[w]hat she and her late husband started 24 years ago as a small used bookstore and coffee shop in Rockland — a then-struggling city that had many shuttered storefronts — has survived, thrived and grown. Now she runs a bustling cafe that acts as a community hub and a separate roasting facility and store that is redolent with the rich aroma of coffee beans. Her businesses employ an average of 25 employees year-round, and more than half of them are full time.
All of that is why Ward, 65, wants to be very careful about how she plans for the future and why she is on track to transition the business model from single ownership to being an employee-owned cooperative. In a few months, she said, she’ll be one of about a dozen employee-owners — and that’s just what she wants to be.
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