Loading content…
Be the first to curate this episode — add a title and quick summary.
Add title and summaryNo information listed yet. Be the first to add who benefits from this content.
Suggest who benefitsNo detailed summary yet. Suggest a summary to help the community.
Suggest summaryNo questions listed yet. Be the first to add a question for this topic.
Suggest questionThis episode comes from questions generated from our website at journeytoanesop.com - to help better understand what is the best way to announce the news to your employees about your new ESOP. On this episode, we cover the deeper questions of matching up ESOP news and announcements with a particular culture and how important it is to have an impactful message as you build. But having a strategy to message it frequently is going to be significant to enhance your culture into “ownership thinking.”
Transcript provided by the publisher.
<p><!--block-->[0:11] Everyone this is the theesopguy thank you so much for joining today we are on a journey to an ESOP. <br> And continuing with I think what will be a very important topic and I say that. <br> Because I have this topic was generated out of questions that we had received off of our website at journey to an ESOP.com so, I guess my thinking is if they're thinking it you're probably thinking it so let's do a podcast on this topic I'm going to kick it off with this. <br> <br> [0:46] Connection with the Watergate burglary and not here Hoffman hi this is Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post and I was just wondering if you can remember All the President's Men the story of the two young reporters who cracked the Watergate conspiracy, Howard hunt please. <br> Did you know how it's going to tell the White House said he was doing some investigative work I stumbled into leads. <br> No no no surprise at all they tripped over Clues he like to see all the turtle. <br> <br> [1:30] Okay so I know I know this is a movie back in 1976 and it is so. <br> Interesting the way that these guys discovered what was happening, with Richard Nixon I mean wow you know and I think it made a lot of people back then went to become journalists because it was like fruit pretty exciting work. <br> <br> [1:54] So in the end the essence of this movie called All the President's Men. <br> <br> [1:59] We're looking at the unfolding of a secret the Watergate conspiracy being held in secret and these guys discovering it and. <br> In obviously the most exciting thing about this is when they release this information and how they release this information to the public now this is super super negative and that's the only negative part about using this as part of our Esau. <br> Podcast because ESOP sir as you know. <br> Are very positive and exciting and interesting as opposed to in a revealing something that's - but the gist of this that I was the reason I wanted to use it is because the topic today is. <br> Should I roll out my ESOP to my employees. <br> So this is a topic again like I said it was generated out of questions that we got from the website and I thought wow this is something that we really want to talk about because. <br> Even though this is not something I would say that is in the top you know first couple questions that people ask when we're thinking about, should they continue our is an ESOP right for them it is something that usually always comes out in the process in our what I call the journey to a nice upward the process of moving from, each of the process steps that we go through to actually pull off a ESOP transaction so I think that that's a very helpful thing because. <br> <br> [3:25] When you think about it there's a lot of different ways to go in terms of the answer to this question so the nice thing about this topic is it's not going to be like here's your answer you know go and have a nice day it's more about. <br> The considerations that we're going to cover for companies thinking about when they should tell people about their Esau and the, the deeper part of it is is why, they're going to want to tell them that and that's going to generate what I think is a really important you know Foundation to this topic if we get if we drilled down into the foundation of what we're really talking about. <br> <br> [4:05] Which I'm going to just kind of at this point to say we're going to get down to one of the main motivations of doing any an ESOP an employee stock ownership plan, and that is to retain my key people to retain my people to motivate them to engage them in the process and the process of doing the work that they do, to support the value of the business the Enterprise value of the business and so, that's going to I think that's at the root of it all but as before we get to the to get there too before we drill down to that level I wanted to kind of just stop and say this, this is going to be I think an important topic for people to listen to if you like this podcast please subscribe to the podcast if you're on like Apple, just hit that like hey I want always get my podcast updates for the theesopguy. <br> If you have questions or you want to reach out please go to our website at journey to an ESOP.com. <br> If you are one of those people that want to like help your friend and they're you know they're thinking about an ESOP please send this to them and that might be helpful to them if you think it's if it's worth. <br> Doing that that would be an honor for us to be referred to somebody that you know that is thinking about doing an ESOP so. <br> <br> [5:22] Let's