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

Millions of small business owners across the country are nearing retirement age, most do not know what to do with their business, and they don’t know who to turn to for help. Lack of awareness about the exit planning process and options too often leads to unnecessary liquidation and closure.
 
Your response to this survey will help business service providers, civic leaders and policy makers better understand the scope and scale of the challenge and its potential impact on our economy.

This will take less than 5 minutes to complete. All individual survey responses will be confidential. Only the aggregated, anonymous data will be available publicly.
 
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. Which City/Town is the business located in? NOTE: Town or city the business is located in will be kept confidential and will not be identifiable in published survey results.  

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* 6. Number of employees? (Historically/On Average)

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* 7. What Sector is the business in?

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

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* 9. How has the current economic and public health crisis impacted your business?

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* 10. Did your business:

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* 11. If you DID take a PPP loan and/or an EIDL loan, how helpful was it in stabilizing your business?

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* 12. Average wage of non-managerial employees (minimum hourly wage is $12/hour):

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

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

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

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* 16. How many employees are long term:

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

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* 18. If "yes" to Q16, what is required:

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

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

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

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

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* 23. 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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* 24. 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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