Alternative Exit

In 2022, Aaron Schroeder sat down after work and wrote what he calls his “Jerry Maguire letter” to his team. In it he committed to moving Brightspot Climate, the climate consultancy he founded in 2015, to employee ownership once the right structure existed. Canada’s Employee Ownership Trust legislation arrived in 2024, and in April 2025 Brightspot became one of the first companies in the country to use it.

Aaron explains how the team built financial literacy ahead of the transition, why the transition year carries an asterisk in the company’s books, and why every bank asked him for a personal guarantee. He also shares how owner thinking is starting to show up across the 40 person team.

• 00:53 Welcome: one of Canada’s first EOTs
• 01:46 From burnout to founding Brightspot Climate
• 03:13 Sharing the wealth: project level profit sharing
• 03:38 The “Jerry Maguire letter”
• 05:22 Planning before the legislation existed
• 06:36 Preparing the team: open books and financial literacy
• 07:39 “How much is this going to cost me?”
• 09:29 The asterisk year: the cost of non billable time
• 11:13 Life as an employee owned company
• 13:17 Brightspot Labs: two and a half hours a week in the sandbox
• 15:38 Financing: no assets, and a personal guarantee
• 17:45 Why not sell to a big firm?
• 19:24 Bank loan plus deferred consideration
• 20:25 Financial Freedom Day: five to seven years
• 21:08 Fast round

• ✅ Start on financing early. Banks lending against an asset light services firm asked for a personal guarantee from the seller.
• 💡 Plan for an “asterisk year”. The transition brought heavy non billable time plus legal and accounting fees.
• ✅ Open the books well before the deal. Brightspot shared its balance sheet and income statement regularly from 2022.
• 🌟 Expect to repeat yourself. People come along at different paces, and “zero money down” takes time to believe.
• 🎧 Owner thinking grows after the transition. Staff questions have shifted from “will my bonus change?” to the company’s five year finances.
• 💡 Protected time builds ideas. Brightspot Labs has already produced new processes and business lines.

• Aaron Schroeder: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronlschroeder/
• Brightspot Climate: https://brightspot.co
• Brightspot’s EOT announcement: https://brightspot.co/library/brightspot-climates-next-chapter-begins-with-employee-ownership/
• Employee Ownership Canada: https://www.employee-ownership.ca
• Employee Ownership Canada Conference 2026, Vancouver, 20 to 22 October: https://www.employee-ownership.ca/conference/
• Andy Farquharson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/
• a better monday: https://abettermonday.me

Two years ago Denmark had almost no employee-owned companies. Since then it has passed employee ownership legislation (in force 1 January 2026), launched Center for Medarbejdereje, a national centre for employee ownership, and completed the largest study yet comparing UK Employee Ownership Trusts with management buyouts.

Andreas explains how the Danish model differs from the UK EOT, with direct ownership through an employee association and tax that is paid back from surplus over time. He shares the study’s headline numbers, why Denmark’s unions moved from sceptical to supportive, and what other countries can learn from a decade of groundwork.

• 00:54 Welcome back: a year of momentum
• 02:03 The first companies using the new law
• 04:47 A perfect storm: politics, unions and 40,000 businesses
• 05:51 Why the unions came on board
• 11:17 The Danish model vs the UK EOT
• 13:03 Tax: level treatment, paid back from surplus
• 16:25 Gifting a company to employees
• 17:24 The largest EOT vs MBO study
• 23:10 The most surprising finding
• 29:37 Scaling: pioneers, advisors, policy
• 34:16 Lessons for other countries
• 37:59 Fast round

• ✅ In a study of 218 UK EOTs against 330 comparable management buyouts, EOTs showed productivity about 5 percentage points higher and revenue growth 8% higher.
• 💡 Payroll per employee was £6,300 higher in EOTs, with investment and EBITDA margins on par with MBOs.
• 🌟 The Danish model gives employees direct, democratic ownership through an association, not a trust.
• ✅ The seller’s tax moves to the employee vehicle, which repays it from surplus, so a weak year does not trigger a tax bill.
• 🎧 In highly unionised countries, bring the unions in early. Denmark started those conversations ten years ago.

