If you are a business owner, I am sure you have asked yourselves this question many times over the years. Ultimately, I think we all do exactly what we believe is in the best interest of everybody connected to our businesses.

Every time Marilyn and I have sold a business, and we have sold quite a few since selling the first one in 1980, we have had one criteria in mind, and that is we will not be staying on with the new owners, so all have been sold without us staying even though most buyers want owners to stay on for a couple of years, we have not even stayed for a day.

We know that all of our buyers believed they could run our business better than we could.

If you have ever started your own business and have grown it to be the largest of its kind in the Country, you will understand just what secrets you have built into that business that have made it so successful and worth so much money that no one else knows.

Deep down, you know the new buyers will destroy all the hard work you have put in over the past years, getting the business to the point of other people wanting to buy it.

You know it’s not the place to be, especially if you are the one to oversee the destruction of what you have poured your heart and soul into.

So, how do you sell a successful business and not have to be around to see its demise?

Most people who sell their businesses have this dilemma, as most buyers want the owners to stay working in the business for some time to see a smooth transition.

So, there are choices to be made that may conflict if your buyer wants you to stay for some time.

For some, it’s a case of once I have sold, I want to enjoy the proceeds; for others, it’s a case of I now have the time to grow another business.

The most common reason businesses fail is because new management thinks they know more than the people who conceived it. History repeats itself.