Give thought to how your age might impact selling your company
A company owner recently commented, “I’m 32 years old now and I’d like to sell at 37 and move on to something else in my life”. On the surface this sounds fine, but to most acquirer’s, this might trigger a red flag.
At time of selling your company, the acquirer will want to know what your personal plans are for going forward. Are you planning to leave immediately, leave after a transition or do you want to continue on working with and for the acquirer? If the seller is around 60 years of age or older, the narrative is easy. It can be they want to leave at time of transaction or soon after simply because they want to retire, take financial chips off the table and perhaps spend time with their family. This type of narrative makes sense to an acquirer.
But what if the seller is much younger, say 55 and under? Now the narrative might be more challenging. Challenging because an acquirer will question a seller of this young age that doesn’t want to keep investing time and money into their own company. If this seller doesn’t want to keep investing in their company, why then should the acquirer want to? The acquirer will wonder what the seller knows about their business that is causing them to want to leave it.
Every seller is a case study of one when it comes to developing your personal exit narrative. In your case, think about your age and what it means for the future narrative of presenting your company to acquirer’s for a sale. You want to use time as a friend to plan for your narrative to ensure it helps you manage to your euphoric exit event.
