Blue Ridge ESOP Associates Industry News

This spring, our professionals will be co-presenting at multiple ESOP Association conferences on various topics. We hope to see you at one of the following conferences:

The results of a 3 year study, recently presented at The Mid-Year Fellows Workshop in Honor of Louis O. Kelso hosted by Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations in New Brunswick, NJ, was conducted by Suzanne Cromlish, a Ph.D. Candidate at Case Western Reserve University, discovered that ESOP acquisitions of Non-ESOP companies are extremely successful.

Founded in the 1950s, the U.S. Small Business Administration has for many years assisted in the establishment, and growth of small businesses, and the exit of business owners. The specific loan program created to provide such loans is the 7(a) program.  In the early years a SBA loan was obtained by contacting the federal government, proving a business had been declined 3 times by banks, and then getting a direct loan from the federal government.  Such “direct loans” today are made by SBA only for helping businesses after disasters. The model that has existed for recent decades is the “indirect” loan model, where the small business gets a loan from a bank (or other lender ), and the bank goes to SBA for a loan guaranty. 

Is sharing business information with employee owners dangerous? You bet. Because when you share it, employee owners:
- Learn the business’s strengths and weaknesses
- Raise questions and concerns
- May second-guess management decisions
- Can misinterpret the information and reach the wrong conclusion(s)

In addition to those challenges, the information could leak to your competitors, suppliers or customers.

Is it too dangerous to build a line of sight to performance?

Thanks to Larry Camm of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories and ESCA for getting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to recognize ESOPs in their legislative roadmap, Securing America's Retirement.

2017 Employee Ownership Conference in Denver This Spring

Representatives from employee-owned companies (and companies seeking to learn about employee ownership) from across the nation and around the world will gather April 4-6, 2017 for the 2017 Employee Ownership Conference, hosted by the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO). More than 1,700 people will attend the conference which will be held at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel and Conference Center.

Blue Ridge ESOP Associates is proud to be sponsoring this conference with our following professionals co-presenting in the following sessions.

Blue Ridge is pleased to announce that Mason Monson has joined our team as a Plan Administrator. Mason comes to us with over 13 years of experience at The Prinicpal Financial Group, most recently serving as a Relationship Manager, after having moved up the ranks from Client Service Associate, Client Service Manager, and Consulting Analyst. He is a member of The ESOP Association and the NCEO where he has presented seminars about communicating ESOPs to different generations. He holds his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Mason will be located in Orange County California.

The Greensboro based company, Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels, which operates multiple hotels and restaurants is now owned by the people who keep the company running from serving tables to making beds. Last week, the founding partners were emotional when they announced the news to their 600+ employees. The new owners share the same values as the original founders of , and according to this article, that is exactly what they wanted.