The employee stock ownership program is just one of several possible key rings or key chains. Enormous energies can be unleased when someone can say, `Oh, yes, I'm an owner of the business.'

First, it transforms a business from an employee's 9-to-5 mind-set to an owner's mind-set. It just might be what you need to catapult your business to the next level. But it requires the discipline of an ongoing business valuation and a general understanding of equity strategies.

An ESOP program is just one of several possible ways for the business owner to gain some liquidity and even to consider possible exit strategies. As you begin to explore the options, you'll develop your own unique ownership culture.

Sharing equity in your business will be a mental obstacle that will keep many of us from entertaining the idea of developing an equity compensation plan.

You had the courage to start a business, now you need the courage to face the facts and plan for your business to live longer than you do. The founder of Hot Dog on a Stick had a long happy life. By putting an ESOP in place, Dave Barham's company keeps making customers happy and keeps employing wonderful people, even though he's no longer with us.

Announcer: At SmallBusinessSchool.org, there are self-help studies for people who want to start a business and for those who want to grow the business they have. From the home page, choose `steps' to start or steps to grow. Next, you'll find eight steps for stages of growth. At each step you'll find links to more resources. Also, from the home page you can choose LearnOnline for access to streaming video and interactive study guides.

RAY: An employee's stock ownership program is a way to get employees engaged and involved in the company so they think and act like owners.

But also a way for the owner to sell the company in a very effective way so he or she gets liquid as effectively as possible. So it helps the founder, the original owner of the company, and if it's done right, it helps the employees succeed as well.

I think to do it right you have to begin assessing why you want to do this. That's the first step.

What are the reasons that motivate an entrepreneur, a founder to want to set up an ESOP so his employees can buy the company from him or her? And the reasons may be three or four key ones, Hattie.

One is because you think it's the right thing to do because people who build the company should own it and you want them to have some ownership stake in it. That's one reason.

Second, it may be to prevent the company from disappearing. Because if the owner wants to sell the company on the open market, and a large company comes in to buy it, the company in effect may "disappear." Gets a different name. It gets subsumed into the larger firm. Or the company may actually be shut down where a competitor buys it and closes it. So you may want to prevent the company from disappearing.

A third reason may be the owner sees this as an effective way to get liquid, to get money out of the company that he or she has built. And to get liquid, there are some terrific tax advantages that benefit the owner. So you can get liquid, you can prevent it from disappearing and you can help give the company to the people who helped build it.