Understanding the Potential Impact of Maine's Small Business Owners' Retirement.

Maine has over 32,000 small businesses with employees, employing roughly half of our state’s workforce. Thousands of these business owners – employing tens of thousands of Mainers – will be looking to retire soon, and many do not know what to do with their business.

With the oldest population of any state in the country, growing attention is being paid to the looming retirement of these business owners over the next decade, and the potential loss of jobs and economic activity those businesses provide. This survey is part of a research project on the growth and/or exit plans of our state's small business owners (privately held companies with fewer than 100 employees).  Your response to this survey will help civic leaders and policy makers plan for our state’s future economy. Data collected will help build a better estimate of the scope and scale of this challenge in Maine.  

This will take less than 5 minutes to complete. Thank you for taking the time to answer the survey!

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* 1. This business is owned by:

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* 2. How is this business organized?

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* 3. What is the age of the primary owner?

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* 4. Which county is the business in?

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* 5. Number of employees?

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* 6. What Sector is the business in?

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* 7. How much does the region’s seasonality affect this business?

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* 8. Average wage of non-managerial employees (minimum hourly wage is $10/hour):

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* 9. This business could operate effectively in the absence of the primary owner for:

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* 10. Which if any benefits are offered by this business (check all that apply):

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* 11. Does the business experience high turnover in employees?

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* 12. How many employees are long term:

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* 13. Do your core employees require education and/or training beyond high school?

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* 14. If "yes" to Q13, what is required:

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* 15. Does the primary owner want to retire or move on within:

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* 16. Does the primary owner have a detailed, written exit plan?

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* 17. If "yes", is the plan:

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* 18. How confident is the primary owner that this plan will work?

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* 19. Are you familiar with the idea of conversion to employee ownership (e.g. a worker-owned cooperative or an Employee Stock Ownership Plan) as an exit plan?

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* 20. If you would like more information on the process and benefits of converting a business to employee ownership, please provide your name and contact details


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