Before selling your business, take time to craft a new post-sale identity for yourself.
After relinquishing the CEO title, the respect, deference, and perks you enjoyed will no longer automatically come your way. It can be a big blow to your ego – unless you are already excited about your next endeavors.
Even if you no longer need to work for money, having a renewed sense of purpose and refined definition of success can help you avoid dwelling in the past and becoming anxious and depressed.
Here are a few steps to consider.
Assess what you have learned from your experiences (and mistakes) as a business owner. But don’t wallow in regrets for things you could have and should have done differently. Explore ways to atone for mistakes or share your hard-earned wisdom. Consider mentoring others, spending more time with family, or publishing your insights.
Broaden your horizons. Being a business owner requires you to focus primarily on activities and travel that can advance your company’s growth strategies and finances.
Start seeing the world through a wider lens as you prepare for your post-sale future. What topics or organizations have you always wanted to learn more about? What travel destinations and experiences have always piqued your curiosity? Jot down some of the possibilities for further consideration.
Focus on family, travel, or wellness for a while. This can help clear your head of lingering regrets about your career and boost awareness that there is more to life than work. You may also need to make new friends outside of your previous work environment.
If you are dealing with poor health or damaged relationships with your spouse or family members, the period after the sale is a good time to adjust your daily focus and routines.
List the skills and experiences that could benefit others in a new capacity. Consider sharing your industry knowledge and experience as a CEO as a board member or advisor to investment groups, associations, non-profit groups, or up-and-coming businesses.
In 2023, the Executive Advisory research and recruitment agency projected that 64% of companies would be seeking directors who are retired CEOs or COOs (compared to 40% seeking active CEOs).
Tackle a big new project that will give you a sense of accomplishment. For example, you might want to learn how to publish and promote a book, make educational videos, train to run a 10K race, learn to play a musical instrument, join a theater group, publish photo books, or volunteer to serve a non-profit organization.
Rethink how you measure success. As a business leader, you grew comfortable measuring results in terms of numbers and percentages. In your post-sale career, you may need to redefine success in less tangible ways.
Psychologists measure “quality of life” by looking at an individual’s success not only in terms of financial security, but also in terms of:(1) health and personal safety; (2) relations with your spouse, family members, and friends: (3) social, community, and civic activities; and (4) personal development and fulfillment.
Hire a life coach to help you with the transition from owner. Life coaches and retirement coaches have worked with many former business owners and executives who feel addicted to the work of running a business.
In a Forbes blog post by John Egan, retirement coach Scott Miller of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management points out that “Retirement involves a tremendous amount of change in a person’s life. While most people are ready for freedom and extra time, they are not ready for all the changes.”
An experienced coach can help you zero in on the right goals for you and develop action plans for achieving them. .
If you feel too young to retire, network with fellow entrepreneurs who have transitioned from being business owners to being board members, consultants, investors, or new business founders.
Be prepared to answer a common question. The difficult days and weeks after the sale of your business can affect you in ways you might never have imagined.
Still, every time you meet someone new, they invariably ask: “What do you do?”
Instead of hemming and hawing to deliver a coherent answer, you should be able to enthusiastically talk about your new activities.
In my memoir, “They Named You Right,” I reflect on many of the lessons I learned during the process of working for a family business, buying a business, selling a business, and moving on to the next stages of my life.
Many of the post-sale challenges I struggled with are similar to those my sell-side coaching clients face. It always makes me happy when one of my clients sells their business and successfully moves on to the next stage of their life.
RECOMMENDED READING
Forbes: Do You Need a Retirement Coach? by John Egan
Forbes: What is a Retirement Coach? by John Egan
Executive Advisory New Board Demand Forecast 2023