Every business owner has a legacy. Not every owner has a map.
Nancy Forster-Holt, Ph.D. calls them “ENDrepreneurs” — the owners approaching the end of one chapter needing a plan for what’s next. It’s a quiet crisis: thousands of Rhode Island business owners are nearing retirement with no successor, no valuation, and often no idea what their options are. Local Legacies exists to close that gap — not just the succession gap, but the readiness gap underneath it. At a time of rampant consolidation and private equity buy-outs, our goal is to preserve local ownership.
Local Legacies was built by Local Return and ENDrepreneur in partnership with Polaris MEP, Rhode Island’s manufacturing extension partnership.
Companies who participate in the program receive:
No cost, no obligation, complete confidentiality. Five Rhode Island manufacturers tried it in a pilot this summer — every one of them said they’d recommend it to a peer. If you’d like to try it, send an email to josh@localreturn.org
Local Legacies was co-designed by Josh Daly, Co-Founder of Local Return and a Business Certified Appraiser who spent years advising 600+ small business owners at the RI Small Business Development Center, and Nancy Forster-Holt, Ph.D., a URI College of Business professor and Registered Financial Gerontologist, who spent 23 years running her family’s 168-year-old manufacturing company through its own succession.
Local Legacies is delivered in close partnership with Polaris MEP, Rhode Island’s manufacturing extension partnership.
