The Start Of Something Great

Thinking it over one afternoon my partner and I realized we had started our business with an idea on the back of a cocktail napkin at our favorite watering hole. We knew we needed more, so we developed plans and budgets, hired all the right people, and guided our business through the ups and downs of changes in customer attitudes, market cycles, economic recessions and recoveries, and increasing government scrutiny.

And we were very successful.

But we did not think to plan our departure. We got a little nervous. As baby boomer business owners we talked about the retirement life our parents had: golf, travel, spending time with the grandkids, and relaxing. Some of it sounded attractive – at least for a while. Then we realized we did not want to end up with our parents’ retirement.

So we looked for options.

We also sensed that there was more to leaving the business than we had bargained for – and, again, no plan was in place.

So we looked for options.

The Baby Boomer Business Owner Dilemma

We were introduced to a professional Transition Planning Consultant. He helped us understand that all our concerns were valid – and were most likely shared by 12 million other privately owned businesses – all owned by baby boomers – and representing over $10 trillion worth of assets over the next two decades in business transition transactions.

He also helped us to understand that we could take a professional approach toward the planning of our business sale. We had learned that there were professional advisors who were going to be able to help us to sell our business.

But then he said something we did not expect.

He asked if we had thought about what we would do the Monday morning after leaving our 65-hour work week. What did we “plan” to do? We had a few answers, but, on reflection, these answers were not fulfilling.

Dealing With An Owner Mentality

We talked some more and realized the answers we gave were helping us to avoid our fears, our emotions, and who were really were going to be after not owning the business anymore.

• After all, when you are no longer the owner – then who are you?
  
• When you no longer care for 500 employees and 2,000 customers daily, who do you really care for?
  

We began to realize we needed to plan for the separation of our identify away from our “owner mentality;” and that we needed to plan for a work week that did not require us to drive to the office every day.

The Future Personal and Business Transition

• So our Transition Planning Consultant helped us to think through our future personal and business transitions, so we would know better what to expect and could more effectively prepare and plan for our personal and business future.
  
• He also helped us think more about our future and helped us discover new possibilities for our future life after leaving our company.
  
• Finally, he helped us understand what to expect during the Exit Process, so we could more effectively plan and prepare for a successful transition with expert advisors.
  

All of this was not without some significant effort on our part.

But, on reflection, we are both very glad that we have developed a personal and a business transition plan and strategy that leave us emotionally confident about leaving our company as we go about the process of choosing a new owner for our business. We are now following that step-by-step business transition plan that we developed – and are very glad that we were introduced to our new business friend.