From the Huffington Post: In a 4,000-square-foot industrial space tucked away in a West Berkeley neighborhood, a team of glass blowers is hard at work. In one corner, a young man named Sam is repairing a piece of laboratory glassware used for cannabis distillation, the bright orange flames from his lathe dancing just inches from […]
From Whatcom Talk: Project Equity, a nationwide nonprofit dedicated to advancing community economic resiliency, released a report today examining the small business landscape in Washington, and the potential transfer or closure of many of these businesses as baby boomer owners retire over the next 15 years. This data, gathered in partnership with and commissioned by […]
From the Morehead News: More than 26,000 Kentucky businesses, employing more than 300,000 people, are owned by baby boomers, many of whom have not identified the next generation of ownership and could be at risk of closing their businesses when they retire. Transitioning to a form of employee ownership could keep these businesses thriving and […]
From the East Bay Express: Last week, the Cheeseboard’s longtime home committed to a new strategy for fighting economic inequality and building the local economy: city support for worker cooperatives. The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously on Fe.26 to include co-ops in the city’s small-business revolving loan fund; give co-ops, along with women- and minority-owned […]
From The Manchester Enterprise: More than 26,000 Kentucky businesses, employing more than 300,000 people, are owned by baby boomers, many of whom have not identified the next generation of ownership and could be at risk of closing their businesses when they retire. Transitioning to a worker-owned cooperative or other form of employee ownership could keep […]
From Nonprofit Quarterly: Here at NPQ, we have noted that a business ownership succession wave—often called the “silver tsunami”—is rising. According to the nonprofit Project Equity, nationally “baby boomers own 2.34 million businesses, employ 24.7 million people, and have combined annual sales of $5.14 trillion.” Sadly, 80 percent of these businesses lack succession plans. Slowly, awareness of the looming crisis […]
Read the full article at the San Francisco Chronicle Tom Adams and George Chittenden, owners of Adams & Chittenden Scientific Glass, have been coasting toward retirement. The prospect of retiring was once daunting, Adams told me, because he and Chittenden didn’t know what to do with the Berkeley glassblowing company they started together 25 years […]
From the Times of San Diego: In California and nationally, historically low unemployment rates are not a sign of prosperity, but indicatethe arrival of an economy that specializes in creating low-paying, temporary jobs with no benefits or job security. According to a Princeton University study, such positions were responsible for 94 percent of American job growth […]
From Entrepreneur: Baby boomers own about half of all privately-held companies with employees in the United States. The 2.4 million business owners who belong to this aging demographic (one-third of whom have already passed 65) will need to develop sound and sensible exit strategies. As they look to the future, there is an elegant solution […]
From Forbes: Project Equity approached Kline and the City of Fremont with a plan to both understand the threat they faced with ageing business owners and also to help get the word out that there that employee ownership could be a viable succession plan for them. “We talk to a lot of businesses to try […]