Alternative Entrepreneurialism: A Manifesto

Last updated on Oct 31, 2024

This piece builds on Alternative Entreprenuerialism: Why We Need a Manifesto, which focused on the development of entreprenurialism and the problems with its definition in the 2020s. You should read that for context.

Members please note that this page is open to free members and so comments can be read by those outside of our normal community.

Non-members please note that the meetings are only open to Paid community members.

Alternative Entrepreneurialism and Unplugged Ambition

Unplugged Ambition, a home of alternative entrepreneurialism, seeks to help members uncover, develop and apply their talents in order to generate income for themselves, rather than work for toxic, exploitative or talent limiting employers.

It seeks also to raise awareness of key issues around alternative entrepreneurialism beyond the membership community, and to inspire and challenge all those seeking financial reward for their talents and efforts to innovate, explore and create.

Whilst the term "alternative entrepreneur" has been used outside of the community, no effective or inspiring definition exists, and it is often loosely used to describe business structures such as co-operatives or non-profits or business practices such as fair trading or carbon emissions management.

We seek here to offer a first draft of a manifesto which will govern our work and practice here at UA as well as act as a guide to members looking to deepen their alternative entrepreneurial practice.

SECTION A: OUR DRIVE AND PURPOSE

We seek to uncover and develop our own unique skills and talents

Recognising that defined academic subjects, curricula, grading systems, job role requirements and other external definitions of our skills and talents are inadequate and limiting, we share and evolve practices to help us develop our awareness and abilities with regard to our innate and learned talents.

What brings us joy and ease, rather than what is externally validated, is our guide to how we choose to spend our working lives.

We seek to share our gifts and talents with the world, recognising that this is how best we can live meaningfully and with purpose. In doing so we are conscious of the wish to repay what we have been given - our innate gifts and our opportunities - to others.

We are wary of employers or others who seek to limit or direct or exhaust our energies, since these reduce what we are able to bring to our true calling.

We are unashamed in looking to generate income from our skills and talents

Whilst we recognise our talents as gifts, it is our right to expect payment for their service.

As part of building sustainably, we ensure that our financial needs are met as a priority.

Whilst we might do pro bono work, or offer different pricing structures to reflect global incomes, we explicitly reject any confusion that alternative entrepreneurialism is anti-profit.

We enable our ambition by reducing our dependence on material goods

The biggest factor tying people to careers which compromise their wellbeing and prevent them from realising their potential in the world, is a belief that material possessions are adequate compensation for relinquishing control of your dreams.

We therefore research and share knowledge on downsizing, alternative living and other relevant topics.

We reject the public celebration of material acquisition and superwealth as being harmful to us spiritually, to the planet, and to the real needs of those living in poverty.

We look to support, and seek support from, others on the alternative entrepreneurialism path

A majority of people will follow paths layed out for them by others, never able to think or act outside of the limits they are given. It's not that they don't have the ability or intellect, but that social pressures are strong, and without a great deal of bravery, often following suffering, we remain trapped in a cycle of trying to shape ourselves to a mould.

Therefore, as a conscious minority, those on the AE path actively seek to support each other. We recognise that as outsiders and subversives, we too need validation, encouragement and celebration. We know that others on our path may use a variety of terms to describe their own journey and philosophy. We recognise fellow travellers, even if their path and destination are different from ours.

We value creative practice, time in nature and active management of the nervous system as important enablers in the AE journey

Aware that dopamine and cortisol overload have been strategically deployed in an attempt to trap us into consumerist and labourist roles, we take active measures to bring our bodies and minds into states which enable reflection, contemplation, the amplification of the unconscious mind and clarity of decision-making.

SECTION B: OUR INCOME GENERATION PRACTICE
We will seek to generate new products and services to meet untapped needs

Rather than copying broken models of entrepreneuriship, which take their inspiration from what has proved proftitable in one area and seek to apply it to another, or undercut a competitor, or develop projects parasitic to conventional entrepreneurialism, we take inspiration from the real problems and lack of joy in the lives of people about us to create new things.

In particular we note the needs of many people globally for products and services to support:

Mental health
Education
Physical wellbeing
Spiritual health
Environmental improvement
Environmental protection
Family relationships
Community building
Societal relations
Access to wild spaces
Application of scientific research to individual lives
Adapting to an AI-led world

We develop multiple income streams

Alternative entrepreneurialism will at least initially for most involve multiple income streams, eg a paid job or multiple paid jobs, an income from 2-3 initiatives and some freelance work.

We support those juggling multiple roles, levels of professional status and variable and unpredictable income levels as pioneers. As such we reject the Monday-Friday, 9-5 limited definition of a week, spend our own money with alterntive entrepeurs

We support alternative entrepreneurs in structuring their businesses and financial affairs in order to safeguard their earnings, knowing that those who identify as creative and anti-capitalistic may often not feel capable and confident in such areas.

