Alternative Exit

About Alternative Exit

Alternative Exit is a dedicated to educating small business owners about the possibilities, benefits, and challenges of transitioning to an employee ownership model. There are over 200m SMEs with an owner who will be retiring in the next 10 years, many of which will never find a buyer for their business, forcing them to close their doors. There is an alternative. This show will explore various the different forms of employee ownership and best practices for successful transitions. Each episode features interviews with experts in employee ownership, business owners who have made the transition, and consultants who facilitate these changes.

Publisher

Andy

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Dec 2024

Latest episode

15 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

72 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Oct 2026

   Alternative Exit #71 | The Jerry Maguire Letter That Started an EOT with Aaron Schroeder

   In 2022, Aaron Schroeder sat down after work and wrote what he calls his “Jerry Maguire letter” to his team. In it he committed to moving Brightspot Climate, the climate consultancy he founded in 2015, to employee ownership once the right structure existed. Canada’s Employee Ownership Trust legislation arrived in 2024, and in April 2025 Brightspot became one of the first companies in the country to use it. Aaron explains how the team built financial literacy ahead of the transition, why the transition year carries an asterisk in the company’s books, and why every bank asked him for a personal guarantee. He also shares how owner thinking is starting to show up across the 40 person team. Chapters 00:53 Welcome: one of Canada’s first EOTs 01:46 From burnout to founding Brightspot Climate 03:13 Sharing the wealth: project level profit sharing 03:38 The “Jerry Maguire letter” 05:22 Planning before the legislation existed 06:36 Preparing the team: open books and financial literacy 07:39 “How much is this going to cost me?” 09:29 The asterisk year: the cost of non billable time 11:13 Life as an employee owned company 13:17 Brightspot Labs: two and a half hours a week in the sandbox 15:38 Financing: no assets, and a personal guarantee 17:45 Why not sell to a big firm? 19:24 Bank loan plus deferred consideration 20:25 Financial Freedom Day: five to seven years 21:08 Fast round Key takeaways ✅ Start on financing early. Banks lending against an asset light services firm asked for a personal guarantee from the seller. 💡 Plan for an “asterisk year”. The transition brought heavy non billable time plus legal and accounting fees. ✅ Open the books well before the deal. Brightspot shared its balance sheet and income statement regularly from 2022. 🌟 Expect to repeat yourself. People come along at different paces, and “zero money down” takes time to believe. 🎧 Owner thinking grows after the transition. Staff questions have shifted from “will my bonus change?” to the company’s five year finances. 💡 Protected time builds ideas. Brightspot Labs has already produced new processes and business lines. Notable quotes“Right up until April 1st, 2025, people were like, how much is this going to cost me?”“I’ve been through enough mergers in consulting firms, or watched them, to know that you never really get the full value that you’re promised at the beginning.”“The questions have gone to the next level.”Links Aaron Schroeder: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronlschroeder/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronlschroeder/) Brightspot Climate: https://brightspot.co (https://brightspot.co) Brightspot’s EOT announcement: https://brightspot.co/library/brightspot-climates-next-chapter-begins-with-employee-ownership/ (https://brightspot.co/library/brightspot-climates-next-chapter-begins-with-employee-ownership/) Employee Ownership Canada: https://www.employee-ownership.ca (https://www.employee-ownership.ca) Employee Ownership Canada Conference 2026, Vancouver, 20 to 22 October: https://www.employee-ownership.ca/conference/ (https://www.employee-ownership.ca/conference/) Andy Farquharson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/) a better monday: https://abettermonday.me (https://abettermonday.me)

2. 

   8 Oct 2026

   Alternative Exit #70 | Eleven Years to an Overnight Success | Andreas Jørgensen, Demokratisk Erhverv

