How A Child's Place Became Worker Owned

This video shows how A Child's Place in Queens, New York was founded and later converted to a worker cooperative. The owners' reason for selling to their employees was clearly more values based than financial. It was important for them that children could continue to receive quality care, the same reason it was founded in the first place.

It would be easy to think that selling to your employees would mean you would have to make a financial sacrifice. That is not so. A valuation will be made and provided the business is healthy and able to support the debt burden, there is no reason to sell at a discount. On the contrary, employee buyers are more motivated than any other buyer you can find. They are more likely to pay fair market value than anyone else.

Convert an Existing Business to a Worker Cooperative

If the business is not ready to be sold, there may be things you can do to make it salable. One of the easiest ways to increase the value of a small business is for the owner to assign responsibilities and leadership to managers. Another is to document systems and processes. With these two value drivers in place, the business should be able to run without the owner's constant presence.

Is Your Business Salable? Is it Profitable?

Building Co-operative Power: Stories and Strategies from Worker Co-operatives in the Connecticut River Valley

It is no secret that a group of people can achieve more than the sum of their individual effort. That is what cooperatives are about. When cooperatives cooperative with other cooperatives, you have virtually unlimited potential.

This easy to read book gives you an introduction to worker cooperatives, but also uncovers what is potential of cooperatives working together to achieve their common goals.