Should I sell my company?

Are you running away from something or towards something?

I talk to many entrepreneurs who are trapped in their own company. They say: I want out. Ask a few more questions and it turns out something else is going on.

They are tired. For years they have been doing work they do not enjoy. Their calendar belongs to everyone except themselves. That is a real problem. It is just rarely a selling problem.

Boredom is not a reason to sell. It is a signal that something needs to change. And change takes more forms than a signature.

The test is simple. Are you running away from something or towards something? Whoever runs away usually takes the problem along. Whoever moves towards something can calculate what that requires.

Do you want out of operations or out of ownership?

This distinction pays off the most and almost nobody makes it.

You can step out of the day-to-day leadership without selling a single share. You can also sell all your shares and still be tied to the company for years afterwards. Those are two completely different outcomes.

Most founders want the first. They no longer want to be the one who answers every question. But they ask for the second, because that is the form they know.

There is one condition. A company that revolves entirely around you cannot be left, and cannot be sold well either. Becoming dispensable is therefore not a threat. It is what keeps all your options open.

What routes are there besides selling?

I count seven, ordered from keeping everything to handing everything over.

1. You step out of the day-to-day leadership and keep your shares. You become shareholder and sounding board. Nothing changes in ownership.
2. You gradually hand over to your own people. A few percent each year, as long as it goes well. You remain the majority shareholder yourself.
3. An outside manager takes over the leadership and buys in. Often you lend part of the purchase price, so you become your successor's bank.
4. You sell a minority and stay at the wheel. For the first time money comes off the table and the adventure continues. I call this the king's exit.
5. The pre-exit. You sell a majority, keep a stake and build on towards a second, larger sale.
6. The merger or full sale. You hand over everything. This is the route with the loudest advertising.
7. You turn the table and become a buyer yourself. You build a group instead of a company.

Seven routes. Most entrepreneurs know three.

Why do you almost always hear about only one of those routes?

Because nobody earns anything from the other six.

There is no sales machine behind building on or a gradual handover. Nobody ever calls to recommend route one. The routes where you hand over do have that machine. Buyers and investors actively seek you out. And an adviser in an acquisition usually works with a success fee, a percentage of the transaction. No transaction, no fee.

That is not ill will. It is an incentive. But it does mean that anyone who comes knocking with an open question will almost always be presented with a transaction.

The best dealmakers know this themselves. A corporate finance adviser who sold two companies of his own does not start with the profit for any entrepreneur, but with a different question. Do you want to build a large company or do you want to reach a financial goal? There is no wrong answer. But as long as that answer is not crystal clear, you do not belong in any sales process.

What happens once the money is there?

For Exit Unlocked, the one-day masterclass on buying and selling strategy, we asked people beforehand why they bought a ticket. 37 percent did not know at all yet whether they would ever want to sell and mainly wanted to be ready. 23 percent wanted to be out the door within three years. 14 percent wanted to become a buyer themselves.

So a room about exits was mostly full of people who were not selling.

Then the question that is almost never asked beforehand. What does that money do to your motivation? One of the speakers summed it up that day: before the sale it had to succeed, that is what drove you. Afterwards it no longer had to be for the money. That is not regret, but it is a different life you can only prepare for once.

And there is something else. What is emotional for you, clients who walk away and people who leave, is simply part of the financial model on the other side. It has been accounted for in advance. If you do not know what you want to remain, that decision will still be made. Just not by you.

That is why the same test hangs over every route. Will you still be happy with this choice in ten years? Not in ten months, when the money still feels warm and everyone congratulates you. In ten years.

What can you do with this today?

Plan your empty week. A week without appointments, without calls, without a programme and alone. No restaurant, no distraction, no obligatory socialising. Just you, your notebook and the space to hear what is really going on once the noise of the day stops.

I still do this myself, years after my own deal. A week of nothing, somewhere nobody knows me. Only there do I get clarity about what I really want to build and what I had better stop. That is exactly the clarity you need for a decision you will look back on for years.

In that week, answer three questions. What do I want to remain, of the company, of the people and of myself. Do I want out of operations or out of ownership. And which of the seven routes fits that.

What I see in my practice is always the same. Almost everyone comes in with the same plan, namely selling and then being free. A striking share leaves with a different plan. Not because their company was worse than the rest. They had simply seen all seven routes for the first time.

I have been through this entire process myself. In 2020 I sold my own PR and marketing agency, with forty colleagues and one million euros in EBITDA.

My own answer to the question above this article took me six years. I would have done everything the same, except the selling. I would have stepped back for my successor, who had already worked there for eight years, and remained the majority shareholder myself.

That is why I do not start with founders at the price, but at their motives. My wish is that ten years from now they still stand behind their choice.