no reason why businesses must pursue the goal of infinite growth to accumulate profit for the sake of profit.
Here’s a fun fact:
The oldest businesses in the world that are still operating are over a thousand years old!
I first learned this fact from this New York Times article about a Japanese shop that’s 1,020 years old. Japan has a lot of old companies and they’re called shinise.
Capitalism is bad for business.
I have a bone to pick with the ever so pervasive myth that “capitalism is good for business.”
Why do we take this for granted? Is it true?
Let’s do some myth-busting here…
Doing business differently.
Our goal is to do business in a way that’s not steeped in oppression, exploitation, and manipulation.
Businesses should treat its staff and customers with dignity.
Our business practices should be in alignment with our vision of collective liberation.
But how do we do this?
We can set up more equitable business structures. For example, worker-owned cooperatives.
Re-imagine how we deal with profit. For example, democratic decision making about how to use profit including profit-sharing.
We can pay workers a living wage at the bare minimum. (Ideally, much more.) Furthermore, there should be safe labor conditions as well as plenty of paid leave.
How we sell matters. Learn what unethical marketing practices look like. Engage in ethical marketing.
Keep accessibility top of mind, for workers and customers.