Vermont Employee Ownership Center

04/24/2025

Check out this story of RLMG's conversion to employee ownership!

04/04/2025

If you’re thinking about selling your business or transitioning ownership, you're encouraged to attend this free, 3-part Sellers’ Working Group. These virtual sessions will help you understand the various steps of selling or transitioning your business, determine its value, market its availability and more, while avoiding critical mistakes.

WHEN:
• APRIL 23
• APRIL 30
• MAY 7
from 8:30 am – 10:30 am

WHERE:
• Virtually over ZOOM

The series is co-hosted by BDCC and the Vermont Employee Ownership Center (VEOC)! Registration is now open for both series. For more details and to register, visit:
https://brattleborodevelopment.com/reorganization-and-succession/

04/03/2025

Rural businesses face unique struggles with ownership transitions, often due to limited buyers and financing options. Join us for this panel at the Southern Vermont Economy Summit, taking place May 20th at Mt. Snow. The panel will explore innovative solutions, such as cooperatives and creative financing strategies, that can help. Hear real-world success stories, including a recently converted worker-owned cooperative, a business that transitioned to employee ownership, and more.

Details about all the day's sessions and presenters can be found at https://www.sovermontzone.com/2025-summit-agenda

04/01/2025

Registration is open for the 2025 Vermont Employee Ownership Conference!

Join us in Burlington on Friday, May 30 as together we take next steps towards building an economy that works for all.

Help us get the word out by sharing and sending to friends and/or family in , and Upstate New York!

Register: https://www.veoc.org/conference

11/18/2024

Hallam-ICS serves as an example of how companies with Employee Stock Ownership Plans can create a culture of shared ownership beyond the financial benefit of the

ESOPs are an excellent means for sharing a company’s wealth among all of its employees but do not in themselves offer a model for shared decision making. This profile of Hallam-ICS serves as one example of how ESOP companies can create a culture of shared ownership beyond the financial benefit of ...

11/05/2024

And for the finale of Employee Ownership Month, the 200+ employees at Engineers Construction, Inc. become Employee Owners!

“Rather than selling to the highest bidder, we wanted to do this for the employees because they helped bring us to this point." - departing President and co-owner Ken Pidgeon.

Read more: https://www.veoc.org/blog/engineers-construction-inc

On Friday, Engineers Construction, Inc. (ECI), a Vermont-based heavy civil construction company, transitioned to 100% employee ownership through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).

10/21/2024

🤔 Can a Co-op business model help your business grow?

VEOC's Annie Winkler joined the podcast to discuss the incredible benefits of employee ownership in businesses. Learn how becoming part-owner of a company can lead to increased productivity, job satisfaction, and the establishment of LGBTQ generational wealth. They share firsthand experience of transitioning Real Pickles into a worker-owned cooperative and explore the impacts of democratic member control in co-ops versus ESOPs. This episode is a must-listen for business owners considering succession planning and employees seeking greater investment in their workplace. Don't miss out on this insightful conversation!

Catch them here 🎧
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-turning-your-business-into-a-co-op-helps-lgbtq/id1121488268?i=1000673124253

Podcast Episode · Q***r Money®: How Gay People Do Money · 10/15/2024 · 55m

10/10/2024

📣 VEOC is accepting applications for a 2025 Communications & Events Intern now through Friday, Nov. 22!

The Vermont Employee Ownership Conference is growing, and we are excited to announce that our annual VEOC internship is growing along with it! Our 2025 internship will begin in February (a few months earlier than in previous years), providing our next intern with the hands-on experience of helping to plan and promote our 23rd annual conference throughout the spring semester.

Full job description and application instructions:

2025 Communications and Events Intern The Vermont Employee Ownership Center (VEOC) is seeking an intern to work for the Spring and Summer of 2025 in Burlington, Vermont. This position is generally intended for a rising college junior, senior, or graduate student, but non-students with a college degr...

09/30/2024

08/29/2024

Preparing to pass along ownership of a business for retirement or another reason is a moment to create new opportunities of wealth generation, whether for the next generation of a family or for the company's dedicated employees.

We are partnering with the Vermont Small Business Development Center for a lunch-time webinar on Sept. 19 on the topic of selling a business to those who are best situated to care for the business' success over the long term.

Register:

In this seminar, you will learn the basics of how to choose a path for ownership succession in your business. We will take a close look at a few different ways of selling a business: to family members, to managers or to the larger group of employees. Sergio Alvares of The Vermont Small Business Deve...

08/13/2024

The bad news:

Almost two-thirds of family-owned businesses don't have a plan for passing on the ownership when they're ready to move on. The result is that only a minority (

07/23/2024

📣 Announcing Vermont's newest company! 🎉

When the owners and founders at Rovers North started considering their succession strategies over a decade ago, they weren’t enthused about the options until learning of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan, the most common broad-based business model in the US. Read their story of selling the company to the employees and the real impact it's already making on employees and company productivity!

When the owners and founders at Rovers North started considering their succession strategies over a decade ago, they weren’t enthused about the options until learning of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan, the most common broad-based employee ownership business model in the United States.