Selling your business is not only a financial decision, but also an emotional one which could overwhelm even a seasoned entrepreneur. When you start and begin to run a business of your own, it becomes more like your identity and a part of your life. So, when you’re about to sell your business, you’re also giving away a part of yourself.
All of a sudden, a huge part of the net worth, that once was a single possession and under your control, becomes a varied, liquid collection of possessions, which you have to invest in the market. It could really be very challenging for you to navigate the change all at once.
You need to prepare yourself to take on the financial outcomes of selling your company. This mainly comprises of comprehending your tax liability, coupled with your sale, settling for well-structured agreements, exiting your business on favourable conditions, and preparing your business for the change of proprietorship. You also need to pay keen attention towards the impact it could have on your personal life. Being an entrepreneur, you ought to think really hard about your future. Do you intend to look for a new job or retire? Have you thought about how you’ll be investing your assets and your time?
Perhaps, one of the most crucial aspects that you need to think about, is the impact your business’s sale would have on your family, especially if you’ve got any of your children working in the company. How much involvement would you be showing in the transaction? Would you be receiving any benefits? And, if yes, then are you prepared to take up the responsibility? Do you need to place a governance plan in order to secure your family?
While it might seem that the number of possibilities are never-ending, a considerably envisaged plan can make the entire process a bit easier.
Here’s how you can prepare yourself for such a huge financial windfall:
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Prepare the Family for Money
The cash management plan that you’ve prepared must have certain steps that teach the family why cash management is so crucial, and the way it could impact them. One of the best ways to make sure that your kids are able to handle cash is by involving them in it, at an early stage.
Ideally, before you begin with the sale of your business, you must address some vital questions, like:
- How much money do you require to maintain your lifestyle?
- How much money would be sufficient for your kids and grandchildren?
- Would your kids be able to manage the money?
- How much money would you want to give to charitable goals?
The answers to these would assist you in driving the cash management strategy of your family, and that would in turn influence the kind of deal you’ll crack when you finally decide to sell the business.
Finally, you must never forget to discuss the meaning and importance of handling money thoughtfully. Prepare a proper strategy as well as timeline to make sure your kids would be educated about both financial problems as well as the core values.
Of course, outlining all these goals could be a bit tricky, but careful preparation will only help you set up a smooth transition in your future. As the perspective of your family changes, that is when even your viewpoint as to what would be the best way to handle cash would change. Keeping the family’s desires in mind, you can start making decisions regarding when and how to move ahead with your business sale, and how to handle the money you’ll receive.
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Put Life’s Work to Work
Whilst your intuitions might be telling you to invest your windfall immediately and put it to work, it might not be the right thing to do. At first, you might not realise it, but the money that you receive after selling your business, would represent your entire life’s hard work.
Seeing your money, rising and falling with the market could be more traumatic than one can imagine. It is natural to see loss in the worth of investment, in terms of time and effort it took to earn the money, or how tasking it might be earn that money back. It is not just the money, it is the number of years you have put in to earn that amount.
A careful way would be to ease in to the market with the help of a pound-cost typical strategy, putting in fixed amount of money on a daily schedule, over a particular period of time, and then spreading the investment to lessen the impact of instability. In this manner, you can be less liable to overreaction during some of the bigger market fluctuations.
To begin, you could simply place your finances in an account in a bank, as it will not only serve to be a secure place to keep them, but also earn you some interest whilst you’re planning for the next step. Here, it might be better to appoint a wealth manager to help you achieve the goals, and the transition process.
However, if you would still wish to bet on ventures that involves great risk, then you’ll have to set aside around 5% to 10% of business capital, in order to invest, whilst keeping a bulk of funds with the wealth manager, for less, unstable, long term strategy.
Based on the intricacy of the new wealth, and whether the family would like to devote their personal time to manage it, you might think of starting your own family office. If you want, you can opt for secured business loans, such as property finance, to start the office. This office would let you have control on all the important decisions, while you delegate the complexities of handling wealth, to some investment experts.
There are several worldwide wealth managers who offer you multifamily office services. They would provide you with a varying array of services that are cost-effective, such as co-ordination of guidance, trust and estate planning, investment management, etc.
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Plan Carefully
The sale of business must be approached with complete care, in the same way as you approached its creation. You can seek help of your family, create a complete plan guiding the actions and decisions you take, and list the assistance of experienced advisors. Even your skills, which helped in expanding the business, could be used to manage the new wealth going ahead.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that you are well aware that there aren’t any set rules and regulations on what you must do with the money you receive by selling your business, it is more art than science.
When you’re considering selling the business, you ought to create a plan that is tailored to meeting specific conditions and defy the urge to take on immediate actions. Moving gradually would make sure that both the financial and family side of the agreement is sorted, before you make any changes. This is always seen as the key to success after the sale of your business, and you will also be thrilled to take on the opportunities that come your way, to help the family to reach the same success.