start off with the movie itself so the Watergate was obviously this historical actual thing that happened with the president of the United States, he covered up some major secrets, then he was found out the movie itself as I had said before is it I think it's just exciting I've honestly love obviously I love movies because I do a lot of movie. <br> Reviews in the sense of connecting them to esops. <br> I love historical movies I love movies that have like you're watching it and you're like man this is really happened like this is this is pretty exciting and now the cool thing about a movie as they can make it look much more maybe interesting I would imagine, that a lot of the work that these guys did and journalism was super boring and they're calling people and getting a lot of dead ends. <br> And so the movie you can just make you can make this like a very interesting process of finding out and in the end after a tons and tons of research in, interviews and things they finally find out and they were able to blow the whistle. <br> <br> [6:27] And expose like something just historically is almost unprecedented in terms of our history as a country right, so I think that's pretty exciting and so at the at the root of it all is like when, in this case if I think about like the parallel when did they want to announce it while they had to get all the facts together when they wanted to announce what they had and go public with it, they needed to make sure that they didn't do something that would be you know would be wrong or incorrect so. <br> <br> [7:01] I think some of the similar similar similar things are they exist with this idea that now I'm going to give you kind of the big picture with esops and talk a little bit about like the, the idea of when should I do what should I tell these people you know and let me give you the big picture of the process itself and then we'll get into the to the win and really again like I said at the front end of this I'm not going to answer it like yes you should always do it this way I would always answer this question with it really takes some conversation. <br> And it really is going to depend on lots of different considerations that today we're going to cover all I think a good host of those considerations. <br> <br> [7:40] I may leave something out and you might listen to this and say wow you what about that you didn't even talk about that and so that's okay because at least you're thinking about this stuff and that's my goal and I'm not going to be like always going to cover every single detail, perfectly but at the same time we have walked I have walked this out with a lot of different companies and a lot of different scenarios so all I'm going to do is give you my best ideas about this topic and then hopefully generate some conversation and discussion so. <br> <br> [8:15] Announcing something that's news I think the idea here in the parallel is that we want to make sure that we don't lose, confidence with the people that we are wanting to announce it to so this very similar like the Washington Post right they're not going to just go blow the horn on the president of the United States and they don't have their facts straight and I mean that would be, that would be just the opposite of what they want to accomplish which is building credibility. <br> Building confidence with their with their people that are following their publication so it's the same in our organizations in our businesses we want to announce things, very intentionally and we want to do that in a way that helps to kind of educate people now. <br> Let me give you the the hypothetical scenario that could happen and probably has happened in, actually I have actually experienced it so it's not just a hypothetical it's actually a real real situation well in this scenario. <br> Everybody's excited the owner when I think about everybody the usually the key people that we work with to put a transaction together includes the of course the selling shareholders the people that are willing to sell their stock. <br> <br> [9:34] In an ESOP transaction to the buyer who is the trust. <br> Which is represented by a trustee and they're usually going to include. <br> Possibly some key members of the company not always, for possibly like a in some cases there's a chief operating officer there might be a CFO involved there might be, you know different different levels of key people that are going to be involved in the process so now so the whole circle of hey who knows what's going on if we just circled that in the company there's going to be a host of a few people in that Circle along with, you know of course the confidentially me and maybe their accountant maybe their attorney maybe the. <br> You know maybe some other key advisors that will help that kind of help the company so. <br> Now what's the purpose of confidentiality at this point we're just really starting the whole process which, as we get into this overall process I want to kind of think about a little bit about some of the some of the Milestones that will hit that become good good opportunities for us to start talking about it so. <br> <br> [10:47] The main first part about it in confidence is we don't know exactly what we're going to do. <br> And when I when I first talked to a company about doing an ESOP I don't ever say this this is like Hey we're going to make you we're going to sell this company and it's going to be an ESOP what I always say to them, is that we're going to prove out the concept for an ESOP. <br> That