   Two years ago Denmark had almost no employee-owned companies. Since then it has passed employee ownership legislation (in force 1 January 2026), launched Center for Medarbejdereje, a national centre for employee ownership, and completed the largest study yet comparing UK Employee Ownership Trusts with management buyouts. Andreas explains how the Danish model differs from the UK EOT, with direct ownership through an employee association and tax that is paid back from surplus over time. He shares the study’s headline numbers, why Denmark’s unions moved from sceptical to supportive, and what other countries can learn from a decade of groundwork. Chapters 00:54 Welcome back: a year of momentum 02:03 The first companies using the new law 04:47 A perfect storm: politics, unions and 40,000 businesses 05:51 Why the unions came on board 11:17 The Danish model vs the UK EOT 13:03 Tax: level treatment, paid back from surplus 16:25 Gifting a company to employees 17:24 The largest EOT vs MBO study 23:10 The most surprising finding 29:37 Scaling: pioneers, advisors, policy 34:16 Lessons for other countries 37:59 Fast round Key takeaways ✅ In a study of 218 UK EOTs against 330 comparable management buyouts, EOTs showed productivity about 5 percentage points higher and revenue growth 8% higher. 💡 Payroll per employee was £6,300 higher in EOTs, with investment and EBITDA margins on par with MBOs. 🌟 The Danish model gives employees direct, democratic ownership through an association, not a trust. ✅ The seller’s tax moves to the employee vehicle, which repays it from surplus, so a weak year does not trigger a tax bill. 🎧 In highly unionised countries, bring the unions in early. Denmark started those conversations ten years ago. Notable quotes“If the unions don’t want this to happen, it’s not gonna happen in a lot of European countries.”“It seems that they were actually, as we say in Denmark, hitting several flies with one stroke.”“It may not always be the easiest way, but it’s the most purposeful way.”Links Andreas Pinstrup Jørgensen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreas-pinstrup-jørgensen-021ba3a8/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreas-pinstrup-j%C3%B8rgensen-021ba3a8/) Tænketanken Demokratisk Erhverv: https://demokratiskerhverv.dk (https://demokratiskerhverv.dk) Center for Medarbejdereje: https://medarbejdereje.dk (https://medarbejdereje.dk) Medejer, Andreas’s book: https://www.gyldendal.dk/produkter/andreas-pinstrup-jørgensen/medejer-46926/hæftet-9788702254112 (https://www.gyldendal.dk/produkter/andreas-pinstrup-j%C3%B8rgensen/medejer-46926/h%C3%A6ftet-9788702254112) The Citizen’s Share, by Joseph Blasi, Richard Freeman and Douglas Kruse Andy Farquharson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/) a better monday: https://abettermonday.me (https://abettermonday.me)

3. 

   24 Sept 2026

   Alternative Exit #69 | The Finish Line She Didn't Want to Cross | Shannon Litton, 3LS

   About the episode: Shannon co-founded 5by5, a Nashville marketing agency that made the Inc. 5000 list in five of its first seven eligible years. As private equity and trade buyers came calling, she realised selling would mean walking in the next day and saying goodbye to the team that built it. Then a new client told her over lunch that his employees owned the company. Shannon walks Andy through years of research, winning over a sceptical boomer partner, and starting with a 30% ESOP because a bigger loan felt too risky. She explains why she brought 12 leaders into the plan a year early, how 55 people heard the news at Disney World, and why companies need a steady cadence of inspiration and information. Then a conversation with her mentor, 3LS CEO Eric Strickland, made 5by5 100% employee owned within weeks. Today Shannon leads 3LS Professional Services, part of an employee-owned group of about 1,500 people, and argues the movement should count employee owners, not ESOPs. Guest: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slitton/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/slitton/) 🔗 3LS: https://3ls.com (https://3ls.com) 🔗 5by5: https://5by5agency.com (https://5by5agency.com) 🔗 Tennessee Center for Employee Ownership: https://www.tnceo.org (https://www.tnceo.org) About The Alternative Exit: A podcast exploring employee ownership as a succession planning strategy, hosted by Andy Farquharson of a better monday. Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfarquharson/) Learn more: https://abettermonday.me (https://abettermonday.me) Links and resources Alternative Exit #42 with Eric Strickland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNLYhuPNAio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNLYhuPNAio) NCEO: https://www.nceo.org (https://www.nceo.org) Journey to an ESOP podcast (The ESOP Guy): https://journeytoanesop.buzzsprout.com (https://journeytoanesop.buzzsprout.com) The ESOP Association: https://www.esop.org (https://www.esop.org) Book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni #EmployeeOwnership #ESOP #SuccessionPlanning #BusinessExit #AgencyLife #OwnershipCulture #SilverTsunami #Leadership #EmployeeOwned

Who has been a guest on Alternative Exit

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Geoffrey Easterling
• Andreas Jørgensen
• Jonathan Winchester
• Andrew Lane
• Dr Shelley Poole

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 47 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

63

Social presence

91

YouTube

0

Engagement

32