We challenge the idea of the ownership of our talents through non-compete clauses, unreasonable working hours and the outlawing of side-hustles.

Alternative entrepreneurs do not demand exclusivity from their employees and ideally allow use of company resources appropriately for their own employees to also develop as alternative entrepreneurs.

Ownership is not a defining requirement

We focus on innovation and exploration as the defining characteristics of an entrepreneur. Owning a company is one route to practice alternative entrepreneurialism, but not the only one.

Bringing your gifts and talents to a paid role is also part of alternative entrepreneurialism.

We celebrate the diversity of alternative entrepreneurialism

Babysitting, bee farming, setting up a funeral directory business, opening a cafe, retraining as a counsellor, dog walking...

We reject explicity the valorisation of technology as the home of 21st century entrepreneurialism and instead support innovation, reimagining and exploration in a variety of fields that have been overlooked including:

Farming, landscape and environmental management
Community, family and individual services
Traditional arts and crafts

We learn from global contexts and diverse people

We recognise that LinkedIn and other frequently consumed business media have excluded many helpful models of entrepreneurialism from other, especially non-Western, societies. Examples of these are given in Alternative Entreprenuerialism: Why We Need a Manifesto.

We actively research and share learnings on alternative models of entrepreneurialism and draw inspiration from and give credit to those who have pioneered and practised in these areas.

We build sustainable, organic entities

Alternative entrepreneurs design and manage businesses and other organisations that are able to provide services and income for decades. Responding responsively to change and customers is a cornerstone of AE.

We do not build to sell. We do not work to burnout.

We place lesser value on conventional business plans and other attempts to enforce our vision on those we work with or artificially stimulate demand in order to meet financial targets; seeking instead to respond sensitively and in service to the evolving needs of customers and other stakeholders.

We avoid leverage, gambling, vanity projects, accelerated growth and false promises.

We consciously deliver stakeholder benefit

Alternative entrepreneurs consciously and deliberately map key stakeholders, including local communities, customers, suppliers, and business plan to deliver benefit to all of these groups, knowing that to do supports growth and reduces conflict and friction.

Alternative entrepreneurs seek to redefine exploitative or control and command supplier relationships, modelling partnerships of long-term value and collaboration and often redefine even traditional concepts of customers, suppliers and employees.

Section C: MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS

We use multiple success measures

Whereas SaaS businesses have become reliant on key metrics aroudn profitability in leveraged contexts, eg cost per acquisition payback time, we explore, research and share data on alternative success measures such as:

Customer impact scores
Number of employees sustained on a living wage
Stakeholder impact scores
Personal hours devoted to AE activities

Whilst we recognise the importance of financials and financial management, we know also that using these measures alone is an inadequate way to innovate and deliver value.

We give fair hourly pay

All employees or contractors are paid fairly based on an hourly agreed rate, which is transparent amongst all staff.

The alternative entrepreneur seeks to increase the income and standard of living of every employee, not just themselves.

We build ecosystems not competitor maps

Businesses, especially small ones, thrive through collaboration.

We actively seek to build formal and informal relationships with other businesses serving our customers.

An alternative entrepreneur defines their market and offering with precision rather than greedily wanting more market share than they need for their own income.

We model leadership, not guru-ism

Alternative entreprenuerialism heavily questions recent and conventional definitions and expectations of leadership.

We conceptualise the leader as the farmer or steward of the assets, including the talents of staff.

We do not seek or pretend, when we begin our AE path, to have all the expertise, all the answers, or all the power. Nor do we build structures which assume that one individual has these things.

We study leadership models (especially servant leadership and inspirational leadership) and practices and consciously grow our leadership skills as needed to deliver our products and services.

As a community of alternative entrepreneurs, we are each able to lead, to collaborate, to support, to enable and to follow, as is required.

Recognising that the health and wisdom of the leader(s) is of importance to our projects, we take good care of ourselves, without slipping into the performative, self-focused posturing of wellness gurus or narcissists.

We build alternative models of leadership and governance, such as the Founding Member structure of Unplugged Ambition.

Over to you, the Unplugged Ambition Members

The Alternative Entrepreneurialism Manifesto defines the purpose and focus of Unplugged Ambition.

It will guide:

the content we publish
how we make decisions
how we structure our discussion forum
our marketing to potential members
who we chose to partner or collaborate with
what we invest in for members
what we invest in more broadly

As all things AE, I seek for this to be communal, collaborative and evolve.

I invite you to meet on Thursday 18th July in our Discord community (see email for invitation)

To critique and collaborate on our Manifesto and most importantly to help devise how this helps us structure our activities here on UA.

Comments also really welcome below.