For many business owners, a succession plan is about more than creating an exit strategy or profiting from the sale of the company. It’s also about preserving their legacy in a way that benefits the company, its employees, and the community.
The Pine City Area Chamber of Commerce, City of Pine City and the Minnesota Center for Employee Ownership have joined together to host the following informational session for the business community.
Most business owners, when considering their financing or exit plans, assume that selling the company to their employees is not an option. It is easy to understand why: with rare exceptions, even if they put all their resources into one pool, most employees do not have the cash to buy the company where they work. And if they did, or could get a loan to fill the gap, many might rightly regard the risk as unacceptable. Not everyone is suited, financially or by temperament, to be an entrepreneur.
But as is so often the case, this assumption is based on incomplete information. There are thousands of successful, thriving, employee-owned businesses across the US. In Minnesota alone, there are approximately 300 such companies. Most are more successful than they were when they were privately-owned.
Join the Minnesota Center for Employee Ownership to learn about an ESOP (employee ownership plan) and a Worker Cooperative. Ben Holder, CEO from Plastic Products in Lindstrom, MN, an ESOP company; Bob Hartman of Ballard Spahr, the attorney who helped them with their transition; and Tom Crouse from Happy Earth Cleaning Co-op, a worker cooperative, will offer you a high level view of what ESOPs and worker cooperatives are and how they compare. You’ll discover what each form of employee ownership has meant to the seller, the employees and the community.
The Minnesota Center for Employee Ownership is a non-profit that serves as a hub of unbiased information and resources on all forms of employee ownership.
