{"id":540,"date":"2010-08-30T10:50:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-30T10:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=540"},"modified":"2014-08-27T07:46:28","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T12:46:28","slug":"cooperatives-as-alternative-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2010\/08\/cooperatives-as-alternative-business.html","title":{"rendered":"Cooperatives as an alternative business model"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave Holm, executive director, Iowa Institute for Cooperatives<\/a> led a\u00a0round table discussion at the Midwest Rural Assembly<\/a>. Since 2012 is\u00a0the International Year of the Cooperative, this is an opportune time\u00a0to share that discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Ames<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Farmers’ Cooperative
Ames, Oklahoma<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

A cooperative is no different than any other business in this respect:\u00a0you have to follow the same business principles. You make decisions\u00a0differently and distribute profits differently, Holm said.<\/p>\n

First steps are to write the business plan and make sure it would work\u00a0as a business. Then think about the form of the business, Holm said.\u00a0You need a champion; someone from within the community.<\/p>\n

Holm said he sees a huge opportunity to use cooperatives in\u00a0transitioning businesses: to help an owner retire with the capital,\u00a0and the employees keep their jobs. This is a common issue with small town businesses.<\/p>\n

Minnesota has a hybrid cooperative form, combining an LLC with a\u00a0cooperative. It can have community ownership, but with outside capital\u00a0investment. The patrons can decide how much ownership to surrender for\u00a0the investment, and also determine the payout and investment return on\u00a0liquidation.<\/p>\n

Get an attorney who already understands cooperatives, Holm advised.\u00a0Otherwise they don’t understand it, and they don’t want to learn.<\/p>\n

Make sure your board listens to management, especially with ag\u00a0producer cooperatives, several of the discussion participants said.\u00a0Farmers aren’t marketers. All-farmer boards or mostly farmer boards\u00a0are a failure factor. They will vote to suck out their equity and kill\u00a0it, one participant said. Do the leadership development needed to help the board succeed.<\/p>\n

Another participant told how Canada is using cooperatives to maintain\u00a0school buildings, after the school is closed. Because the school\u00a0building is a center of the community, they are using this method to\u00a0keep it open as a community center. They get the youth involved in the\u00a0management of it.<\/p>\n

Learn more at the National Cooperative Business Association<\/a>\u00a0and the International Cooperative Alliance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour<\/a>. Like what you see? Get our updates<\/a>. <\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave Holm, executive director, Iowa Institute for Cooperatives led a\u00a0round table discussion at the Midwest Rural Assembly. Since 2012 is\u00a0the International Year of the Cooperative, this is an opportune time\u00a0to share that discussion. The Farmers’ CooperativeAmes, Oklahoma A cooperative is no different than any other business in this respect:\u00a0you have to follow the same business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7371,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions\/7371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}