Should you sell your company? It’s a question many business owners will eventually face. But just as vexing might be the added notion of: whom should you sell your business to? One alternative that continues to gain in popularity is to sell your business to an ESOP, or employee stock ownership plan. It’s estimated that there are now some 11,500 ESOPs operating today, which account for some 13.7 million participants – or 10% of the entire U.S. workforce.

It is inevitable that privately held companies will face some type of ownership transition event. Too often business owners delay or avoid employee ownership transition planning which can result in severe consequences, including deterioration of company value and sustainability as well as family wealth and security. Business owners should be mindful of these consequences, while also realizing that “planning” does not necessarily mean execution of a strategy today. Also, understanding the process and alternatives available can help demystify the topic and help business owners understand the value of planning for this “once in a lifetime” event.

If your company is currently employee owned, or you are considering it; you're probably planning to attend the 2014 Employee Ownership Conference held April 8-10, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia which is presented by the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO).

Having an ESOP at your company means that some of your company’s stock will be held in the retirement savings accounts of your employees. Is this something a business owner might live to regret? One of the first questions raised by business owners about ESOPs is the issue of corporate control. After all, the employees have stock. Could they make trouble? Would it be inmates running the asylum? The answer, in a word, is no.

One of the questions I get asked the most by other business owners is, “How do you know how much your company is worth?” The simple truth is your company, not unlike your house, is worth only as much as someone else is willing to pay for it. But there are many benefits in getting an appraisal of your company’s value – and that’s something we have been doing at SRC since we got our start. We understood early on that we needed a way to cash out our shareholders without crashing the whole company in the process. That’s why we made annual appraisals a part of the shareholder’s agreement we signed 30 years ago (it’s also a requirement for an ESOP – which we started 28 years ago).