The word is out there: we need to start our own parallel economy. But what’s an average guy to do? Good examples of dissident brands are The Golden One and his clothing and nutrition companies; Vox Day’s and Owen Benjamin’s Unauthorized.tv; Academic Agent’s Foundations of Politics/ Economics courses; Laura Towler with Grandma Towler’s Tea; Dissident Soaps; Classical Learner with his homeschooling materials; and Andrew Torba’s Gab.
1.) Firstly, You Don’t Need to Start Your Own Business
Instead, you can work for someone else who already has a company and shares your worldview. In order to do this, you will need skills which can generate the owner wealth. Specialist skills such as coding, accounting, web development or marketing can be useful in his regard depending on the industry and size of said company. Sales is an overlooked skill these days which can do wonders for almost any business, particularly if you believe in what they’re selling (it’s been said that even God needs salespeople). Or, perhaps you can make yourself useful to a company as a plain labourer; this option shouldn’t be frowned upon as never know what opportunities might come up along the way. Basically, find a role and make yourself useful: we don’t all need to be lone wolves.
2.) A Dissident Company Doesn’t Need to Appeal Only to Dissidents
Legio Gloria may still appeal to a relative normie who simply likes martial arts. Likewise, Academic Agent’s courses may still appeal to a liberal who is simply inclined towards higher education. Just because we are aiming to trade amongst ourselves doesn’t mean we have to limit our economic activity strictly to our community. In fact, our brands can be used as tools to draw others into our worldview. We can use our businesses as proxies to market and explain to regular people why a certain (niche-related) aspect of the world is so broken, and how our business is solving that problem. The business can plant its flag on a particular issue and hold its ground and by doing so it can entice normies into a certain worldview.
3.) The Content-Creator Sphere is Oversaturated
I would personally advise against content creation as a primary business strategy. Content creation is important: it has lead most of us to our current worldviews and we should be grateful towards (and financially support) the ‘content pioneers’ who have paved the way forward for the dissident right. Also, content creation is incredibly important when used as a marketing tool in conjunction with a separate product.
However, monetizing off of only content is difficult, it is already being done by countless talented personalities, and there is a need for us to move beyond the internet into the tangible world. Content creation was the first step in bringing the dissident right to life. As the first step on the timeline it logically follows that it will also be the first sphere to be saturated. It’s time for us to move past the first step to the second: the road is now paved and we now need to walk.
4.) We Shouldn’t Overlap Niches
In starting our parallel economy, we want to minimize the amount of intra-community competition. If you’re a dissident in England, it doesn’t make much sense to start a Tea company, as we already have one adjacent to us (Grandma Towler’s Tea). If you’re in the USA and want to sell soap, there is already one of ‘our guys’ doing that…
On the other hand, this principal shouldn’t be applied too myopically. For example, just because one of our guys is doing soap in the USA doesn’t mean there can’t be a market for it in Europe. Nonetheless, we should be aware of what other dissidents in our local region are doing such that we aren’t butting heads too much.
5.) Pick a Product There Will be Dissident Demand For
Tea, Soap and Food are examples of products that nearly everyone uses, guaranteeing there will be demand for them in the dissident community. The plan then is to simply convince dissidents to buy from you rather than Globohomo.
Another strategy is to sell a specialist product which appeals to the a sizable portion of the dissident community alongside a small subset of the normie population (ex. Vox Day’s high-quality books at Castalia House, Academic Agent’s Courses).
Finally, you could solve a weakness or pain-point in the broader community. For example, perhaps you think we are overly reliant on social media and need to decentralize on the internet, and you could be the web developer who is ‘our guy’.
6.) Add Value Along a Supply Chain
Every time a product transforms from its raw, unprocessed state into something of higher value there is an opportunity for profit. You don’t need to be involved in the entire supply chain, you simply need to wedge yourself in a conversion step which is profitable. Some steps will be more profitable than others. Once you’ve successfully inserted yourself in along the chain, there is the opportunity to ‘work outward’ and expand the scope of the business. If you don’t have the means to convert a product for a particular step, that job can be subcontracted over to another company.
Converting a product into something of higher value is not entirely necessary for a business. For example, if you buy a product at wholesale prices and then resell it in small batches, there is opportunity for profit there without any conversion process. Also, it is worth noting that the first raw material along the chain does not necessarily need to be mined or produced, it can be salvaged (depending on the industry of course).
7.) Use a Contract Manufacturer
Your business doesn’t need to be involved in every single processing step in getting the product to the customer. If there is a step that is particularly difficult for you to undertake (eg. packaging), you can always subcontract it out to another company. In fact, many very successful brands entirely subcontract their product development out to contract manufacturers and focus strictly on marketing and sales. By focusing on those key aspects which form the crux of what makes a business money, these sorts of businesses are are often able to make extortionate profits. Nonetheless, this approach leaves a business overly dependent upon others and could be at odds with our quest to become independent from the system.
8.) 3d Printers, CNC Machines, Freeze-Dryers
A 3d printer additively creates parts from digital plans, a CNC machine subtractively creates parts from digital plans and a freeze-dryer is able to preserve foodstuffs for decades. These devices are examples of equipment available to purchase on a smaller scale at affordable costs in a way which was previously unprecedented.
There may be a window of opportunity available to us where we can still reap the benefits of the industrial economy by purchasing one of these novel household-scale machines before a significant economic downturn. Once purchased and operational, one of these devices can be used to generate profit in countless ways with incredible creative potential. It may be the case that these smaller-scale, high-tech machines could form the bedrock of a future decentralized economy which rivals the centralized economy of our modern age.
We should be cautious making businesses entirely dependent upon these sorts of machines as their maintenance and upkeep is still largely dependent upon the industrial economy. But perhaps with enough dedication, self-education and skill-acquisition we will be able to find ourselves in a position where we can collectively maintain our own machines? Also, being dependent upon the industrial economy for just maintenance is still preferable to being dependent on the industrial economy for everything.
9.) Artisan Crafts or Trades Skills
Perhaps our over-dependence upon technology is doing your head in and you’d prefer to develop a more traditional skill-set such as masonry or carpentry. More modern trade skills such as plumbing or electrical will definitely be useful in the future, but you will largely be limited to making money in your local area. Whatever you choose does not necessarily have to be your passion and something you’re willing to do for the rest of your life, it can just be a temporary gig to get you to where you need to be and a skill set you acquire along the way.
10.) Supporting Dissident Businesses is as Important as Starting Them
What’s the point in having our guys start businesses if no one in the community is willing to support them? There are two sides of the coin here which each need equal attention. It is all of our responsibilities to make sure that we have a successful parallel economy, not just the ones selling products.