Start-up grocery co-ops do a great job of growing ownership…but we often don’t talk with those owners about how our store will be funded. In my opinion it’s never too early to start talking about money.
Early stage (Stage 1) start-ups should work funding into initial conversations with owners sharing something like “Your $200 ownership purchase is the first financial opportunity you’ll have to help build our store. As you can imagine, if we have 1000 owners when we open, ownership shares will give us $200,000. But it costs WAY more than $200,000 to open a full service grocery store. As we get closer to securing our location, you’ll have another financial opportunity to invest in our store.”
Co-ops getting closer to finding a location (Stage 2a) should be including details about capital campaigns into your social media and newsletters on a very regular basis. You want your ownership to understand what a co-op capital campaign looks like and how it might play out in your community.
Finally, those in later stage development (Stage 2b-3) should be talking about funding routinely, especially immediately before and during your capital campaign.
If you would like ideas or suggestions on how to talk about money with your ownership base, reach out to me and let’s chat!