• Andreas Pinstrup Jørgensen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreas-pinstrup-jørgensen-021ba3a8/
• Tænketanken Demokratisk Erhverv: https://demokratiskerhverv.dk
• Center for Medarbejdereje: https://medarbejdereje.dk
• Medejer, Andreas’s book: https://www.gyldendal.dk/produkter/andreas-pinstrup-jørgensen/medejer-46926/hæftet-9788702254112
• The Citizen’s Share, by Joseph Blasi, Richard Freeman and Douglas Kruse
• Andy Farquharson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/
• a better monday: https://abettermonday.me

About the episode:
Shannon co-founded 5by5, a Nashville marketing agency that made the Inc. 5000 list in five of its first seven eligible years. As private equity and trade buyers came calling, she realised selling would mean walking in the next day and saying goodbye to the team that built it. Then a new client told her over lunch that his employees owned the company.

Shannon walks Andy through years of research, winning over a sceptical boomer partner, and starting with a 30% ESOP because a bigger loan felt too risky. She explains why she brought 12 leaders into the plan a year early, how 55 people heard the news at Disney World, and why companies need a steady cadence of inspiration and information.

Then a conversation with her mentor, 3LS CEO Eric Strickland, made 5by5 100% employee owned within weeks. Today Shannon leads 3LS Professional Services, part of an employee-owned group of about 1,500 people, and argues the movement should count employee owners, not ESOPs.

Guest:
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slitton/
🔗 3LS: https://3ls.com
🔗 5by5: https://5by5agency.com
🔗 Tennessee Center for Employee Ownership: https://www.tnceo.org

About The Alternative Exit:
A podcast exploring employee ownership as a succession planning strategy, hosted by Andy Farquharson of a better monday.
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/
Learn more: https://abettermonday.me

Links and resources
Alternative Exit #42 with Eric Strickland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNLYhuPNAio
NCEO: https://www.nceo.org
Journey to an ESOP podcast (The ESOP Guy): https://journeytoanesop.buzzsprout.com
The ESOP Association: https://www.esop.org
Book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni

#EmployeeOwnership #ESOP #SuccessionPlanning #BusinessExit #AgencyLife #OwnershipCulture #SilverTsunami #Leadership #EmployeeOwned

am Boustred, Chair of the Global Members' Board, Scott Bader (Wollaston, UK)

Scott Bader went employee owned in 1951, 63 years before the Employee Ownership Trust existed in UK law. Founder Ernest Bader was a Quaker who did not want to share ownership. He wanted to dissolve it. So he put every share into a registered charity, the Scott Bader Commonwealth.

Sam joined the company in 2012 as a process operator on the shop floor. He is now the first person to hold the Chair of the Global Members' Board as a full time role, leading industrial democracy across a group of around 800 colleagues.

He talks Andy through the profit formula that has not moved since 1951, the strike that finally forced Ernest to hand the company over, why every pound paid to colleagues must be matched to charity, and what ownership means when nobody owns anything.

• ✅ Scott Bader's shares sit in a registered charity, so the Charity Commission holds the business to its purpose as well as its numbers.
• 💡 The split has held since 1951: 60% of surplus stays in the business, up to 20% goes to colleagues, and every pound paid to colleagues is matched to charitable causes.
• 🌟 Ownership is not automatic understanding. Six months of structured onboarding, culture cafés and refreshers every couple of years keep it real.
• ✅ Members do not vote on daily decisions, they vote on who makes them. The 1963 constitution gave members appointment rights over directors.
• 🎧 When the 2022 constitution review went to a vote, 80% of colleagues took part and 95% of them backed the changes.

"We don't own the shares, we own the responsibility."

"You don't get many bosses or owners of businesses who go on strike, because you'd be poking yourself in the eye."

"In a true democracy you're not deciding all of the day to day decisions. You're deciding who is making those decisions, and you have the right to appoint and remove them."

• Sam Boustred: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samboustred/
• Scott Bader: https://www.scottbader.com
• Scott Bader Commonwealth: https://www.scottbader.com/about-us/commonwealth-board/
• Fred H. Blum, Work and Community: The Scott Bader Commonwealth and the Quest for a New Social Order (1968): https://www.routledge.com/Work-and-Community-The-Scott-Bader-Commonwealth-and-the-Quest-for-a-New-Social-Order/Blum/p/book/9781041396406
• John Hoffmire: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-hoffmire-5999621/
• John Hoffmire on The Alternative Exit, episode 34: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2414792/episodes/17747330
• Andy Farquharson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/
• a better monday: https://abettermonday.me

In 1980 Kevin walked out of his accountancy studies to cut hair. Three years later he opened his first salon in Southend with five chairs and a £1,000 decorating budget. This April, 43 years on, he handed the whole business to his team. novo hair is now 100% employee owned through a UK Employee Ownership Trust, 15 people, all partners.

