There is much to do to realize a successful business exit. BUT!!! The most challenging aspects of an owner’s exit tend to be emotional. If not faced and handled well, they can result in owner procrastination, inaction, and regret. Following are common emotional hurdles that many business owners encounter.

As a business owner, your company is more than just a livelihood—it becomes an extension of your identity, a vessel for your dreams, and often the center of your world. For nearly two decades, Solly’s Bagelry was my life. Co-founding and growing it into a cherished Vancouver institution brought immeasurable pride and purpose. But when I exited the business, I faced a challenge I hadn’t fully anticipated: finding my footing in a world where I was no longer "Joe from Solly’s."

Our fictional business owner, Baby Boomer Jane Doe, is like most owners in that her business is her largest asset and will play a central role in achieving future financial security, goals, and dreams.  Jane has been in business approximately 25 years and, as a result of the steady stream of business revenue, she has experienced a very comfortable lifestyle that includes two homes, private education for the children, annual vacations, and plenty of discretionary income.  

Helping business owners clarify and establish their post-exit bucket list, financial, values-based and legacy goals, and choosing an exit route that provides them with the greatest opportunity to realize their goals, is what we most enjoy about the work we do. 

Establishing clear goals is essential and foundational for a successful exit plan.  For example, if an owner's passions now fall mostly outside of the business, selling to a third-party or an ESOP might afford them the most time and money, sooner rather than later, to pursue those non-business related interests.  Or, perhaps a sale-to-insiders or children could make the most sense if an owner has strong desires to transfer the business to those who helped build it, or to keep the business in the family. 

A critical and foundational element of your successful exit plan will be the calculation of any gap you might have in the value of your current assets (business and personal) and how much money you will need when you leave the business. This is your financial gap analysis.

Minimizing taxes, based on our experience, seems to be a “core value” shared by most, if not all, business owners. And, seldom are they more cognizant of potential tax burdens than when transacting a sale of their business. Many owners are also characterized by generosity toward others through charitable giving.

Small business owners are at times neglected by the wealth management community as the business is commonly (not always) the owner’s largest asset rather than a portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. You’d be well-advised as a business owner to engage a Financial Advisor who is proactive and experienced in factoring your future plans for the business into your overall plan for managing your wealth.

Janice founded her business 15 years ago at age 45 and her business has realized a modest but consistent growth rate (revenue) of 5%. Like most small business owners, she has invested her time, money, blood, sweat, and tears in building her business. Her perspective has always been “if we don’t focus on today, there may not be a tomorrow!”.

As a business owner you pour your heart into your work and it has become part of you. But at times, the business you have carefully nurtured for years can become a burden - there's a part of you that yearns to do something else - travel, spend more time with family, enjoy more leisure, or even start another new business. You are confused. 

So when it comes to considering the future of your business, where is your heart?