Single-Crew Workplaces

Wanda and I test things out before adopting them as initiatives, but this one gets personal to a higher level. Our son Sam is a Culinary Institute of America grad, and looked to open a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, but that's a million-dollar operation in most places, and there's no way we could help with that. But because he moved to Portland, Oregon, the US food cart capitol at the time, we partnered up with him for tens of thousands instead of millions so he could start building his dream.

A Single-Crew Workplace is exactly what the name implies: a place needing only a single crew at any given time to operate. Just Sam in the food cart. Mike serving and Patty cooking at the Mike & Patty's sandwich shop in Boston, etc. By being the leanest of all possible operations, Single-Crew Workshops are the silver bullet of grassroots economic development, and an essential tool in building a Prospering Society.

Look for the Single-Crew Workplace Handbook in the not-too-distant future. It will include several types of Single-Crew Workplaces, but in good R John Anderson fashion, it will also include pro formas for getting each of them up and running in a financially stable way.