Cooperatives & Worker Ownership

Mountain BizWorks received funding from the SBA Prime program to bring a suite of workshops and one-on-one consulting for those interested in worker ownership, democratic business practices, and how it can apply to your current small business or future small business.

Content brought to you in partnership with Industrial Commons
Training

Mountain BizWorks has partnered with national leaders in the field of worker ownership, The Industrial Commons, to bring cutting-edge information into our workshops and one-on-one co-op consulting.

Worker Ownership 101

An exploration of the variety of ways businesses can democratize ownership. Whether you’re interested in transitioning your business into a cooperative workplace or planning for your succession by selling to the employees, this lab is a great place to start. Gain an understanding of the power that employee-owned companies have to transform communities and build better businesses.

Worker Ownership 201

This will be a 2-hour session, focused on the process of converting a business to a worker-owned enterprise covering these topics:

  • Burning questions
    • We will conduct a brief review of our first session for those of you who joined us at a Co-op 101 class. We’ll answer any questions you have and connect you to the resources and case studies that can address your questions, concerns, and ideas.
  • Feasibility
    • We’ll cover avenues to conduct a feasibility study for business owners interested in converting and go over tools that can help you understand this process.
  • Timeline and next steps
    • Together we’ll explore the roadmap to conversion and outline a plan for moving forward with each business owner that feels eager to pursue this with their employees.

Prior to the gathering, we’ll ask each of you to brainstorm and bring a list of questions you have about the process in general, technicalities and procedures as well as any that relate to your specific business or field.

Co-op conversation consulting

We are dedicated to helping business owners to start worker-owned cooperatives or transition their companies to employee ownership, whether at the time of retirement or as a way to deepen the impact of their business.      

We offer consultations for business owners to evaluate the feasibility of if broad-based employee ownership is a fit for your future or current business.

Take the Initial Feasibility Assessment 

Continue to the cooperative initial feasibility assessment »

Upcoming Employee Ownership Training 

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Resources on Employee Ownership