Business Operations interactions

7 min read

The community, in its quest to have no poor among its participants, ensures that all have access to essential tools of production that are normally inaccessible in modern economies. The Business Operations Agency plays a key role in this. It provides, on lease, all equipment that participants need in their work.

Man working with equipment business operations

It also factors inventory and accounts receivable, so that participants access inventory, and have a regular cash flow even when they offer goods and services on credit. In addition, the agency trains participants on the use of equipment and factoring services to optimize their businesses’ performance.

Participants do not own property besides their business and a title to the partnership interest they invest in the community on admission and later, as their stewardship prospers. Here, we illustrate the roles of the agency as it interacts with participants.

Illustration 1: Teacher

Teacher with students, Business Operations

Alan is a math teacher in a high school near Buffalo in Upstate New York. He has heard about the community and decided to try it out. Alan has applied to start the process of joining the community. His application has been approved, and for the next 1 – 3 years, he will closely interact with the community to understand it and possibly launch himself, before he can formally join. He joins a group whose captain helps him to join and integrate well.

Pre-entry – interaction with the Human Relations Agency

For the first 6 months after his application is approved, Alan continues with his job. He takes the opportunity to learn more about how the community works. His captain closely follows his progress and recommends material that will help him. The Human Relations Agency’s automated system also has some courses that he takes, and assessments to establish how well he is progressing. The captain can intervene or suggest better methods based on the results.

After 6 months, with the captain satisfied that Alan is now thoroughly acquainted with the community’s operations, the next step begins. Alan applies for a teaching opportunity with a limited partner who has set up a school in the community and works with other teachers to deliver a holistic education to participants. The limited partner operates as a principal, coordinating other teachers who are also limited partners, in delivering education. However, each teacher who is a limited partner also has a contract with the participants they teach, from which they pay a fee to the principal for coordination and other services that he may provide.

For Alan, however, his contract with the principal involves teaching the principal’s students part-time, while continuing with his current employment. After a few weeks, Alan feels confident and takes up the job in the community full-time. However, during this process, he still lives in his house and has all other assets.

His work in the community gives him invaluable access to community life. He frequently walks around the physical campus, noting the unique and convenient design, as well as how it improves community togetherness, and even health and fitness. He also interacts extensively with confirmed participants – colleague teachers, his students, and their parents, getting a feel of how it feels like to be a participant.

Alan also interacts with various agencies’ automated systems, learning about the services they offer, and how they can help him after his eventual admission.

After working in the community, Alan loves the way of life and feels he can live his best life socially and professionally as a teacher by joining. The contract with the principal pays him based on how many students he teaches, the course units, and how much they pay. While he has not directly engaged these students, he feels he does not need to. The current pay is much better than in the previous employment and has more opportunities for career development under the principal’s mentorship.

Business training

As he works in the community but is not yet a limited partner, he is also taking courses in business setup and management. These courses are offered at a fee by the Stewardship Agency and are mandatory as part of the joining process. This is because Alan will be regarded as a business by the community, besides being an investor. He needs the necessary skills to prosper both as a participant and a business.

Formal entry

The community is also impressed by Alan’s acclimatization to community life. It formally approves his admission, through the Human Relations Agency. The agency undertakes additional steps to orientate him, with his captain helping him rent space from the agency. The captain also provides any help needed for Alan to get working space in the district building where he teaches. Previously, the principal he was working with rented the space on his behalf.

Alan now sells off all his assets, including his house, car, and assorted items he currently owns. He invests at least $20,000 in the community through the Capital Bank, completing the admission process, and other funds in his checking and savings accounts in the Community Bank. 

Business Operations – equipment and factoring services

Alan also writes and submits a business plan to the Business Planning Agency. The agency helps him finetune the plan to make it practical and approves it. With the approved business plan, Alan approaches the Business Operations Agency, through its village presidency.

The plan includes clear details of the equipment and other tools that he needs to teach. They include a projector, an interactive whiteboard, and a set of mathematical instruments for demonstration purposes. His agreement with the school principal provides that the principal will lease desks and chairs for students taught by the teachers he has contracts with, including Alan.

