Eyeful’s founder, Simon Morton, was once again behind the mic to talk through his experiences of selling the business to its employees.
You’ll have spotted a few references to Employee Ownership Trusts (or EOTs) popping up in various places, from our LinkedIn conversations to our signatures and website. This podcast does a great job of explaining how the process works and, more importantly, what this means to the Eyeful team and our customers.
So, what exactly is an EOT?
Put simply, it’s a trust that holds shares on behalf of the employees of a business, meaning that all eligible Eyefulites have a stake in the company’s success and can receive a share of the profits in the form of dividends. As an aside, I happen to be one of the Employee Directors on the Eyeful Trustee Board, so I get to see the EOT process very much in action.
But, as Simon explains, it goes deeper than that.
A significant personal driver for him was preserving Eyeful’s culture and values. We might be slightly biased, but Eyeful is a special place. The culture, values and plain old fun of being an Eyefulite rubs off on the quality of service and innovation that our customers have come to expect. As Simon says, he didn’t want to risk this- staying true to our roots was really important.
And then there’s the reward for those who have worked so hard to support customers and grow the business. It was time for them to benefit from what they’d collectively built (so far).
Kicking Off A Virtuous Circle
To quote Richard Branson: “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don’t want to”.
When employees have a stake in the business, they’re more invested in its success. They’re more likely to go the extra mile to provide outstanding customer service, resulting in happy customers and more business. This results in greater rewards for the people delivering the success, so they’re more invested…
And so on. It’s a Virtuous Circle. And that’s what we’re building here.
OK – so we’re excited about the long-term impact of EOTs on how businesses are run, people are rewarded, and customers are served, but they’re not for everybody. But if we’ve piqued your interest, check out the links below.
Further Reading
Eyeful & EOTs: https://eyeful-archive.eyefulpresentations.com/employee-owned/
Meet The Eyefulites: https://eyeful-archive.eyefulpresentations.com/about-us/our-people/
Want to Work for an Employee Owned Business? We’re Hiring!: https://eyeful-archive.eyefulpresentations.com/about-us/join-us/
Meet The Author: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reobeaumont/