Kevin walks Andy through the three trade sales that fell over, why he could not stomach three years of being hated by his own staff, how he landed on a number and then deliberately took the bottom of the valuation range, and the grand announcement that landed to fifteen completely blank faces. Five months in, he shares what has actually changed: the bonus pot the team controls, the financials they now lean into, and the tumble dryer filter that suddenly matters.

• ✅ A trade sale is not the only number. Salons typically fetch one to one and a half times earnings, and every offer Kevin received came with three to five years of him staying put.
• 💡 Leaving something on the table can be the point. Kevin took the bottom of the valuation range so the business could carry the debt and still pay the team an annual bonus from year one.
• 🌟 Do not save the announcement for a big reveal. Fifteen people who have never heard of an EOT cannot get excited in the two minutes before you explain it.
• ✅ Give the team a quick win they control. Retail profit and in-salon treatments go straight into a bonus pot, so ownership shows up in this month's numbers, not year five.
• 💡 Ownership changes how the financials land. The same numbers that used to glaze people over now get real attention, because the net profit is theirs.
• 🎧 Get your ducks in a row first. If the business cannot run without you for a month, it is not ready to be handed over.

"The old adage is if it feels too good to be true, it's too good to be true. I very much feel with the EOT it feels too good to be true, but it is true."

"I can be hated to a degree, but I can't be hated for three years and be there every day."

"That won't save me a hundred and twenty pound. It will save you a hundred and twenty pound."

• Kevin Franks on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-franks-208b4aa/
• novo hair: https://novohair.co.uk
• Go EO (Chris Maslin), who valued the business: https://goeo.uk
• Chris Maslin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-maslin-9a5a2316/
• Richer Sounds, the EOT Kevin learned from: https://www.richersounds.com
• Host, Andy Farquharson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/
• a better monday: https://abettermonday.me

Our first ever double episode. 🎧

Andy sits down with both founders of Monarch Investment Partners to explore the question at the heart of employee ownership: who should own your business next?

Katie and Michael unpack why external capital has been the missing piece in scaling employee ownership, how ESOPs create genuine alignment of incentives, and why returns and purpose belong on a level playing field. A candid, practical listen for any owner weighing their exit. 🌟

00:00 — The double episode format 04:00 — Bridging employee ownership and external capital 05:18 — Why the "benevolent seller" model needs capital to scale 06:57 — Monarch's focus: 100% employee-owned ESOP transitions 08:04 — How ESOPs create alignment of incentives 09:53 — Turning open-book data into ownership behaviour 12:38 — Underwriting and the buy box 14:16 — Diligence on the management team 18:36 — How Monarch differs from the wider field 21:27 — The buy box: $5–15m EBITDA, US, industry agnostic 23:48 — Post-transaction support and Michael's book 27:16 — Measuring success: the double bottom line 30:13 — Rapid fire questions 36:06 — The monarch butterfly effect

✅ Capital, not appetite, is the biggest barrier to scaling employee ownership. ✅ ESOPs align incentives, but that only compounds through repeated communication, typically from year three. ✅ People manage their behaviour to the data they are given. Open-book transparency turns employees into owners. ✅ Returns and purpose can sit on a level playing field. Impact and competitive returns aren't a trade-off.

💡 "Who do you want to own your business? It may very well not be a private equity firm." — Michael McGinley

💡 "We're not trying to sacrifice returns for impact. We want to prove both can coexist." — Katie Kimball

Monarch Investment Partners: https://www.monarchinvestmentpartners.com/ Michael McGinley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljmcginley/ Katie Kimball on LinkedIn: [add — see note below] Monarch Performance Disclosure: https://mcusercontent.com/3bef2e9f4d6f9832d50e71e3e/files/cd67868e-0f83-8cbb-9a4e-015bf2da300a/Monarch_Performance_Disclosure.pdf Host: Andy Farquharson — https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/ a better monday: https://abettermonday.me

Disclosure: Any performance figures referenced are subject to Monarch's full performance disclosure, linked above.

