From Wealth Works: Interest in employee ownership and other bottom-up business strategies has increased in western North Carolina and surrounding areas. Opportunity Threads is a success story that provides a model for employee ownership within the region. Founded in 2008 by a native of Morganton, North Carolina, Molly Hemstreet, Opportunity Threads employs about two dozen […]
From Yes! Magazine: The Financial Cooperative calls its task “nonextractive” or “regenerative finance.” The goal is to give control of capital to communities that have been most marginalized, but also to funnel capital into those communities. It believes in cooperative control of community financial institutions and set itself up as a cooperative nonprofit, with each […]
From The North Carolina Budget and Tax Center: North Carolina has the potential to turn a grave challenge into a transformative economic opportunity. Thousands of businesses could disappear over the coming years as baby boomer entrepreneurs enter retirement, threatening to deal a heavy blow to communities across the state. However, by helping many of these […]
Read the full article at Nonprofit Quarterly: As Sandra Larson writes in Next City, Durham, North Carolina was once home to many “Black-owned financial institutions and businesses that sprang up around Parrish Street during the Jim Crow era.” This included firms such as Mechanics and Farmers Bank and North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. But, as […]
From Next City: Durham, N.C., was once known nationally for its “Black Wall Street,” a cluster of flourishing black-owned financial institutions and businesses that sprang up around Parrish Street during the Jim Crow era, including some iconic insurance and finance firms such as Mechanics and Farmers Bank and North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. With […]
From Bull City Today: Find out how #Durham is continuing to find new ways to support the retention & expansion of local small, minority & women-owned businesses through an @leagueofcities, @Institute_coop & @USFWC SEED Fellowship on #BullCityToday. pic.twitter.com/01MhKTEk5o — CityofDurhamNC (@CityofDurhamNC) November 16, 2018
From the City of Durham: DURHAM, N.C. – Thanks to the City of Durham’s inclusion in a recent fellowship, long-standing Durham minority business owners can soon expect outreach for help with succession planning and employeeownership options. Durham is one of four cities recently selected to participate in the Shared Equity in Economic Development (SEED) Fellowship, […]
From Fast Company: If you work at a textile or furniture factory in Western North Carolina, you probably don’t belong to a union; the region usually ranks as the least unionized part of the United States. But a growing number of companies in the area, which includes the city of Asheville and smaller Appalachian towns, […]
From Mountain Xpress: Charen’s interest in the idea of cooperative businesses is grounded at home. Her father is 72 years old and has been trying to sell his company for eight years now. The trouble he’s had with selling his business got her wondering: How many local businesses actually sell? From her research of a […]
From the International Economic Development Council (pdf): For the busy owners of small businesses, short-term pressures often take precedence over long-term planning. That’s why many business owners lack a succession plan to ensure that the enterprise will continue when they’re ready to step down. The stakes are especially high when the firm is a community […]