fits within the goals and objectives you as selling shareholders have, clearly stated and if you haven't clearly stated them then my job is going to be to get you to clearly State your goals and objectives hey by the way if you haven't, and you're thinking about an ESOP then I just take a pic some minutes and time just to think through or even if over your lunch meeting with your your other shareholders talk about some of the goals and objectives that you do have, whether it's an ESOP or some type of other transaction and see where your landing and some clear goals and objectives related to say for instance, fair market value or the value of the business like what you're actually going to sell your stock for the the structure of that, transaction and that how am I going to actually get my money could be things that would be you know goals and objectives. <br> <br> [12:05] The one goal and objective that some people have on their minds that I'd say are in that in that category of being good ESOP candidate is have really care about what's going to happen in this company after I'm. <br> Paid off or my ownership stock is been as been paid you know to me by the company or by some other buyer. <br> So that's important hey what about has goals and objectives what do we think about the employees of the company right so so just as we digress a little bit there just think about that and you know one thing as, it is true about all these different types of scenarios I can't really tell you what your goals and objectives should be I mean in some cases I'll talk to people about, what their their retirement looks like you know and spending more time with their grandkids as part of the goals and objectives, package so it can be all kinds of different things but I think the more you articulate that is the better you are off and the second thing I'll say about that is the more shareholders you have. <br> <br> [13:09] This goals and objectives portion of the conversation becomes so much more complex. <br> Because it's sometimes very likely you know sometimes we have shareholders that are that are approximately the same age. <br> But many times we have shareholders that are definitely in different age groups and so the goals and objectives are going to really different differ because based on that so. <br> <br> [13:31] So keeping that in mind. <br> Again we're was we start out this conversation of when to roll out the information to people well if you don't even know what you're clear goals and objectives are then I would definitely not be thinking about talking to anybody about the ESOP, because it may be all your goals and objectives it may be that you're going to be a better, candidate to sell your company to a private Equity Group a third-party buyer a competitor, and the worst thing you can do is give somebody a sense for even now as we move into the key management disclosure. <br> Ascends hey we're gonna we're looking at an ESOP and then you then you go the different direction and sell it in a different way so. <br> <br> [14:17] When you do tell people the first thing that you got to be thinking about in this in the process is what is, forget your shareholder position and what your retirement is going to be for a second and all your goals and objectives you're going to have to put the other hat on which is thinking about what is it like for them what is in it for them and so if we the first layer of people that we think about is the is our key people and when I say key person I do mean key I mean somebody you really can't live without you know somebody that if they left the company, the company would have some some disruption in it maybe in a spectrum of disruption and maybe really significant or maybe really not that significant so so those key people you you want to be thinking about. <br> <br> [15:05] What how is it going how are they going to be perceiving this and really it's true for all the options that you have whether you do an ESOP are you do something else you want to understand what that's going to look like. <br> <br> [15:18] Many times when you do sell a company to a strategic. <br> Buyer some of the values wrapped up in having these key people function at those highest at those highest levels as companies get larger and they become more valuable what is always kind of true to me is, most of the time all we not always but most of the time true is that they didn't get their alone they were smart enough to hire people that were. <br> Maybe smarter than them and certain ways right they were smart enough to hire people and Surround themselves with talent and talent, it's going to translate to value and the value that we have in our company so so this is why this topic is such a big deal and it's very important, that you do it correctly and you don't tell people things too soon, so that your expectations that they might get from that might be something that you are not prepared to deliver so when I think about the ESOP process as I start thinking about, going into after I get through goals and objectives really we're going to go through the evaluation model that we create we're going to create a feasibility model. <br> We're going to do ESOP strategy where we kind of look at SARS and warrants and bolting on some some things that are very interesting to create the ESOP that works for you and your key people. <br> <br> [16:40] We're going to take all that information right up a deal memo, get to the trustee Marketplace in interview trustees that really will be a good fit