Retiring is a process. It involves preparing your finances, your relationships and yourself. And if you’re a business owner, there’s an extra step — deciding what’s next for your customers and employees.

As soon as you start thinking about your own retirement, start thinking about what will happen to your business, says Paul Tramontano, executive managing director and wealth manager at Cresset Capital, a financial advisory firm that works with entrepreneurs.

In general, there are three paths business owners can take as they prepare to retire: finding a successor, selling the business or closing it down. Here’s what might lie ahead.

1. Find a successor

If you hope to leave your business to a successor, “build a team early on that can carry on the business,” says Keith Schiller, a retired attorney who specialized in business succession and now advises entrepreneurs with business mentoring organization SCORE.

2. Sell the business

If you don’t choose your own successor, another option is to sell the business to someone who will continue operating it. “If a company has ongoing income and cash flow, there’s a buyer somewhere,” Tramontano says.

A business broker, especially one who specializes in your field, may be a helpful resource in valuing your business, finding a strategic buyer and negotiating a sale. 

3. Close the business

To give yourself this option down the road, start by creating a self-employed retirement plan and investing a portion of your income there. That will help you build a nest egg, just as you’d have with a company-sponsored retirement plan.

Considering selling your business? Give us a call.
Steve Niehaus, MBA, CM&AP, CBI, M&AMI
[email protected]
239.565.3171