Roughly 15% of the companies on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies that responded to an Inc. magazine survey say that selling to an ESOP is a likely strategy for transferring ownership. The percentage is not precise because only 62% of the companies on the list responded to the survey, and the poll let respondents choose more than one option.
Evan L. Rhodes: Government guidelines state that a company must have more than 10 employees to qualify for an ESOP. It is also worth noting that the ESOP program is not currently available to professional associations or professional corporations.