The agency will use its automated system, the village presidency, and where necessary, Alan’s captain to determine what he needs, and how he will access the materials needed.

Alan also needs some inventory for his students – books, pens, and related learning aids. The agency will provide the inventory needed as it determines fit, and considering Alan’s requisition. He can provide them to students and add the cost to their fees, or sell them directly. As the stock moves, he will pay the agency, plus a fee for the factoring services.

In the future, Alan may feel ready to start a school on his own. He will carefully study the community’s economic environment using data provided by various agencies, and determine his chances of success. If the data says it is a good idea, he will write a business plan. He will hire contractors to work as teachers. He will handle student recruitment, and school fee payments, and will pay the community for rent, asset lease expenses, and any factoring services until his contractors are limited partners who can now access these services directly.

Illustration 2: IT expert

Angela, a divorced mother of two, works as a network engineer at Santa Clara University, where she has been for the last 8 years. After her divorce, she has sole custody though her ex-husband has visitation rights. They divided assets after the divorce, and she paid him off to keep the house.

For years, she observed with passing interest as a NewVistas community was set up in a nearby county. Recently, she came across some adverts on social media encouraging people like her to apply to join. She researched a bit deeper, was impressed by what she saw, and decided to apply.

IT Expert Business Operations

Initial entry process

Angela’s application is accepted by the community, which signals the start of her process to join. This process is critical since it ensures that by the time she becomes a formal limited partner, she will already be acclimatized to the community’s way of life, and she will have the means to work and support herself.

Her captain recommends initial courses that cover what the community stands for, its structure, and economy, approach to jobs, social life, and the environment, among other details. She undertakes these courses as she continues to work at the university.

The captain constantly checks on her, while the automated system carries out regular assessments to establish her progress. She continues this training until her captain is confident that she can move to the next stage. it involves working in the community, while still living outside, for the time being. Due to her busy schedule, Angela is only able to complete the first stage after 1 year.

Working in the community

The Stewardship Agency has a database that helps incoming and existing participants connect and draw up agreements that enable them to work together. Angela’s captain directs her to the website. Soon enough, she approaches a limited partner who also works as a network engineer for various businesses and community agencies. The two agree on terms, and Angela can now start work.

Her position at Santa Clara is such that she cannot work two jobs optimally. She therefore resigns and starts work with the limited partner. She is still living at her current home with her children, who continue attending school.

As she works in the community, she has the opportunity to watch first-hand how limited partners handle their stewardships. She is extensively mentored by the limited partner, who, by virtue of having spent a few years in the community, is highly rated by his customers. He regularly assigns work to Angela, which Angela charges per task.

Working with more varied clients gives Angela more experience, and will come in handy once she formally joins. Besides work, Angela interacts extensively with participants in the community. She takes time to learn more about the physical campus, why life in the community is better, and the organizational structure that makes everything tick.

Becoming a limited partner

As she works, Angela takes intensive business management classes. The Stewardship Agency offers the automated classes. They are a necessary part of the admission process, helping participants possess the skills needed to run a successful business.

Her captain is still following Angela keenly, encouraging her, and motivating her to learn as much as she can. After one and a half years of working with the limited partner, she feels that she is ready to join. The community will now run a final assessment, and determine whether she is ready. If they feel she is ready, she begins the process of formally joining.

First, she rents housing in the community. She then transfers her children to a school she has picked in one of the district buildings. She then sells off her assets. She invests at least $20,000 in the community, and opens savings and checking accounts in the Community Bank. Next, formally becoming a limited partner, she writes a business plan. With the plan, she leases any equipment from the Business Operations Agency.

The Business Operations Agency also provides any factoring services that she may need over the course of her work. While she can directly engage clients, she still prefers to work with the limited partner she has been working with. This gives her additional experience, and a safety net in case her contracts with other customers, do not work out.

Later, when she feels that she can reliably work on her own, she can decide to formally end the agreement she used in the process of becoming a limited partner. She can sign her own contracts with other limited partners and incoming participants, and expand the business.