By Kevin L. Baker, MBA

Are you ready for the emotion of selling your business?  Do you remember the day you started your dream business or the day you bought your baby and got the keys handed to you?  You have built.  You have put in the blood, sweat, and tears of success.  Now, this happy time of handing it over to the next generation of leadership is troubling you.

When you sell your baby or transition it to new leadership you will experience a feeling of loss and encounter voids that selling your business will bring.  Business exit planning and implementation is one of if not the most difficult challenges of an owner’s career. While we discuss emotional intelligence as an HR and talent issue, owner EQ is a field I want to explore with you.

The decisions made leading up to selling a business ultimately determine whether a lifetime of work will result in financial, emotional, and familial well-being.  In the first article in this series, I looked at why every business owner needs to think about what is referred to as succession or exit planning.  Today, I will begin addressing the question owners struggle with most—“Am I ready for this?”  As an M&A Advisor, I have seen many business sales fall apart because an owner could not let go of their baby.

Beyond The Professionals to You

When you talk about business exit or succession with attorneys, CPAs, bankers, and insurance agents, the buy-sell agreement or business will is where their mind goes.  They deal with the catastrophic exit planning triggers and decisions of what happens if you die, are disabled, divorce, or retire?  Who can buy your shares and at what price?  All of these are important, but are not these mechanical components are not what you as owner should be most concerned about.

In working with many business owners selling their business, the top concerns are emotional attachments and financial concerns for one’s family.  Emotional intelligence of EQ is the capability of individuals to recognize their own, and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately, to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, and to manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt environments or achieve one’s goals (Wikipedia).

In this article and the next in this series, we will deal the readiness decisions involved with an owner selling a business.  First, let’s talk about being emotionally ready to exit your business.

Emotional Readiness

The emotional and psychological ripple effects of the decision to sell your business are generally the hardest issues you will face as you ready yourself to “say goodbye to your baby.”  It is truly a psychological issue of grief and loss, and frankly, I would recommend life coaching and possibly therapy to prepare for it.

You may think that sounds over the top, however the impact this decision and its resulting implementation will have on you personally, your family, and your employees during and after your exit can’t begin to be imagined while you sit in your attorney’s office finalizing buy-sell agreements and wills. You have taken the financial security of you, your family, and employees seriously for years, and now as you think about selling your business, you will encounter stress, possibly anxiety, and at the minimum having to deal with this in the lawyer’s office as legal contracts and insurance policies are drawn up.  It cannot be escaped.

Social Readiness

While you may have dreamed about the day you cash out of your business, most owners are truly not ready for the gaps and voids that are created when they no longer have their business enmeshed in their lives.

For many business owners, the social dynamics of the business are so ingrained and assumed that they are not thought about.  So, let’s take a moment and think about how your business relates to the following social spheres of your life:  Family, friends, community standing, financial security, personal schedule, vacations, being on boards of other organizations, and self identity.

Psychological Readiness

Men, especially, often ask each other in social gatherings, “So what do you do?”  Our self-worth and identity is very tied up in our life purpose.  For business owners, much of our purpose is expressed through our business.  As a business success, you have taken on roles in your life.  You are an employer, a boss, a leader, a mentor, a provider.  Your creativity and value as a person is often recognized through the expression you have through your business.  Are you ready to no longer have the recognition business brings you personally?  When you exit your business, are you ready to not have the role the business has played your life rapidly disappear? 

Life Coaching to Get Ready

While most of my coaching is with executives, I do provide life coaching for friends and also for business owners and high level executives who exit the business.  The emotional grief and loss upon the exit of a business or job often leaves large and unexpected personal voids.  I have seen depression, anxiety, and rough family adjustments take a deep toll on wonderful people who were simply unprepared for the changes of leaving a business.

I am here to help.  I have exited an executive role and a non-profit organization I founded.  I have been there, and will walk through the process with you.  There is a fulfilling purposeful life after you sell your business!  Let’s go beyond golfing, eating, and The Villages.  We all know once you stop living you die, and central to living is remaining active, productive, and  contributing to the world.  Your life is after business is not over.  In fact, it is really a new beginning.  Let’s map it out together.

Our next article will discuss whether you are financially ready to sell, and deal with exit strategies, M&A Advisors and brokers, and getting the most out of the biggest sale you will ever make.  Cheers!