February 7, 2024 | Andover, MA — This week, the Northeast Transition Initiative (NETI) Fellowship Kickoff Retreat brought together partners and its inaugural cohort of fellows in Andover to share their experiences and to learn how we can work together to create economic opportunities, preserve small businesses and jobs, and fill wealth gaps in our communities. Thanks to our partners and fellows for participating!
NETI brings together partners from across the Northeast to educate, train and network a small business ecosystem to support employee ownership and raise public awareness of employee ownership as an economically beneficial solution for a wave of small businesses whose owners are planning to retire with no exit plan.
More than 200,000 small businesses throughout New England and New York State have owners who are looking to retire or transition within the next few years. Only 17% of those owners have a succession plan. A wave of aging baby boomer business owners are looking to transition but don’t understand the process or their options and don’t know where to turn for help, posing a great threat to business, job preservation, and growth in our communities.
Employee ownership is a proven strategy to preserve critical businesses and jobs and provide wealth building opportunities for workers who are often left behind. Research has shown that employee-owned businesses are more productive and profitable, create more jobs in the good times, and lay off fewer workers in a downturn.
The NETI Fellowship kicked off with a 2-day retreat, Feb. 6-7, where the participants networked and discussed projects that they will be working on together over the next nine months.
Watch this short video to hear from our partners and fellows who shared their thoughts as the retreat wrapped: