Three state association outlets carried our work this summer: MALSCE in Massachusetts, Engineering Georgia Magazine, and the ACEC Georgia podcast. All three were organic placements, invited or accepted on the strength of the argument rather than paid for. Different states, different audiences, and one message underneath all of it, which is that firms below the ESOP threshold have a real path and the owner gets paid at closing.
Here is what each piece actually argued, and who it was written for.
MALSCE: the ESOP math stops working below a certain size
Published 6 July 2026 for the Massachusetts Association of Land Surveyors and Civil Engineers, and written for the owner who has been told an ESOP is how you reward your people and still exit.
The argument is arithmetic. An ESOP carries setup costs, a trustee, an annual valuation, and ongoing administration, and those costs only make economic sense above roughly $15,000,000 in revenue. For the surveying and civil firms that make up most of MALSCE's membership, that math does not clear. The piece then walks through what does work at that size: an SBA-financed sale to the people already running the work, with the owner paid in cash at closing rather than carrying a note for years.
Read it: When Your Engineering or Land Surveying Firm Is Too Small for an ESOP. Allen Business Advisors is also a MALSCE Sustaining Member.
Engineering Georgia Magazine: the deal from the buyer's seat
Published in the summer issue and the most-read article in it, which tells you something about what Georgia firm owners are worried about right now.
This one was written for both sides of the table, but it leads with the buyers. Georgia's founding generation is retiring and most firms have no plan, largely because owners assume their key employees could never afford to buy them out. The article walks through the transaction that actually closes: key employees come in with as little as 5 percent down, a bank funds the purchase, and the founder is paid at closing. It puts the mechanism in front of the exact people who assumed the door was shut.
Read it: How Key Employees Are Buying Engineering Firms With 5% Down And Sellers Are Being Paid at Closing.
ACEC Georgia's Engineering Change podcast: the working conversation
Episode 022, live 17 July 2026, titled "John R. Allen and Buying Out the Boss."
A podcast is where the mechanics get interrogated rather than summarized, and this conversation went straight at the practical questions. What do the employees actually have to bring to the table. What does the bank need to see before it will lend. And the one that matters most to a hesitant owner: why the seller does not have to become the lender in their own deal. If you want the reasoning behind the structure rather than the summary of it, this is the one to listen to.
Listen: Engineering Change on Spotify.
Why three different states landed on the same argument
Massachusetts surveyors, Georgia engineers, and an ACEC chapter podcast are not the same audience. What they share is the size of firm doing the reading. These are practices with $1M to $10M in sales, owners in their sixties, and a bench of licensed people who already run the work and never imagined they could own it.
For that firm, the useful sentence is short. Sell to your employees. SBA bank financing is arranged with a 5% down payment. Get paid at closing. Not an ESOP.
The full list of articles, podcasts, and speaking credits lives on the national authority page. If you want the structure itself, start with the Step-Up Legacy Plan or the ESOP alternatives breakdown.