In the times of serial entrepreneurs and the race to be the next millionaire, Pure Vibes has decided to take a new approach to business. Why? Our founder, Tiffany Wesley once said “I’d rather make a few hundred thousand with my friends while supporting my community than to be a millionaire by myself.” That’s all and that’s it. Deciding to take your business from independently operated to a worker owned cooperative can be a daunting task and even more so when the community doesn’t know what the heck a worker owned cooperative is!
So what is a worker owned co-operative?
According to institute.coop, “A worker cooperative is a values-driven business that puts worker and community benefit at the core of its purpose. The two central characteristics of worker cooperatives are:
- workers own the business and they participate in its financial success on the basis of their labor contribution to the cooperative
- workers have representation on and vote for the board of directors, adhering to the principle of one worker, one vote”
In a worker owned co-op, each member contributes to the company in both financial and sweat equity. You invest your time, money and skills to the business but unlike a traditional business, you are doing this with a team. Instead of having to figure out everything on your own, there are people who are just as invested in the success of your venture making the co-op truly dependent on the community it builds.
Worker owned cooperatives are on the rise in the US, earning over $500 million dollars last year. There are well established worker owned co-ops and of course new ones, ones that started like Pure Vibes and ones that were sold to employees by the initial owners. Pure Vibes is excited to join the ranks of these businesses and share the opportunity to create ownership with our community. Stay tuned for more information on worker-owned cooperatives!
