| When you successfully sell a business, you have | | | | often back out of the sale, fearing it won't go |
| the luxury of thinking about retirement. In some | | | | smoothly or will stop mid-stride. Without investing |
| cases, however, you may just need a break or | | | | time in parsing out what's important to you and |
| sabbatical, not complete and final rejection of | | | | designing an exciting future, you may resist |
| what you have done in the past. Let's look at | | | | engaging in the selling process or focus only on |
| how to build a successful retirement lifestyle, and | | | | the money when more fulfilling options or potential |
| then look at a different approach: a gap you. | | | | buyers may be a better fit for your long-term |
| If you're focused on a traditional notion of | | | | happiness. |
| complete retirement without day-to-day | | | | A "Gap Year" |
| obligations, you're wise to plan that out. Going | | | | Perhaps a "gap year" should be part of your plan. |
| from a Type A personality to a Type Z may | | | | This is the European and increasingly American |
| seem attractive at first, but ultimately | | | | college student concept of taking time off for |
| entrepreneurs - the ultimate go-getters - won't be | | | | personal discovery during college or before |
| satisfied with doing nothing. Before you leave the | | | | starting a career. Running and selling a business |
| business, mapping the activities, courses, books, | | | | are exhausting, and a pause to rest, have fun, |
| and people you want to engage can help you | | | | and explore could be a wise use of your time. A |
| focus on your personal prize during the difficult | | | | restorative and contemplative sabbatical might |
| process of selling a company. "Know thyself" | | | | reward you with the chance to study your next |
| becomes an operating principle here. As a business | | | | moves before enacting them. |
| owner, you likely have been charging hard at | | | | Our advice to you is that it's best to put |
| goals all your life. Will you feel fulfilled without one | | | | structure around your discovery process. We |
| ahead of you? And you have greater control | | | | have recommended putting a flexible time limit-a |
| over selecting your goals once a business is sold. | | | | year, for example-on the endeavor. Again, on a |
| How will you seize this chance for change? | | | | more day-to-day level, consider dedicating |
| For some, the concept of an endless vacation as | | | | one-third of the time on activities you've put off, |
| a leisure-pursuing aristocrat looses luster after a | | | | one-third on maintaining or building your health, and |
| while. To go from a hundred miles per hour to | | | | one-third on actively searching for your personal |
| zero can seem attractive, but, over time, it may | | | | "next big thing." Perhaps that means taking classes |
| become unpalatable to a former boss who's | | | | or meeting people, maybe engaging a personal |
| accustomed to making things happen. Even in | | | | coach, or taking up other activities that help you |
| complete retirement, consider our advice of | | | | to assess yourself and find new ways to |
| dividing life into thirds: catch up on things you have | | | | contribute and challenge yourself. It puts a |
| put off, improve your health, and find something | | | | strategic focus on what to become involved with, |
| challenging to devote energies to that makes you | | | | instead of letting whatever crosses your path |
| happy. | | | | captivate or capsize you. Our clients have told us |
| There's another, equally serious reason to envision | | | | that this approach of thirds gives them a balanced |
| your post-sale life earnestly before selling a | | | | break yet also pushes them to define the next |
| company. Absent a vision of life after the sale, | | | | phase of life. |
| your uncertainty could be so disconcerting that it | | | | I invite you to use these ideas to create your |
| creates resistance to selling the business at all. | | | | best-life business exit strategy. |
| Potential buyers who sense a seller's reluctance | | | | |