Prepare the owner to leave — not just the company to sell.

Define the role before closing

Staying temporarily to help a transition is very different from selling your business and accidentally becoming an employee in the company you used to own. If you’re staying, the arrangement goes in writing — not just compensation. Title. Who you report to. What decisions you can make, and which ones you can no longer make. Hours. Duration. And what success looks like when the transition period is finished.

The BBC Owner Departure Plan

A deliberate 30-, 90-, 180- or 365-day plan that transfers relationships, knowledge, responsibility and authority from you to the new leadership — starting the first day after closing, not month eleven of a twelve-month agreement.

1. Phase 01

   Introduce

   Personally introduce the new leadership to key employees, customers, vendors and advisers. The message is clear: “This is the person leading the company going forward.”

2. Phase 02

   Transfer

   Move the knowledge out of your head and into the organization — relationships, processes, open projects, historical problems, banking, bonding, insurance and supplier relationships.

3. Phase 03

   Step back

   Stop being the first phone call. Five days a week become three, three become one; daily calls become a weekly meeting. The company has to prove it can operate without you.

4. Phase 04

   Leave

   There should be a date. Not “we’ll see how things go.” A date. Your employees need it, the buyer needs it — and you need it.

Retained equity: twenty percent of what?

Retaining ownership can be a very good deal. It can also leave a substantial amount of your money tied up in a company you no longer control. So we ask two questions — would you sell to this buyer on these terms, and if the cash were already in the bank, would you voluntarily invest it in this buyer, this management team and this plan? Then we work through what the percentage actually represents: what class of ownership, in which entity, with what distribution, information, voting and exit rights, how much debt sits above it, and what happens if the buyer’s strategy fails.

Protect your own future too

A transition agreement shouldn’t only protect the buyer. Compensation, consulting fees, expense reimbursement, termination provisions, non-compete and non-solicitation obligations, confidentiality, indemnification, and what happens to remaining seller financing or earn-outs if the relationship ends early — reviewed with qualified legal and tax advisers before the transaction is completed.

Life after the sale

Financial freedom and personal fulfillment are two different things. Money can give you freedom without telling you what to do with it. What are you going to do the morning after the sale — not the first week, not the vacation, but your next purpose? That conversation belongs before the closing table, not six months afterwards.