Exiting your business isn’t just a transaction—it’s a transition into a new phase of life. For many business owners, the sale of their business represents their largest financial event to date, and the planning required to make it successful begins long before any offers are received.
A thoughtful, integrated exit plan can help you earn more from the sale of the business you’ve built, maintain your lifestyle into retirement, and ensure a smooth handoff—professionally and personally.
Here are the key financial considerations every business owner should prioritize when preparing for a sale and retirement.
Clarify Personal and Financial Objectives
Before you think about deal terms, start with your personal vision. What do you want your life to look like after you exit? Are you ready to retire entirely, or will you pursue other professional activities? Traveling, philanthropy, and family involvement—these priorities all come with financial implications.
Establishing a personal financial plan with clear retirement goals and your cash flow needs helps you reverse-engineer the proceeds required from the sale. Too often, owners fixate on a business valuation that sounds or feels ‘right’, without tying it back to what they truly need or want.
While many business owners pride themselves on being prepared for ‘anything,’ this tends to be focused primarily on their business and their family. Where they derive their own purpose tends to be an afterthought, though all three are very closely connected.
Understand What Your Business Is Worth Today
Knowing what your business is worth—and what drives that value—is foundational. A professional, third-party valuation brings objectivity and provides market-level insight that internal estimates may not fully consider.
Whether your business is most appropriately valued as a multiple of cash flow (EBITDA), market comparisons, or other metrics, understanding the key drivers of value today positions you to shape a stronger exit in the future.
Plan for Liquidity and Lifestyle Beyond the Business
The sale of your business converts an illiquid asset into liquidity—but that liquidity needs long-term stewardship.
Post-exit, your financial needs shift from reinvesting profits into operations to creating an investment strategy that supports decades of retirement. This includes designing a thoughtfully constructed portfolio, a reliable stream of monthly income, and incorporating charitable or family goals that matter to you.
Lifestyle security isn’t just about how much you have—it’s about how you structure and protect it over time.
Discuss Succession and Legacy with Family Early
If your family plays a role in your business—or could in the future—those pieces should be part of your exit planning.
Understanding the answers to those questions helps guide your estate planning and allows for thoughtful tools like trusts or gifting strategies to be set up well in advance.
Work with Advisors Who Understand Business Owners
Not every financial advisor is equipped to handle the complexity of a business exit. The right partner understands the unique interplay between personal wealth, business value, and long-term planning.
Collaborating with a financial advisor who speaks the language of business owners—and can coordinate with your CPA and attorney—can help you unlock better outcomes and more confidence in your decisions. This type of alignment among your advisory team is key to putting you in control of what comes next.
Where do you want your next chapter to take you—and are your finances aligned to get you there? Let’s have a conversation.