Given the feeding frenzy from private equity, this seems like the best time to sell your business since consolidation. So maybe you could sell, but should you? Here are 8 reasons why you might want to keep your business.
1. You Will Need to Find Something to Do
Let’s face it. The first challenge after selling a business is, “What do I do now?”
Indeed, what do you do? You have spent decades driving a business, going 80 miles an hour. How do you slow down?
Your spouse probably does not want you around that much. Playing golf every day really does get old.
Unless you have figured out what you’re going to do and know it will be fulfilling, you might want to keep running your company. Your business gives you purpose, and purpose is important.
2. Things That Sound Fun Are Not
A lot of contractors have accumulated wisdom and experience from the school of hard knocks. Others will be willing to pay for that, right? Dispensing this hard- earned knowledge should be valuable, right?
Consulting carries an entirely new set of challenges. You become the one-truck operator again.
In truth, consulting carries an entirely new set of challenges. You become the one-truck operator again. When you are working, you are not selling and marketing. When you are selling and marketing, you are not working.
The pay is not as great as you think. The travel is not glamourous. It is tiring. Running a business is more fun
3. You May Need to Move
You no longer control the company you built. If you live in a small or medium sized town, everyone you know associates you with the company. Anytime anything goes wrong, they look to you. They expect you to fix it. You cannot. For the same reason most senior pastors move after leaving their churches, you might need to move.
Plus, it is hard to watch decisions you disagree with being made about the business you built. Even if it is run well, it is not run the way you would run it. This business was literally a part of you. You put a piece of your soul into it. And now, you have no say. You feel a little like Judas when your employees call to complain. You sold your say and have to keep thinking about the 30 pieces of silver.
4. You Will Make Less Money
If you stay on with your company, you will probably take a cut in pay. If you go to work for someone else, you will definitely take a cut in pay. Stated simply, you will not make as much money working for someone else as you can make working for yourself.
After you sell it, the market values what you alone provide. Sure, the risk is less, but so is the reward.
When you run a business, the market values what the entire business provides, and you prosper accordingly. After you sell it, the market values what you alone provide. Sure, the risk is less, but so is the reward.
5. All Expenses are After Tax
All of the legitimate business expenses that you deduct when running a business are not deductible after the sale. There is no business. There is no business income to use to offset expenses.
6. You are Essential
Covid showed us that the service trades are essential. We might have known that already, but now everyone knows it. When the government tries to lock down the country the next time, you have a proven reason to be on the road, out and about, doing things. This is far more powerful than you realize because you did not experience the nation’s house arrest.
When the government tries to lock down the country the next time, you have a proven reason to be on the road, out and about, doing things. This is far more powerful than you realize because you did not experience the nation’s house arrest.
7. You Can Make Yourself Unnecessary
Build your company to the point where you are not required for day-to-day operations. This is an awesome place to be. You do not need to be at the office on any given day. You can delegate all of the things you dislike. You can work on what you want, what you enjoy. This is where I live. It’s a great place.
8. You Can Still Come to Service World
Let’s face it, the single best reason to keep running your company is you can come to the Service World Expo and expense it. Amazing learning opportunities aside, this is an industry wide reunion. You get to get together with all of the contractors you made friends with through the years in a single location.
Come to the Service World Expo in Louisville, KY September 21-24. Mix with the best contractors in the industry. Attend a three-hour workshop with Gino Wickman, author of “Traction.” Explore the industry’s best residentially focused trade show. Attend dozens of industry related breakouts.