As a business owner, you have spent many years and significant dollars in building your business, and you are proud of your accomplishments. As time moves on, you have started to think about retirement or stepping down to hand the business to someone else. This may be especially true if there are no family members that are likely to eventually take over the business for you.

You may not be ready to leave the business yet, or you plan to work for another 10 or 15 years. However, it is not too soon to being planning for the successful continued operation of the business. You want to ensure that the business you have built will continue to work and move forward, and so it is important for you as the business owner to give some thought to succession planning.

One option for the succession of your business is to sell it to a co-operative, made up of the employees, customers or suppliers of the business.

This guide has been designed to help you make the right decision, and it illustrates the potential of the various co-operative formulas for ensuring a successful transfer of your business. It presents the key issues and challenges that you will face when the time is right. In 10 steps, it explains the strategy for carrying out a successful transfer of your business to a co-operative.