Should You Stay or Should You Go?

Selling your business is NOT always the only choice. Or the best choice.

After my husband and I had owned our golf course for 4 or 5 years, we invested in a major renovation (in partnership with our insurance company due to a flood —another story for another day), doubled our sales, and received an interesting valuation for the business. We started wondering if we should sell sooner than our original 10-year target, found our work not quite as challenging, and began having some health issues which swayed our vote towards the decision to sell.

It seemed easy enough. But we quickly found out that just because WE loved the business and didn’t mind working 18 hour days to keep it going — others maybe not so much. We also learned that regardless of how much money we spent on our valuation report, and how much we “knew” it was worth that amount — explaining, pitching and pleading with potential buyers proved to be a waste of time and energy. SO much time and energy.

Planning an Exit
With no prospective buyers knocking on our door we went with plan B — basically changing our business model to run without us being involved in every aspect of the daily operations. This allowed us to change our lifestyle, move to a new city altogether, take on new business challenges, and yet maintain control of our strategy, finance, marketing and communications — our “genius work”.

If you are thinking of working less hours, or maybe planning a year off to travel and focus on new projects — taking the time to plan your exit may allow you to keep the income from your business, while letting your team carry more of the load.