“With employee ownership, you’re accomplishing two things at once: You’re creating an opportunity to help build the business and keeping the business going beyond your ownership.” 

“EO equals an Exit Opportunity that has a triple bottom line: supporting business owners, employees, and the local community.”

Most small business owners are relying on their business to fund their retirement security and may have overly optimistic beliefs about their current value. Only 20% of small businesses sell.

“They take pride in the company and in the work they do. I’ve seen employee-owners grow to a level that they might not have otherwise reached, had they not had the opportunity to be an owner.”

“The way to motivate people is through voice, autonomy, and empowerment. Employee ownership is a very important tool towards that.

75% of former business owners regret the sale of their business. Learn how EO can help you carry your legacy forward

“It really matters to me to have a voice and some influence on what my job looks like. Being able to have some control over my workday and our work culture is important to me.”

“An estimated 70% of all private businesses are forecasted to go through an ownership transition in the next five to 20 years, including hundreds of thousands of small and middle market businesses.”
 

“EO equals Enterprise Optimization because employee owners have a real stake in their companies. When employees have an ownership mindset, they're more likely to look for efficiencies and ways to increase productivity and profit.”
 

“I like the idea that (with EO) we are sharing responsibility with our employees. When you share, everybody’s on the same page. It helps your business run and function much better.” 

“At the beginning of the pandemic, the company was pretty healthy in terms of profits, so we offered supplemental pay to employees. That was intended to be one month and is now part of their permanent pay. While there were a lot of challenges at that time, there were some direct benefits, financial and not, for the employee-owners.” 
 

Employee-owned businesses enjoy profit margins 8.5% higher than their peers—employee ownership helps your bottom line. 
 

“Although all businesses were struggling, there may be something about having an ESOP in place—and the culture that comes with it—that allows businesses to pivot easier.” 

“I have to believe that [employee ownership] helped us in leveraging our culture, and the personal investment of our employee owners helped us during the pandemic.” 

ESOP companies in the food industry were less likely to shrink in 2020 and more likely to stay the same compared to non-ESOP companies. 

EO equals Enduring Organizations because the new EO company continues to serve its customers from the same location in the community with the same employees.

Many of our key accounts doubled down on their relationship with Optimax. They gave us even more work. They know that their supply chain will never be compromised and can invest in what we're doing.”

There were 1,000,000 open manufacturing jobs in April 2022. Employee ownership can help close that gap.

When you own part of the business, it feels different. We’re all working together for a common goal.

We fundamentally believe that most people wake up and want to earn respect and make a little money. Our mission statement is very simple: enable customer success and employee prosperity.

3 in 4 business owners want their business to continue to grow and thrive after they leave, but only 16% have met with a prospective buyer. Did you know employee ownership could bridge that gap?

In March 2020, U.S. manufacturers experienced more than 1,000,000 job separations.

Employee ownership, or EO, equals excellent operations because employee-owned businesses are owned and run by the people who work in the company. When staff members approach their work as owners they often come up with new ways—large and small—to improve and grow the business.

In an industry with a caregiver turnover rate of over 64%, home care cooperatives average a turnover rate of only 30%. Why? Because home care cooperatives are fundamentally structured to value, support and reward caregivers.