COOPS HAVE BEEN AROUND A LONG TIME...

by Jim Gambone . Co-founder and Vice President of Micro-Advocates Cooperative.

The main reason cooperatives where formed was to provide more powerful voice on economic factors and conditions they had little or no control over as individuals doing business. Farmers formed elevator, electric, and marketing coops; city micro businesses formed buying  and food coops, and other micros formed housing and long term care coops.  A coop is a registered business and it is equally owned by its members. It doesn’t have to make a large profit to survive and it can become a powerful economic force if it grows large enough.

It is also important for micro-businesses to promote cooperation amongst each other and promote cooperation as a group. Since we are not officially recognized as important by groups like the Chamber of Congress or the National Federation of Independent Businesses, forming a cooperative will give us a unique voice on issues like health insurance, access to capital and financing, taxation and other business related areas. If the cooperative becomes large enough, we can self-sure for health and business needs, and even promote our own capital and financing programs.
 

As a coop member, you can more easily link and interact with other cooperatives in the US and worldwide –both large like Land O Lakes, REI; ;and small, like food and other specialty coops.  We are always looking for special niches for our goods and services, and the growing number of coops will be niche many of us will want to explore.
 

Finally, we can act as a economically effective service provider for our members by providing a clearinghouse for micros, coupled with  workshops, directories, and webinars- all especially tailored to micro-business needs.

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