Selling a Company: Setting Smart Goals When Selling a Company

How can you ensure you are thinking smartly about your goals for selling your company? Are you being comprehensive enough, considering all the angles and stakeholders for this significant transaction? What have been working so diligently all these years for? Is it only about the monetary gain? You know that even though it may be the simple answer, it is not true. Getting the reasons right becomes the groundwork for a successful sales process.

What do you view as the most essential result for you, your business, your family, your employees, and other stakeholders? We’ve said many times to many business owners, your business is more than just a source of income; it is a source of identity, pride, purpose and relationships. Making a leap towards something new is frightening, especially time hasn’t been taken to define it. Who is feels at ease when jumping into a fog?

Take that time, and include others in the dialogue. Others who can help you plan your exit strategy, which comprises of designing your life after the sale? Bring in experts, but also incorporate people who are familiar with you, and people who have diverse experiences and perspectives. It will be like talking to yourself, if everyone you speak to is just like you!

Considering it only in monetary terms is short changing yourself and the opportunity that lies ahead. Do you want to sell a part of your business or the business as a whole? Is it important to cash out right away, or would you consider maintaining a small investment in the newly sold company? As the song says, should you stay or should you go? If you stay, what position would you create for yourself? Would you want to preserve control and finance growth through recapitalization? Do you want to leave, and if so, where on the timeline??

Continuing with the business, for example, may be an appealing option financially and psychologically. Does a transitional consulting contract, staying on the board, or running the company as a part of a larger buyer for a few years appeal to you? Is a complete break from your company, or just a sabbatical what you need?

Do you wish to seek out another business opportunity, or are you leaving the world of commerce totally to reengage your experience, time, and talent in a new way with new purpose, perhaps with a nonprofit or family foundation?

To sell a company is to sell a life’s work. What work will you do now? You will tire of golf quickly. And we’ve often seen that association with charities will fill in the gaps, but too frequently it is not done well. Many offers may come across the transom, when the community realizes your talent is available. It is simple to fill up your day, but is it filled up the way you want it to be?

Think about the larger and more holistic picture: the best-case picture of your future — work, family, activities, charities, adventures, spiritual and community commitment— after the sale. Run the numbers and decide what money you will need to make it a reality.

While many business owners don’t realize it initially, these goals and objectives for the sale will affect how to sell a business and the target buyers. Determine your definition of success, and how selling a business can get you there.

I invite you to use these ideas to create goals for your exit strategy.