Bob Whalen walked into a 94-year-old, third-generation family business in 2008 and, within two years, transitioned it to a 100% ESOP. What started as a way to make the deal more tax-efficient became his professional purpose. Fifteen years on, HB Global has grown almost 10x, completed close to 20 acquisitions, and built over $110M of value sitting inside its employee owners' accounts. In this episode, Bob shares why he runs the business like a sports team rather than a family, how he protects culture through every acquisition, and why the person who "gave away" the most is the happiest about it. A genuinely different take on ownership, legacy and shared success.

Chapters

• 00:53 — Meet Bob Whalen and HB Global
• 02:35 — Walking into a 94-year-old family business
• 05:50 — Where ESOPs and ETA meet
• 07:39 — Run it like a sports team, not a family
• 10:50 — Bringing culture to life across the group
• 13:26 — Why the "secret sauce" isn't really a secret
• 14:44 — Where the people-first conviction came from
• 19:58 — Spotting cultural fit in an acquisition
• 22:58 — Branding inward: communicating mission daily
• 26:38 — Keeping score and the great game of business
• 28:10 — The one number: return on capital
• 31:02 — Do frontline workers value ownership?
• 33:37 — Why business schools don't teach ESOPs
• 38:19 — Fast round
• 42:11 — Advice for owners on the fence

Key Takeaways

• ✅ An ESOP can start as a practical, tax-efficient deal structure and grow into a genuine cultural strategy.
• 💡 Run the business like a sports team: everyone does their job, and everyone shares what they create.
• 🌟 Culture is what you do, not what you write down. The CEO has to live it first.
• 🎧 Most acquisitions could fetch a higher price elsewhere. Owners choose HB Global to protect their people.
• ✅ Frontline technicians hold rare, valuable skills. The first job is helping them value themselves.
• 💡 Selling for top dollar often leaves owners unhappy. Decide what legacy you actually want.

Notable Quotes

• "It's my Christmas every year when our ESOP values come out. I get a spreadsheet with every single person's value."
• "If there was anybody who'd be upset about doing the ESOP, it would be me. And I couldn't be more thrilled."
• "It was a financial solution that started, but it gave me my purpose."

Links

• Bob Whalen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-whalen-4023a21b/
• HB Global: https://hb-global.com
• Book — Beyond Your Ownership by Bob Whalen and Jamie Dykstra
• Host, Andy Farquharson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/
• a better monday: https://abettermonday.me

After 400+ employee ownership transitions and over two decades in the space, Ewan Hall has seen what works and what doesn't. In this episode, he walks Andy through the practical realities of EOT transitions in the UK — from the tax recalibration last October to the four pillars every successful transition needs (deal, ownership, governance, culture). Ewan unpacks the concept of "enough" that unlocks seller psychology, the underused role of debt finance, and a deceptively simple framework — informed, consult, consent — that resolves who decides what after the founder steps back. Honest, experienced, and refreshingly free of the EO hype.

Chapters

• (00:00) Welcome and introduction
• (02:26) The story behind 20+ years in EO
• (05:53) Why employee owned firms still face succession challenges
• (07:42) Separating ownership succession from leadership succession
• (11:17) Why owners choose EO over a trade sale
• (13:21) The concept of "enough" and the magic number
• (18:00) The 25% rule: how long it really takes to fund a 100% disposal
• (22:21) The 2014 tax relief and mainstreaming EO
• (23:41) October 2024: from 100% to 50% CGT discount
• (28:34) The missed opportunity around debt finance
• (32:26) Refinancing the back-end of founder debt
• (33:26) The four pillars: deal, ownership, governance, culture
• (37:04) Informed, consult, consent in practice
• (40:31) Day, year, extremis: stress-testing your structure
• (42:27) Fast round: leaders, resources, advice
• (45:00) Where to find Ewan

Key takeaways

• 💡 Ownership succession and leadership succession run on different timelines — don't conflate them.
• ✅ The conversation about "enough" unlocks every other decision a founder needs to make.
• 🎯 Profit multiple + 25% = roughly the years it'll take to fund a 100% disposal at flat profits.
• 🌟 The four pillars of a healthy transition: the deal, ownership, governance, and culture.
• 💷 EOT tax relief at 50% still saves around 12% — no other UK exit comes close.
• ⚖️ Stress-test your structure across three scenarios: a day, a year, and an emergency.

