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The Next Career Ladder Is Business Ownership

As more small-business owners approach retirement, a new generation of professionals has an opportunity to build careers through ownership, not just advancement.

For decades, the standard advice about getting ahead in America pointed in one direction: get a degree, land the job and work your way up the ranks. While that path still exists and matters, especially for recent graduates, what stands out now is a broader shift in how many younger professionals are thinking about how to get a direct stake in the businesses where they invest their time and talent.

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Ownership is not limited to launching the next venture-backed company. It can mean buying an existing local business, stepping into a family enterprise, joining a smaller firm with an equity path or taking over day-to-day operations from an owner who is ready to retire. In many cases, the opportunity comes from the ability to carry forward something that already works.

The timing isn’t random; it was inevitable

The timing is being driven in part by a demographic shift among America’s small-business owners. As a large share of America’s small-business owners move closer to retirement, 42 percent of small businesses now anticipate an ownership change within the next five years, up from 36 percent in 2019, according to data from Barlow Research. Of those, only 28 percent plan to sell or transfer to a family member. That creates a succession problem for........

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