Community Answers on The Grid

An advisor seat is for one advisor working with their clients. A Hub is a branded exit-planning website for an organization, and it comes with Zolidar’s Program plan.

You can’t delete uploaded documents yourself, but you can start over without deleting anything. Upload corrected statements, or change your figures under Edit inputs. To have documents removed from your workspace, contact the Zolidar team through the Get in touch form at zolidar.com/contact.

A branded Zolidar Hub comes with Zolidar’s Program plan, $14,999 a year, paid by invoice. The Hub is a branded website at your own web address where owners take the free Day Zero Guide. The plan also includes one advisor seat, which gives an unlimited number of owners the full Aha Planner at no cost to them.

The Zolidar Hub is for programs and institutions that help business owners plan a sale or a move to employee ownership, such as employee ownership centers, small business development centers, CDFIs, banks and credit unions. It comes with Zolidar’s Program plan.

Yes! Contact Zolidar at [LOCKED_ICON], book a call at [LOCKED_ICON], or call +1 (650) 977-4744 (voicemail). We can help with support, product questions, and employee ownership guidance. You can even explore The Grid to find advisors.

Every member gets the Day Zero Guide (a 5-minute personalized exit assessment), the Aha Planner (instant business valuations and 16-year projections), and Zolid AI (24/7 context-aware answers on succession planning). They also see a curated advisor directory, educational resources, and Regional Insights for local context.

You can add your financials to Aha Planner in three ways: connect QuickBooks Online for an automatic import, upload PDFs of your financial statements, or enter your figures by hand. You can mix and match these methods. Your report generates instantly once your data is in, and you can adjust the assumptions behind it at any time.

Zolidar is passionate about employee ownership, but it’s committed to objective recommendations based on your business’s circumstances. The Day Zero Guide and Aha Planner compare employee ownership with selling to outside buyers. They help you understand the pros and cons of each path, and the decision is yours.

The Zolidar Hub is a turnkey, fully branded business transition resource center that an organization deploys under its own domain. It includes a curated advisor directory, educational resources, Regional Insights data, AI-powered exit planning tools, and engagement analytics — all maintained by Zolidar.

Zolidar’s Advisor plan is $3,000 a year for each advisor seat. A seat gives each client you cover the full Aha Planner, at no cost to them, with no limit on how many clients. You see each client’s progress, and you get your own Day Zero Guide link with your name or logo.

Anyone using the Zolidar Hub. Business owners get local context for their transition. Advisors use it in client conversations. Policy makers, government staff, and economic development teams use it for programs, grants, and stakeholder updates. Lenders and partners use it to understand where businesses are concentrated.

Your Aha Planner report includes a business valuation using multiple industry-standard methods, recast financial statements and 16-year projections. It compares exit options, including employee ownership, and lets you test “what-if” changes. It also shows what drives your business value, compares your business with similar companies and lets advisors review results with you.

No. A Zolidar Hub is fully configured through a simple settings page — choose your brand colors, domain, and messaging. Zolidar maintains all content, tools, and technology. No development work, content creation, or employee ownership expertise is required from your team.

The Insights tab pulls from Google Data Commons (population, demographics, household income, employment, establishments, poverty) and the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (business size distribution by employee count). Every source is cited on the page.

"Day Zero" refers to a beginning, and in this case, the beginning of your succession planning journey with Zolidar.

Yes. An advisor with a Zolidar advisor seat can cover a client’s workspace, which gives it the Owner plan at no cost to the owner. If the advisor stops, the Owner plan runs to its renewal date, then renews if a card is on file or moves to the Free plan.

Start with a free advisor account and the Zolidar demo, both free. The account gives you your own Day Zero Guide link, with your name or logo, and shows who signs up through it. The demo opens a sample business with the full Aha Planner.

Zolidar’s Owner plan is $500 a year. It gives your business the full Aha Planner on its own numbers: an estimate of what your business is worth, what-if changes, and employee ownership compared with a sale. Everyone you invite works in it with you.

Zolidar bills its paid plans once a year, because planning a business’s future takes months. The price on each plan is the yearly amount you’re charged. Each plan renews every year until you cancel, and you can cancel anytime.

Zolidar’s Solo plan is $100 a year for one person who works on business sales or employee ownership, such as a lender, investor, researcher or advisor. It gives you more Zolid AI and your own AI usage in any workspace you join.

Most owners who try to sell never do, even with a profitable business, because outside buyers need a high return. Employee ownership offers a competitive, often more predictable exit that can keep the business open and keep jobs. It may not suit a business without healthy profits, or an owner with many interested buyers who wants the most cash now.

Employee ownership doesn’t rely on employees raising money, because the company itself funds the purchase from its cash flow. In most employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs), employees pay nothing. Worker cooperatives typically have an equity buy-in, set democratically by the workers and usually nominal.

Zolidar helps you and your clients explore exit paths that are often overlooked, especially employee ownership. It prepares owners for their first steps, so they come to you more informed and ready to engage. Even if you’re not an expert in employee ownership, its tools and insights help you guide clients through that path.

That’s okay, since succession planners often recommend starting to plan five years before an exit. That time lets you prepare your business for a buyer, use tax strategies and make changes that can raise its value. With employee ownership, you can also sell part of your business now and transition the rest over time.

Aha Planner is an exit planning tool that helps you value your business, explore exit options and model future scenarios. Connect QuickBooks, upload documents or enter figures by hand to get instant reports on valuation, exit strategies and projections. Its side-by-side comparisons include employee ownership, and Zolid AI guides you as your business evolves.

Aha Planner asks for a shorter list of numbers than a full set of financial statements carries. Detailed operating costs fold into one Total Operating Expense, accumulated depreciation and gross property fold into one net Total Fixed Assets, and your cash flow statement, equity, capital expenditure, and income tax are all worked out for you. The lines a valuation has to normalize, such as non-recurring revenue and executive compensation, are asked for separately.

Every page on The Grid by Zolidar carries a score for how useful it is to the person reading it. The score reads how much detail a page holds and how well it connects to the rest of The Grid. It also reads whether people have worked on it and how current it is. The fastest way to move up is to claim your profile and write a real bio. After that, link yourself to the organizations and topics you work with.

Zolidar has four paid plans. The Owner plan gives a business the full Aha Planner on its own numbers, and an advisor seat gives the advisor’s clients the same. The Solo plan gives one person more Zolid AI, and the Program plan gives an organization a branded Hub.

Yes. Zolidar’s Day Zero Guide and Aha Planner help you weigh a strategic or financial sale alongside employee ownership. Further along the exit journey, Zolidar’s features focus on employee ownership, but the underlying ideas apply to other paths too.

The Grid by Zolidar is for anyone who supports small and medium businesses, especially through exit planning. Business owners find advisors and resources, while advisors build their reputation and connect with owners. It also serves employee ownership advocates, employee-owners and capital allocators looking for businesses to fund.