Notable quotes

• "You don't just stick shares in a trust and call it a day."
• "Once people get past the concept of enough, they unclench a bit."
• "I want to be able to drive past this workplace and feel all right about it."

Links

• 🔗 Ewan Hall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ewan-hall-3a7b902a/
• 🔗 Baxendale Employee Ownership: https://baxendaleownership.co.uk
• 🔗 Employee Ownership Association: https://employeeownership.co.uk
• 🔗 Host Andy Farquharson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/
• 🔗 a better monday: https://abettermonday.me

Joseph Cureton spent nearly a decade building Obran Cooperative, the first worker-owned cooperative holding company in the US. In 2025, he exited and started something new. Sarvis Health is an ESOP-based roll-up of home care agencies, wrapped in a proprietary AI-enabled operating platform called Sarvis OS. In this conversation, Joseph breaks down why he shifted from co-op to ESOP, what he learned about the "magic" (and the myths) of shared ownership, and why home care is uniquely suited to employee ownership. He also shares how Sarvis is using AI to fix broken workflows, why design partners matter, and the one question every fence-sitting owner should ask themselves.

Chapters:

• (00:00) Welcome and introducing Joseph
• (01:39) From Obran to Sarvis: co-op to ESOP
• (07:10) No silver bullet — operations come first
• (09:26) The real magic of employee ownership
• (11:05) Home care and the Silver Tsunami
• (13:29) Going head-to-head with private equity
• (16:32) Rituals, open-book management, alignment
• (23:50) Sarvis OS: the three-part rollout
• (30:53) Investing in tech and people together
• (34:00) The design partner model
• (39:30) A five-year vision
• (43:50) Fast round
• (46:10) A question for owners on the fence

Key Takeaways:

• 💡 Employee ownership isn't a magic bullet. You still have to be a great operator every day.
• ✅ The magic is a team of "disagreeable givers" aligned around shared outcomes.
• 🌟 Home care fits employee ownership because workers already care deeply about their communities.
• 🎧 A single AI-enabled platform turns ownership engagement into action.
• ✅ Start with the detractors. The loudest critics make the best design partners.

Notable Quotes:

• "There's no silver bullet. And there is some magic."
• "Clarity is kindness."
• "In five or ten years, what option would you regret not taking?"

Links & Resources:

• Joseph Cureton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephbuilds/
• Sarvis Health: https://sarvishealth.com
• Obran Cooperative: https://www.obran.coop
• The Companies We Keep by John Abrams
• Collective Courage by Jessica Gordon Nembhard
• Host Andy Farquharson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/
• a better monday: https://abettermonday.me

What happens when a CEO with over a decade in Fortune 500 companies returns to a family auto business and insists from day one that any exit must benefit the employees?

You get America's first employee ownership trust – and one of the most compelling performance stories in the employee ownership movement. Kevin Clegg shares how Clegg Auto, a group of four repair shops in Utah County, doubled profits and grew employee profit-sharing tenfold in their very first year as an EOT – without raising a single price. He also digs into the real challenge: building an ownership culture from the inside out, and his evolving vision for a business cooperative movement that could reshape small business succession across the US.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Employee ownership isn't just an exit strategy – it's an operating model that drives measurable performance from day one ✅ Structuring profit-sharing so employees benefit immediately (not after former owners are paid off) is what makes it real and tangible ✅ Financial transparency is a powerful tool – but open-book management only works when employees can see their own personal impact on the numbers ✅ Building an ownership culture takes years, not a transaction – and even seasoned owners don't always act like owners ✅ A business cooperative (not a worker cooperative) could be the scalable model to bring the Silver Tsunami of retiring owners into employee ownership en masse ✅ The best employee voice frameworks match decision-making authority to expertise – not a one-person, one-vote free-for-all

Notable Quotes:

💬 "There should be some sort of exit that's beneficial for everyone – not just for the people who started the thing."

💬 "The hardest part of the transition to employee ownership wasn't coming up with the structure and transacting it. The hardest part still is – and is – the culture afterwards."

💬 "There's nothing better than preserving what you've created, and there's no better way to do it, in my opinion, than employee ownership."

Links:

🔗 Kevin Clegg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-clegg-59655a/ 🔗

Clegg Auto website: https://cleggauto.com 🔗

Host Andy Farquharson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/ 🔗

a better monday: https://abettermonday.me