Make ownership transition part of your business retention strategy.

An owner’s retirement can put a valued local business at risk long before a closure becomes visible. Economic developers can help by recognizing succession signals, opening productive conversations, and connecting owners with the right expertise. In this applied learning lab, Holly Burrow equips you to build succession awareness into your existing business engagement work. Explore local ownership pathways and practice the sensitive conversations that can help businesses plan for continuity.

Inside the learning lab

Screen sample business profiles for succession risk, practice owner conversations in coached pairs, and use a worksheet to compare ownership pathways. Begin mapping the brokers, technical assistance providers, lenders, and legal or financial specialists your community needs.

What you will gain

• Identify and prioritize businesses that may face succession risk.
• Initiate ownership-transition conversations using a structured discovery guide.
• Evaluate the fit of employee ownership, trusts, cooperatives, and local buyer networks for different business situations.
• Build a partner network and embed succession awareness into business retention and expansion work.

What you will take back

A succession-risk screening rubric, discovery conversation guide, pathway-matching worksheet, and partner-mapping template with an outreach plan.

Who should join:

Business retention and expansion practitioners, small-business support teams, and economic developers focused on local ownership and continuity.

Bring your business retention perspective and build a practical approach to succession outreach.

Registration (Opens December 2026)

Professional Development Credits

Attendance and participation during all sessions of the training course is required by a registrant to obtain the following credits. 

• Certified Economic Developer (CEcD)
  • Exam = Core Requirement
  • Recertification = (3) Level-1 Points
    
    
• Entrepreneurship Development Professional (EDP)
  • Exam = Elective Requirement
  • Recertification = (3) Level-1 Points

Note: IEDC will send a registrant an electronic certificate of completion after the course for their records.

Questions

If you have any questions, please email [email protected] or call (202) 223-7800.

Policies

Please read the following policies carefully prior to registering for the training course.

Materials

The materials provided by IEDC are intended for use only by the registrant of the training course. A registrant should not share the training course materials with anyone else.

A registrant found in violation of this policy will be removed from the training course immediately and will not receive a refund for it.

Payment

A registrant will not receive the materials for the training course until IEDC receives the full amount owed for their registration.

Substitution

A registrant is not allowed to substitute a colleague in their place for any IEDC training course.

Cancellation

Please review our cancellation policy here.

No Show

A registrant is considered a “No Show” if they fail to send a cancellation email and/or do not attend the training course. A “No Show” registrant will forfeit any monies paid to IEDC for the training course.