As challenging as opening a business was, it has been well worth it for us and many others.The New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives lists 30 businesses in their directory that cover a range of services, from accommodation to yoga. Several co-ops explicitly aim to support populations that are frequently exploited in the city, such as Sí Se Puede! Women’s Cooperative, a female-owned and operated housecleaning business.

Founded in 2006 to create living-wage jobs and educational opportunities for immigrant women, Sí Se Puede has grown from 14 to more than 60 worker-owners, who pool monthly dues to cover expenses like marketing costs. Every woman keeps 100 percent of the fees her clients pay, as opposed to maid services that take significant cuts.

Yadira Fragoso, one member, says she’s been able to work fewer hours for better pay than at her last job, and she’s also developed confidence in her ability to lead. “Everyone who joins is shy at first, but eventually you learn to feel more confident in speaking to a group of people,” she said. This led her to serve a term as the co-op president, one of the roles that rotates each year so every woman gets a chance at some form of leadership.

The Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, a community organization that helped incubate Sí Se Puede, continues to support new worker cooperatives in the community in areas like elder care, nanny service and catering. Other worker co-ops, like Third Root, a holistic health center in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, as well as the Brooklyn Yoga Collective in Crown Heights, have passed along the economic benefit of being your own boss by offering their services on a sliding scale. Clients of Third Root, for example, choose how much to pay for a class or service based on their income and living costs, a practice which relies on the honor system and widens accessibility.

Many artists work service jobs like these in order to make ends meet, but they also happen to be particularly well suited for the cooperative structure. In addition to workers’ making a higher wage and having greater control of their schedule, the client’s or guest’s experience is often better when workers are more deeply invested. Personally, I have never cared much for making a bed, but I’ve always taken a lot of pride in putting a room together at our bed-and-breakfast because I know it’s not just a chore, but a necessary part of being a worker-owner, and I know I’m being paid fairly.

IT’S been nearly four years since we opened, and every member can now practically cook a frittata or clean a bathroom with his eyes closed. Most of the founding members have since moved on, an inevitable turnover that is built into our business plan, as one partner is paid out her shares and another sweats her way into the flexible equity model. Long after I’ve left, I hope that our business will continue providing a safe place to initiate many creative projects and serve as a blueprint for others (whether or not they are New Yorkers or young artists) to start their own co-ops.

That tiny yellow bedroom I first landed in was eventually painted sky blue, but more surprisingly to me, I eventually did produce a novel. It’s hard to imagine I would have had the time to do so without the support of our business. “No one will pay you to write your first book,” a professor once told me in grad school, and it turns out she was right. You have to find a way to pay yourself.