How Self-Employed Social Justice Warriors Can Combat Capitalism Through Business

Image shows the title of the article laid over a photograph of the statue of the girl and the bull from Wall Street.

When we're self-employed it can feel like your business is "just me," and in many ways it is. However, it is also its own entity. Supreme court rulings aside, it's vital for all businesses to recognize themselves as larger than just a single owner. Let's dig into this.

How is your business bigger than yourself?

Your business impacts you in two main ways. One way is that it delivers you a steady, reliable income. The other way is that it offers a way to contribute to society. But there are indirect impacts of your business.

Your business also affects your customers. Customers use your products or consume your services. Through this, they gain something they wouldn't otherwise have had. Sure, your competitors could meet your customer's demand. But in that case, your customers would still not have *your* product or service delivered just the way *you* do it.

Some businesses have another larger sphere of influence. Some businesses are employers. Similar to the owner, a business impacts employees in two main ways. It provides employees with a steady, reliable income and a way of contributing to something larger than themselves. Furthermore, some businesses have investors, lenders, or shareholders. To those parties, the business is providing a return on their investment.

Your business directly impacts the owner, customers, employees, investors, lenders, and shareholders. This is already a pretty sizeable list!

Think Bigger

But it doesn't stop there! Let's look at an even broader eco-system-like view. Your business plugs into (and hopefully improves) society as a whole. It is a prerequisite that your business should benefit the people it directly impacts. Benefiting society is more of a choice that is typically in alignment for my clients. The thing I want to get us thinking about today is: in what ways does your business benefit society? If someone holds none of the roles I've discussed previously, are they receiving a net benefit?

In my business, I strive to empower people to live fulfilling lives. While I focus on those of us who need to be self-employed, this message is not limited to self-employed people. I believe that society can only thrive when we all show up with our own uniqueness. We need YOU to contribute in the way that you are optimized to contribute. For some, this will be to participate in employed work. My business' message and reason for being is accessible to all people. So when my work comes across the plate of the wrong person, that person still gains benefits. The employed person remembers or gains inspiration to live their own unique purpose.

This message also ripples out to colleagues and professional circles I participate in. With any group I take part in, folks are going to get a taste of my message. Those that I connect with repeatedly tend to support my message and be on a similar journey towards a similar destination. Through this camaraderie, we all grow forward on this journey.

This big idea also influences how I chose to expand or enhance my business. I seek out projects, collaborators, and consultants who are in step with my mission. I choose to work with them because it promotes their mission which helps promote my mission. In this way, I am enhancing the ecosystem that all businesses operate within. While also growing and evolving my own business. (It's so win-win-WIN!)

Last but not least, a big idea can't help but pour over into your non-working life. When you spend a full workday tapping into and telling people about a big idea like this, it's a mood that you carry into your home life. My business' purpose is a way of being that gets presented to all people in my life, not just clients. Unlike in the stereotypical relationship between home and work, in my free time, I don't gripe about all the problems of my work. I could focus on how I'm one small blip in a vast ocean of people who don't think like me. I could be pained by every incident during a day that someone did not believe this to be true. But when you're in alignment with a big idea like this, it's so much easier to stay in the flow of manifesting the big idea. It's not that my work follows me home. It's more like I was breathing all day long, and I'm going to keep breathing when I'm home.

Bringing Big Back to Personal

But this really isn't about me. You're reading this article for you. What is your business' big wild reason for being? What does it look like when you express that at each of these different layers and scales? It has an impact in all these different ways, so don't be shy. Voice your big idea and say it loud!