select a trustee for the transaction and then select in that in that step five we're going to select, the buy-side group which is going to be the trustee the valuation firm in the trustees attorney including having our cell sidepiece figure it out with. <br> The work that I do plus then an ESOP attorney and then again the advisors that I referenced earlier so as we work through that process there's going to be a very natural place to get the key managers involved. <br> Then as we move into the next steps after we've hired the buy-side team. <br> In steps 6 and 7 we're going to really go through due diligence have a site visit review with the trustee in the valuation firm typically at the company's site what's going on in the company who are they what's the story of the business. <br> <br> [17:41] Now and I'll get into this a little bit deeper but, there's you can kind of see there's certain pockets of what I've just talked about so far that it would be certainly ideal to have my key managers a part of, it would be ideal to help explain at the front end as you as you start the process that hey this is what we're going to be doing. <br> Are you know and let them know how the thus our plan might work in their management incentive plan for instance, and so really that might be a good spot to get them engaged and present information to them, now you don't necessary have to present all the all the parts and pieces I mean you may end up presenting, what we estimate the sell it for from the valuation model or you may just restrict that to hey this is what I want you to know I want you to know that you're part of this team I want you to be part of the. <br> <br> [18:31] I want you to be part of the presentation we make to the trustee when we get to the site visit in Step 6 there might be some questions and step seven for due diligence all of that is going to come into play now, as we move through the rest of the the transaction we're going to basically negotiate the transaction in Step 8. <br> And then in steps 9 we're going to create the plan design with the ESOP attorney so that's going to include the ESOP plan document the summary plan description and then the trust document. <br> And then what we're going to roll the whole thing together in Bank financing and all their documents in the steps 10 we're going to pull together the closing. <br> Now everything that's happened I just talked about in this process. <br> Is happening very succinctly and compartmental E to build from one step onto another and there's as I mentioned that whole process it's a good thing for us to be thinking about, to answer this question. <br> Because it's going to come back to the considerations that we need to think about for us to make that decision for your, specific situation and for your specific culture and clients are not clients culture and employees because. <br> Let me let me kind of stop and maybe explain the question a little bit deeper what we're really talking about. <br> <br> [19:53] Is is getting the what I would call the rank-and-file so this is your total population of employees. <br> In the know on this is what we're doing now. <br> There might be a variance here that I think is important to talk about a difference between we sold a hundred percent of the company stock versus we sold a. <br> Portion of the company stock. <br> <br> [20:17] Now I say that it in a sense where an employee owned so it does does it matter that we're employee-owned at thirty percent of the original stock that we had in the company now 30% is in the trust and going to be released to the employees does it matter. <br> That versus 100% in software all the stocks in there and in a way it I think it matters a little bit in that you want you want to be. <br> Sensitive to when people start when you start talking about your to your rank and file about esops. <br> There is going to be a very wide differing gray of people that may know some things may know some things about esops. <br> <br> [20:59] And then there's going to be people that know absolutely nothing about esops, okay so that's the first part you're going to have people in that whole group than employee group that met nope some positive things about Aesop's and may know some negative things about he's out. <br> Now maybe for instance hypothetically your some employees came to your company they were at an employee-owned company before and they got burned for some reason. <br> For whatever reason they got burned I mean they may not even that it may not even be true they did maybe they thought they got burned either way they are coming in with a negative. <br> Viewpoint of that they all have been there now they're kind of spreading that and do the into the employee groups. <br> <br> [21:41] So you see how Dynamic this can be and difficult to make sure that it's messaged correctly and I think that's the first consideration is how are you going to message this. <br> In such a positive way. <br> That really leverages the ESOP concept to be what it really is intended to be so if we go back to our original goals and objectives for selling shareholders. <br> The original things are like hey I really want my people. <br> To the why behind I think about the why what we do things right the why behind I want wanting to do an ESOP is I don't want to just retain my people. <br> <br> [22:26] I want I don't want to just have hey I just want you to sit here forever because you want to be at this company because your employee-owned I where I truly want to motivate them, and I want to move and pass motivation and I'm really want to engage them, into this concept that there have been all kinds of things written about ownership thinking you know books that are written articles are written about the concept of ownership thinking is I really want them to to think like an owner. <br> <br> [22:53] You know and so that that is a big part of the Y and so when we think about the. <br> The consideration of how we message it it's very important that were our messaging is not done haphazardly. <br> <br> [23:11] Now going back to my ESOP process when you think about like when should I talk to the rank-and-file about this topic right so so there might be points depending on your specific culture which is the second consideration, so the first is how we message it the second is going to be my own my own company's culture. <br> And there might be situations where the way that you have dealt with your company culture. <br> Has a lot more of what we call an open book management philosophy to Running Company versus what versus a closed management system. <br> Now. <br> <br> [23:49] To talk a little bit about open-book management there are degrees of this and you might have heard of like the program called great game of business. <br> And great game of business really shares me everything financial information there is a weekly huddle so these kind of companies these kind of cultures they're talking about all kinds of things in the people are very much a part of, really all the main initiatives that are happening on a real-time very ongoing weekly basis so it's these kind of companies. <br> Probably are going to have a lot more ability to be able to disperse, in message things quickly because they've already gotten to this habit, I've been able to put together things in help everybody see things so you know fairly quickly they're used to that by the way I mean there you kind of used to we're going to we're going to do this this is what we're going to go with. <br> They may not be as it may not be as difficult as going in and telling people we're going to do something and then then that gets modified so if you think about the ten-step process that we talked about. <br> <br> [24:56] What I'm always concerned about as a consideration that is not just how we message it it's just our culture is is that what is it the actual deal going to look like when it's all said and done. <br> <br> [25:09] And so as you do open this topic with people. <br> You got to know that the just like you would probably be the same boat they're going to have questions they're going to want to know all what is this mean for me. <br> And as we as we go through the ESOP process that we talked about it could be that we modified things in there. <br> That could either affect them or not affect them you know and things like you know the way that we've structured the inside note which is how we release the shares to the employees. <br> And so how one question might be how much if they do know something about Aesop's we might ask the question how what is our allocation on an annual basis what is our vesting schedule look like. <br> When would we be vested how much are these shares going to be worth or how much this year's are they worth now so. <br> <br> [26:06] Those are just kind of basic questions kicking a kid just jumping into what they might be having on their minds once they get past this first layer of. <br> Of you know I said there's people that really probably don't understand Aesop's at all. <br> And then there's people that probably understand them there is also people that have a negative experience maybe there's people that have a positive experience and then you have a lot of people maybe in the middle of that from a bell curve standpoint. <br> But the point is is that. <br> Hugh you want to basically be able to provide very solid and consistent information once you do announce this to your employees. <br> Okay and so if you don't do that that consideration I have that you have to think about is is you risk root you risk losing confidence. <br> And credibility within the leadership group. <br> <br> [27:00] And I'd say that's the one thing I'm very weary of when I when people ask me you know when should we do this and. <br> So clearly if I go back to the process you know again I'm not giving you anything that you know. <br> <br> [27:18] At the very beginning the process we still don't know and the goals and objectives in the valuation model we still don't know because we haven't structured a lot of things within the way, the financing is going to work is that feasible does 409 P work does, you know what's our 25 percent payroll limitation so these are all things that are just building blocks to do the plan so those first very first two steps of the 10-step process I'd say just. <br> Generally speaking that would not be a good idea to let the rank-and-file know at that point, because you really don't even know if it's going to work for you as a selling shareholder and then if you get to the next layer we also then want to make sure it works for the key people so that's where it steps 3 4 and 5 come, because now we've vetted out like yeah the key people get it we're ready for our presentation now I have like not just the selling shareholders on board. <br> <br> [28:10] I have some of my real key people and I'm and I'm doing one thing in the ESOP process not just proving it out one thing I'm doing in these are processes I'm building consensus. <br> In the in the rank and the in the leadership group starting with the shareholders in into that leadership group, because once we do in likes Envision this this meeting for a second when we actually do announce this whole rollout or this whole ESOP to our employees once we do that. <br> <br> [28:40] We want that to be wow you know the managers are the key people the shareholders of this company have come to a decision. <br> <br> [28:50] We want that to be a very solid unanimous we want their consensus we want the people that look up to the management to say wow this is really exciting and they see that the confidence, and the consistency of the messaging itself out of the mouths of the people that they've been following after all these years. <br> <br> [29:14] So that's that's an important part of the whole things that I think we want to definitely consider and that's why I'm using this process to kind of deal with that now. <br> <br> [29:24] We again we're going to come back over some of these considerations and just making sure that we think about this so culture self, as we move out of the house open book versus closed book management styles then you have other things culture of things to consider right so. <br> Is it your culture, to in how you communicate are you guys having just say meet like staff meeting is very employee meetings and these picnics and how and how do you guys normally, work out like new announcements to your people I think that's a consideration because you do have this opportunity, to when you do announce it which I'll get into as we go through the wheel may be the most appropriate time to do that. <br> Planning that meeting can be just a super exciting opportunity and when I think about not just when I also think about the how. <br> <br> [30:25] I think while the. <br> If you think about this is you know if I had to choose of course from virtual meetings to in-person meetings. <br> Would be kind of silly to choose any kind of virtual meeting over an in-person meeting if I had that choice so if my company has. <br> A bunch of different locations and it's just impossible. <br> Do you have like a an all hands employee meeting then then the next best thing in the how when we think about the cultural part of it is going to be to do a. <br> A Roadshow, which is going up to the offices and having the key people do that now the problem with that is sale I have say I have a company that has five different offices all over the place. <br> As soon as you do the first one everybody's going to start talking and then it's going to start getting out pretty quickly so you have to plan that pretty concisely so that it's not just. <br> You know. <br> <br> [31:24] It could be that you do a big announcement virtually and then you go each office and you have a big roll out party and meeting where you're going to explain everything and so so there's a lot of ways to do the how and those things that will, we'll come in other episodes because I do think that that would be a really interesting topic but this is going to focus primarily on the Wind, so right now as I've explained I think what my opinion is that the win as we get closer and closer we're going to to the closing time we're going to get closer and closer to what I would say is the best possible time now, it's easy to say let's just wrap up the whole thing right at the end of the closing and do your rollout meeting do the, after the closing now I've had clients. <br> You know get so excited about doing the ESOP that they just couldn't wait and partly there was that there was some things happening in the company that I think we're particular and these are going to be the other considerations right. <br> <br> [32:27] Let's just say we have a hypothetical company that, has it has been proactively no not proactively but has been procrastinating Lee dealing with this this potential issue of, ownership transition and let me let me digress for a second when I say ownership transition because I want to delineate between the ownership transition and the management transition because they're they're overlapping and a lot of cases but there are definitely different types of things and so in the hypothetical that I'm getting into. <br> Is that where you have a company who has procrastinated at both of those things and people and you can see it in the key people like they're weary. <br> <br> [33:12] And they need somebody to make a decision on what is going to happen the owners are getting older. <br> There's been no conversation about it it actually has become a cultural - because it's been avoided. <br> And now in that hypothetical one of the things that people are really wanting to do as soon as they possibly can is they want to give the good news. <br> To their employees because they want to establish the confidence and keep these people. <br> And I'd say the last two years this has been really a bigger bigger issue because people have definitely moved a lot more since covid-19, they've moved their job a lot more so there's a lot more, virtual opportunities there's a lot more opportunities to work obviously remotely the demand for people plus this this cultural shift to the of the great resignation all of those have, I have created an anxiety when it comes to leadership communicating to the people and wanting to kind of give them some good news he just don't go anywhere yet we've got this big thing planned. <br> All right so. <br> So let's just say we get through the site visit everything looks good and we're in the middle of negotiations and we kind of know in the middle of negotiations that we've got a pretty good deal. <br> <br> [34:29] I'm pretty confident that that wouldn't be a bad thing to start right out of that start planning this next phase of how you're going to win you're going to announce it and how you're going to announce it and even if you announced it. <br> Before the actual paper closing I still think that you're going to be you're going to be fine. <br> And so the main thing is if you announce it before negotiations and something comes up to to shock you or surprise you, in the negotiation then you may be like oh man that was bad and we're not doing the deal, something happened now in the documentation phase there are some things that could come up that could blow up the deal and being aware of those is always see pretty helpful, if you've done all your work correctly and you've selected the right ESOP team I would say it's the probability of that happening is is pretty low, but if you haven't and there are people in there you know that were, thinking one thing I may be the trustee side or I would say most of this probably would occur in the banking side if the deal was supposed to be financed, and the bank didn't really know what they were doing and they got into it and then they get into the to the documentation so there could be some probable. <br> <br> [35:46] Realistic things that could come up in and mess up the deal and that negotiation are not the post negotiation phase when the documents are being created, in in in some ways when we talk about this we're talking about negotiating the documents which is, and we want to word legally put the right wording in the documentation to establish certain attorney. <br> Confidence is so the legal people get the attorneys get involved and that could really bring in some some. <br> Issues or potential issue so it if at all possible. <br> I guess the best win would be when all your documents are completed and you know it's just a matter of now signing. <br> <br> [36:28] But so I do want it I want to point out though that there are there are companies that have absolutely successfully announce, the ESOP to their people before the closing and everything kind of went you know, like clockwork so I'd say that that's not bad but if you're really concerned about it I would definitely push it to the till after the closing if you can hold off. <br> <br> [36:51] Part of the question in this is going to be answered this the other other side of this is like hey how long does it take you know. <br> Because that could be a consideration of when and if you're putting a deal together for the most part there are definitely some specific. <br> Tax issues that you have to be concerned about but for the most part that's it's about a six-month process from the time you start to the time you close so keep that in mind about maybe Factor going backwards and say we really want to have like, fall announcement before we start 2024 we want to have this fall announcement we're starting right now then I think that's pretty reasonable and realistic. <br> <br> [37:30] So getting into the messaging and the considerations beyond that I think the other part of this is is having the not just the the initial rollout meeting figured out but not just when I should roll this out to my employees and announce it. <br> <br> [37:45] My other part of this it which I think is going to segue us into some some really interesting stuff is as I as I started talking about the how to I think you need to have a deeper game plan than just that first meeting. <br> Because if you truly want to pull the trigger on an ESOP and fully leverage the the the awesomeness of an ESOP, from an engagement standpoint then you're going to have a game plan that you know our game plan on this podcast is really mostly about creating this phenomenal game plan for pulling a transaction off, at the best cost effective process the best ESOP professionals the best structure that gets you what you really want, make sure the company is sustainable all that is part of our game plan but there's another game plan for post ESOP that this is alluding to and I want to encourage you to be thinking about that, as part of the this topic Peak and then as you know we want to get deeper into that I think that's such an exciting thing to think about and talk about, and so I've got some ideas to do that and season for so be looking for that next topic I want to say thank you so much for listening today too. <br> What I really love to talk about which is Aesop's in general but just this idea behind getting our employees involved and engaged I think it's it's. <br> <br> [39:08] One of the reasons I love Aesop's and it's hopefully it's one of the reasons if you're thinking about doing an ESOP it's one of the reasons you wanting to do an ESOP for your people. <br> <br> [39:17] So with all of that I want to say again thank you check out our website at journey to an ESOP.com share this with a friend if you think it might help them have a wonderful day a wonderful week what you're doing and we will see you on our next step on this journey to an ESOP. </p>
About Journey to an ESOP & Beyond
ESOPs are gaining traction. In the "Journey to an ESOP & Beyond” podcast, Phillip Hayes explains the process of the ESOP transaction and addresses ESOPs from a business owner’s perspective. The "ESOP Guy" illuminates the simplicity of ESOPs as he debunks common misconceptions that ESOPs are immensely costly and complicated.
People who have contributed edits to this page.