Taking Control When Selling Your Business

By Trip Holmes

One of the worst feelings we have as business owners is when we think we’re losing or have lost control of our business. For small and middle-market business owners, this feeling often seeps into our personal lives, which are often tied up in our business in some way. This dynamic is especially true with family businesses.

The last thing you want is to feel this way when you’re looking to exit your business. Selling a business is stressful—it’s one of those high-priority events in our lives, , like getting married, the birth of our children or starting the business. It’s inevitable that these events in our lives all lead to stress, but that doesn’t mean you can’t control it!

So how do you take control of selling your business, so that you can chart your own course, much in the way you did with launching and building it over time?......You plan! Planning itself can be difficult, especially with something of this magnitude. But as I help clients plan, I can see the stress lift from their shoulders as we move through the process. This  happens, because we’re in control of what we want to do in life.

The first exercise that brings back an element of control when selling your business is to think about your personal goals. Often, by the time you’re selling, you’ve hit all of your professional targets or made peace with the ones you didn’t.  But as long as you’re living and breathing, you have personal goals, and those are perhaps the most important drivers of your sale.

The key members of your team of advisors should include your personal and business bankers and wealth managers, your estate planning and business attorneys (especially one with experience in strategic transactions), your accountant, and, yours truly, a business broker. The better your team of advisors, the less stress you’ll have, and all of these professionals will collaborate to help you achieve everything you desire.  

One of the key elements of an exit strategy is succession planning.  In a privately-held, family-owned business, that assessment often begins with children or other young family members. When you’re able to either identify someone from the next generation to take the reins, there’s great relief. But even if you can’t, your business broker can help you identify key employees, or even help you vet potential suitors when you’re ready to list for sale.

Even when you can’t turn over your business to someone within, especially family, there’s a feeling of great control over your legacy when your broker finds that just-right match in the marketplace. Sometimes, it even feels like you’re meeting that long-lost person who was just made for the job.

So, when people come to me and ask what the three best pieces of advice I can give for entrepreneurs looking for the exit, I say, first, get the right team in place. Second, develop a plan, and then third, let them execute that plan with your help. If you stick to delegating strategy and letting those folks do their jobs, you can focus on getting them the documents and other resources to make it happen!

If you’re looking for the right business broker to work with your team of professionals, I’d love to speak with you. For more than 35 years, Sabre Capital has served family business owners in the middle-market, across the Carolinas and Virginia. Let us help you take control of your destiny, preserve your legacy, and achieve all of your personal goals.