Shifting into the future, seamlessly.

Brief

Name and create a brand identity for a company that buys high-quality small businesses from retiring owners, provides new leadership, and transitions ownership and equity of the business to the employees.

Audience

Business owners who want to sell their business but also want to do right by their employees by giving them a share in the economics of the business after they sell. Brokers who are looking for a unique, fast, and certain sale for their clients. And finally, potential presidents from business schools or organizations that can become a business leader with a proven network of support.

Opportunity

America has a small business succession problem. 6 out of 10 private business owners over the age of 57 plan to sell their businesses in the next decade, yet only 20% of small businesses have succeeded in finding a buyer. This means, businesses that are valuable in their communities and to their employees are simply shut down. Our opportunity was to create an empowering name and brand that gives small business owners a succession plan they can feel good about.

Concept

When you’ve spent your life working hard to create a successful business, selling it should be the easy part. Ownershift makes it fast, simple, and secure to move on and keep your employees moving forward, with shared equity in the business they helped to build. As the company switches gears, we ease the transition by bringing in well-qualified leadership and digital tools for support. This helps the company gear up for growth and an exciting future. With your legacy assured, you can not only move forward more easily, but truly look forward to whatever comes next.

Design

We built a design system based on shifting and keeping things moving forward. We folded a shift notion in the type mark, logo, and image treatments to give the system a feeling of change and motion, why keeping it simple, bold, and trustworthy.

Voice

We named the business Ownershift, a name that quickly conveys at a high level what the business does: shifting ownership to employees. The name is straightforward but feels approachable and confident. The tone of voice continues that simple and to-the-point approach to reinforce a results-oriented brand that's easy to communicate and work with.