Transferring the Boom

The Silver Tsunami is coming for many smaller and mid-sized businesses in the U.S. as Baby Boomers retire. Massachusetts is encouraging Boomer business owners to sell their companies to their employees before retiring.

In an effort to stem the tide of job losses and business closings, Massachusetts hired two nonprofits, Working World and ICA Group, which help change businesses to employee ownership models, to reinvigorate its Office for Employee Involvement and Ownership (EIO). The EIO now has a $150,000 budget for the nonprofits to consult with about 28,000 Baby Boomer small business owners and state residents about transferring their businesses to their employees.

“The office really emerged out of deindustrialization, and the administration at the time saying okay, plants are closing–is employee ownership a mechanism to combat closures and job losses?” says David Hammer, executive director of ICA Group. Now the impending sale of baby boomer-owned businesses, which perhaps on a more diffuse scale, poses a similar threat. “We really aim to focus on converting existing businesses to employee ownership models, and providing support to these businesses as they build out an employee ownership culture.”

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