Technical Assistance (TA)

Whether you are in the dreaming, start up, stabilize or growth phase we can provide technical assistance to help you with making informed decisions, strategizing, planning, and implementation.

Start Ups

If you (and your team) are thinking about starting up a co-op, we can provide TA on a wide range of areas:

Deciding if a worker or multi-stakeholder co-op model is right for you.
Developing a co-op business canvas that you can use to create a full business plan.
Putting together your financial projections (pro formas).
Deciding on the right legal entity choice.
Developing your Articles and Bylaws/Operating Agreement.
Developing a strategy to raise start up and working capital.
Putting a training program in place to build co-op management skills and culture.

Stabilization & Growth

If you are part of an established co-op, we can help you in stabilizing or growing your business. There are a myriad of challenges that a small business may face. Some of the areas that we can help you with include:

Training: building a cooperative, ownership culture.
Developing a strategy to expand sales.
Developing and deepening your relationship with your community.
Building a relationship with the co-op world.
Connecting you with other resource organizations and individuals.
Addressing cash flow problems.
Conflict resolution/transformation.

Business Transition to a Co-op Model

If you own or work at a business that might be a good candidate to becoming worker owned, we can help to bring the owners and workers together to assess this option and come up with a plan to transition the business to a worker co-op. Benefits include:

Preserving the business legacy: a worker buyout preserves the business. All too often business are sold off and closed down–their assets sold off or absorbed into another business.
Securing new ownership: many business owners are overly optimistic about the likelihood of finding a buyer for their business at the price that they have set. Many businesses simply close their doors and sell off their assets piecemeal because they can’t find a buyer. A co-op transition allows for many different options of transferring ownership to workers.
Saving jobs: a transition to a co-op model means that workers jobs are preserved. This is obviously a benefit for workers; moreover, it is often a priority for owners who care about their employees.
Building workplace democracy: workers become owners and learn how to run their own business, engage in decision making and creative problem solving, all of which have been shown to lead to greater job satisfaction.