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News & events

• Stimulus for family businesses?
• Home Brewed - Otter Creek
• 2007 Mass Mutual American Family Business Survey
• Jamieson Insurance has deep roots
• Taxed to Death?
• The End of a 1,400-Year-Old Business
• Northfield Savings Bank branches out

Our mission

The Vermont Family Business Initiative is a statewide organization led by the University of Vermont's School of Business Administration.

Goal

Our goal is to give Vermont businesses the tools and support they need to compete in both the local and global arenas. We are supported by members and contributing partners who strive to work through the issues of leadership, communication, and complex legal and financial challenges to business transition and succession.

Through a series of forums that provide interactive learning, the free exchange of ideas, and the opportunity to share challenges and solutions to business issues, we are committed to assisting both family businesses and closely held businesses as they evolve and strive to grow to their full potential. The Vermont Family Business Initiative has been assisting family owned and closely held businesses since 1996.

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Vermont Family Business Initiative Forums:

• Ideas Are Free, Innovation Means Survival, Implementation is Required
  Thursday, February 21, 2008
• Owning Your Future: The 8 Biggest Challenges for the Next Generation
  Friday, March 28, 2008
• Legacy, Liquidity and Letting Go: Strategies for Family Transitions and Financial Success
  Thursday, May 15, 2008

Register for these forums here.

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What do these leaders and businesses all have in common?

• Carl Beauregard, Beauregard Equipment - 2007 US Small Business Administration Vermont Family Business of the Year
• John Wall, Wall-Goldfinger, - 2006 US Small Business Administration Vermont Small Business Person of the Year
• Alison Hooper, Vermont Butter and Cheese, 2006 Central Vermont Small Business of the Year
• Mike Gervais, Prime Construction, 2006 5 X 5 X 5 Vermont Growth Business Award
• Todd Goulette, Reynolds and Son, 2005 Vermont Centennial Business honoree
• Gregg Haskin, Waitsfield Champlain Valley Telecom - 2000 Deane C. Davis Outstanding Vermont Business
• Dave Brown, Vermont Heating and Ventilating - 1995 Deane C. Davis Outstanding Vermont Business

All are members of Vermont Family Business Initiative Affinity group. Click here to find out more.

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Why consider the involvement in the Vermont Family Business Initiative:

“I have found a wealth of knowledge and information exists within our CEO group. I have also found that even though our businesses vary in type and differ in the services we provide, we all share very similar problems, especially at the management levels.

It has been so helpful to be able to bounce problems off of the group seeking their advice on critical issues knowing that we all share a common goal to help one another... it is sort of like being a member of a family that really gets along well together, while looking out for each others best interest.”

Ron York, Bates and Murray.

“Our membership in the Vermont Family Business Initiative reminds us to take time for life planning as well as business planning. We always come away from the seminars thinking in a new way about old problems. The seminars are thought-provoking, with the right mix of time for mingling with other family business owners. Family businesses are the backbone of our communities, and The Vermont Family Business Initiative is the one place owners can go where the unique pressures and opportunities of family business are expressed.”

Lauren LaMorte, Trow and Holden

Last modified February 28 2008 03:23 PM