St. Louis Employee Ownership Initiative

Employee ownership builds a stronger, more invested workforce and lasting wealth for owners, employees, and communities.

“About 70% of business owners across the St. Louis region are at or nearing retirement, but only about 25% have concrete [transition] plans.”

St. Louis Public Radio, 2022

Only about 20-30% of small businesses listed for sale ultimately sell successfully (Exit Planning Institute, n.d.).

As a result, many businesses are at risk of being sold and leaving the region, or closing their doors permanently, resulting in job losses, a reduced tax base, and community impacts.

Employee-owned businesses are more likely to survive recessions.

Median wage income is 33% higher at employee-owned firms (Project Equity 2023).

Median household net worth is 92% higher for employee owners overall (Wiefek 2017).

The St. Louis Employee Ownership Initiative is an ecosystem of partners that protects local jobs, builds the wealth of our region’s workforce, and supports retiring owners in selling their businesses by growing the number of employee-owned businesses through:

Aligning partners and activating champions to grow the pipeline of potential businesses to become employee-owned.
Providing connections to high-quality technical assistance and transaction support for businesses to become employee-owned and democratically governed.
Cultivating and coordinating capital providers to finance transactions and the success of employee-owned businesses.

We partner with:

Business Chambers and Associations
Wealth Advisors
Technical Assistance Providers
Financing and Capital Providers
Philanthropy
Economic Development Agencies

Across roles, partners collaborate to:

Build awareness and lead outreach efforts
Identify and refer businesses with owners nearing retirement for employee ownership
Coordinate financing and technical assistance
Align local and national resources
Align on goals, track and report progress, barriers, and system gaps
Grow enabling policy, systems, and government infrastructure

The Initiative's Kickoff Luncheon Slides

Koch Center's White Paper on The Silver Tsunami

St. Louis Employee Ownership Initiative

The St. Louis Employee Ownership Initiative is building a coordinated regional ecosystem to expand employee ownership and governance. Our first focus is business conversions: helping more succession-ready businesses explore pathways to become employee-owned.

We are growing a pipeline of employee ownership transitions by mobilizing trusted technical assistance, financing and capital, legal, and governance resources. When employees have a meaningful ownership stake and a voice in decision-making, businesses can become engines of shared wealth. Business owners can plan for succession while protecting their legacy.

Our Goals

To strengthen the St. Louis regional economy, keep businesses rooted locally, and support the workforce to build real wealth and decision-making power, this initiative will:

Grow regional awareness of employee ownership as a tool for transformational economic and workforce development.
Increase outreach and communication to ensure business owners nearing retirement are aware of employee ownership as an option.
Identify promising St. Louis-rooted companies that would benefit from conversion.
Connect interested companies and owners to competitive financing and technical assistance.
Build the local ecosystem needed to sustain employee ownership.