Behind the Build: MNCEO, On a Mission to Spread Employee Ownership Awareness

Welcome to our very first "Behind the Build" interview! This series is all about our clients and the amazing things that they are doing every day. Watch our first interview below as we spoke with Sue Crockett, the Executive Director of MNCEO about Employee Ownership and its significants within the current business climate.

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MNCEO is a 501(C)3 non-profit that is based in Minneapolis, MN. The organization serves as a resource hub for information about employee ownership business models in the state of Minnesota. Access to the information is available to anyone free of charge. Business owners, employees, board members, professional services providers who work with employee-owned companies, and more all contact MNCEO to learn more about employee ownership business models.

"What users value about MNCEO is the fact that we've done the research for them. Our website is truly a one-stop hub of information whether you're thinking about setting up an employee ownership business model, want to network with business leaders who already operate under this model, or are simply exploring your options as you think about succession planning," Sue explained. 

A Future Focused Mission

MNCEO is part of the nationwide Employee Ownership Expansion Network (EOX) which provides education and outreach on the benefits of employee ownership as well as being a hub for resources to business owners and their advisors. MNCEO was just the second state center EOX assisted in opening when it was formed in early 2020.  The mission of the MNCEO is to be the local unbiased “boots on the ground” hub to help guide MN business owners and their advisors on their options when starting their ownership transition process.   

"Although we do provide general information about what it means to be an employee-owned company, ownership transition and succession planning is a primary area of focus for us. There are 52,000 business owners over the age of 55 in Minnesota alone. There is a crisis on the horizon if these owners walk away from the business or retire without a succession plan in place. The communities and business employees will suffer if those businesses just close their doors. A major part of our role is to educate business owners about the employee ownership business model as a succession plan option to try and avoid the dire scenarios of a business closing its doors and the community-wide repercussions of that," said Sue.

Answers to the Tough Questions 

MNCEO helps business owners figure out answers to the tough questions such as: "What is my succession plan?" "Where is my business going in the future?" "What kind of legacy do I want to leave?"

Employee ownership business models provide owners with an alternative to selling the business to a new buyer or a private equity firm. Under an employee ownership business model, employees themselves have a stake in the business, usually in the form of retirement plan stock grants. The business is still run by the owner or a CEO and overseen by a Board of Directors, but instead of answering to shareholders, the business answers to their employees. As a model for succession planning, employee-owned businesses don't go away when the owner retires. Instead, the company hires or promotes a new CEO and business continues. 

"There are numerous benefits to becoming an employee-owned business from taxes to PR to recruitment and retention. We are seeing an enormous surge of interest in employee-owned businesses as workers seek out jobs that have more meaning to them or benefit the community or the larger picture in some way. There are changes occurring at the state and federal level in terms of legislation that is more friendly to employee-owned businesses too. I think we will see an explosion of growth in the number of employee-owned businesses over the next decade and beyond," Sue noted. 

Visit MNCEO.org 

The new MNCEO website launched in early 2021. MNCEO's primary goal was to create a more robust website that kept visitors on the site longer by providing them with the information and access they needed. This included a scheduling tool and a calendar of events as well as search-engine optimized content. The site contains information for owners and the general public who want to learn more about the employee-ownership model, business directories of both employee-owned businesses in the state and of professional service providers who specialize in supporting in employee-owned businesses. View our MNCEO case study to learn more about HeiPro’s role in creating the new website and how we helped MNCEO “flip the script” in their digital marketing approach. 

“MNCEO was a terrific experience for HeiPro in many different ways. As an agency that works with small business owners and entrepreneurs and as small business owners ourselves, the organization’s mission really struck a chord with us. We immediately saw the benefits of this business model and completely supported MNCEO’s mission of spreading the word about employee ownership. We also really liked the challenge of building a site for several different audiences without having to enter portals. We think the new MNCEO website is effective, informative, and engaging and are very proud to add this site to our portfolio,” explained Mica Stephens, Account Manager at HeiPro Digital.

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This is just the first in a long line of awesome clients that we plan to crow about. If you’ve enjoyed reading about MNCEO and are curious about who else we’re working with, join our email list. You’ll be among the first to know about additional Behind the Build articles.