Should You Sell the Business?
Should You Sell The Business?
Succession can be complicated. For any number of sound reasons, a business owner might decide the wisest move for everyone involved is to sell the company.
Here’s the problem: the owner may hold the deed and intellectual property rights, but every employee owns a personal, professional, and psychological stake in the company. The decision to sell doesn’t just impact the owner but all those “owners” as well.
This creates a crisis of strategic empathy.
How do you sell without hurting others emotionally and vocationally? What steps will you take to protect relationships with stakeholders as well as their livelihoods?
In our work with businesses on the verge of a transition, we’ve found that communication plays a key role in helping owners work through these sensitive issues. The most important thing an owner can do is initiate several key conversations before a sale is seriously pursued.
In those conversations, owners should look for three things.
Emotional Impact – How will the employees receive this? Will there be pain, anxiety, and a sense of betrayal? Take the time to listen and learn.
Strategic Import — Based on what you learned from #1, how can you structure the sale in a way that protects the concerns and interests of employees?
Confirmation — Given your previous conversations, does this sale still make sense? Have potential successors presented ideas for succession without a sale?
In listening, you’ll demonstrate that you have your employees’ best interests at heart. You’ll also give them the opportunity to weigh in on constructive ways forward. In that way, you’ll give everyone a chance to own the sale and step into it with confidence.
Are you thinking about selling the company? Nunzio Presta from the Buy and Sell a Business online business marketplace outlines some of the reasons for sale. Think it through, if you need guidance to make the right decision get in touch. Not sure about how to have the right conversations, check out our step-by-step guide.
Succession Strength, Inc keeps businesses in business for generations. Learn more about our Succession and Business Transition services. or if you are from a family business, take the survey today to assess your succession efforts.
