‘Creative way to make a point’: Alberta premier defends using slap meme of actor

EVEN before the COVID-19 pandemic, another threat to business continuity was looming — the “silver tsunami.” Canada’s 1.2 million small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) community has been bracing for the departure of nearly three-quarters of its owners, who plan to retire within the next decade.

Often, the intent is for owners to transfer the company to relatives or sell to a third-party purchaser. The reality is that either way, many entrepreneurs have yet to draft a formal succession plan or are unable to execute it due to various factors, heightened by the COVID-19 reality.

There’s a lesser-known, but proven, third option that rarely gets the attention it deserves.

SMEs could also consider selling the business to employees or community stakeholders who have formed co-operatives. Such transitions, known as Business Conversions to Co-operatives (BCC), are a tried-and-true solution for rescuing businesses or for succession planning in numerous jurisdictions around the world.

Imagine your daughter says her first word later than her friends do. You wait, hoping she will catch up. By age three, she still is not putting words together the way other kids her age are. Your doctor refers you to a speech-language pathologist. You expect a call within a few weeks.

Instead, you wait. Six months. A year. Two years.

By the time your daughter is finally seen, she is heading into kindergarten. She still struggles to tell her teacher she needs the bathroom. She still cannot explain when something hurts. She still cannot join in the games her classmates play, because those games need more words than she has.

As a parent, your anxiety grows, the frustration leading to sleepless nights worrying about how your child’s life will be impacted by this lack of support. The rest of your family and circle of friends is deeply affected by this potential crisis, they can see you struggling, you feel the stain of stigma attaching itself to your precious daughter. Where can you turn to help your child?