Think Outside the Boss Manual/Workshop

SELC hosts half day workshops based on this manual three times per year in the San Francisco Bay Area. These Think Outside the Boss workshops provide community members an introduction into the nuts and bolts of starting and running a cooperatively owned business. We go over legal issues in an accessible way to help you understand the relationships between cooperatives, employment, and community wealth-building. Attorneys, law students, and experienced cooperative professionals give short presentations on legal issues, governance structures, financing, and more. We also typically host breakout sessions on specialized topics with attorneys, cooperative accountants, business planning specialists, and discussions led by cooperative worker-members. To find the next Think Outside the Boss workshop, please visit theselc.org/events.

If you don’t live in the Bay Area and would like to host your own Think Outside the Boss workshop using our materials, please visit www.theselc.org/pop_totb. This is a shorter, participatory version of our half day “Think Outside the Boss” workshop.

If you’d like to view our accompanying videos to this manual, please see directly below.

DISCLAIMER: THIS MANUAL HAS BEEN PREPARED AS A HANDOUT FOR A 2016 WORKSHOP ON STARTING A WORKER‐OWNED BUSINESS. THE CONTENTS OF THIS MANUAL SHOULD NOT BE RELIED ON AS LEGAL ADVICE. ALSO, SOME OF THIS INFORMATION COULD BECOME OUTDATED, AND LAWS VARY FROM PLACE‐TO‐PLACE. FURTHERMORE, ALTHOUGH WE TRIED TO COLLECT ACCURATE INFORMATION AND GIVE THE LAWS OUR BEST INTERPRETATION, SOME INFORMATION IN THIS BOOKLET COULD EVEN TURN OUT TO BE INCORRECT OR SUBJECT TO OTHER INTERPRETATIONS BY COURTS OR REGULATORS! WE SURE HOPE THAT’S NOT THE CASE, BUT, WHAT CAN WE SAY? LAW IS COMPLICATED STUFF! THAT’S WHY WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU CONSULT WITH AN ATTORNEY BEFORE USING THIS INFORMATION TO FORM OR OPERATE A COOPERATIVE.