Did you ever get a mystery pain in your body? And you ignore it, hoping it goes away? 9.99999 times out of 10, it doesn’t. It just gets worse and worse, and you wind up in more and more pain. 

Business owners experience that all the time by ignoring the issues that should really be on their front burners. For baby boomers nearing retirement age, those issues include selling their business.

“Denial” is one of the five stages of grief, and you can be sure that if you are in denial about some of these issues, you’ll wind up grieving your bad business decision. I believe there are three stages of selling – and you better hope you don’t wind up in the third stage.

Stage 1:  Thinking about Selling
This is a common one, and everyone enters it.  This is when you first get the bug about selling, and the warning signs start to appear.  Some examples include:

You know retirement is inevitable. Your friends are talking about it, you’re thinking about it, your spouse wants to do it. All the signals are coming that you need to retire.

You have an illness, but you keep working through it.  You’re not as young as you used to be, and you’re suffering from a condition that’s slowing you down.  Slowing, but not stopping.

You’re thinking about other opportunities besides your business. It’s time to reinvest to build your business up, but you simply don’t have the interest (or perhaps the capital).  You’re really looking at other opportunities.

Those are just a few examples, and the smart owners act on these before they move on to Stage 2.  But just in case you don’t…

Stage 2: Problems are Starting to Appear
What were warning signs are now turning into problems.  All those things you worried would happen some day are starting to occur, and you’re starting to realize the gravity of the situation.  For example:

You’re illness has progressed, and now you don’t have the capacity to lead your company.  This is bad news, because you really need to be there to lead the transition.

Your family, especially your spouse, is putting enormous pressure on you to step down.  Transitioning out of a business is tough enough. It’s a thousand times worse when you’ve got intense pressure at home to move.

Your business is starting to fail, and in order to keep it afloat, those investments you were supposed to make are now mission critical.

But still, some owners don’t move, which leads us to the stark and brutal truths of Stage 3.  At this point, you have to sell.

Stage 3: Have to Sell

You’re no longer physically able to go to work.

Your business has collapsed and your key staff has left.

Your spouse has left you because you won’t stop working.

Obviously Stage 3 seems a bit extreme.  That’s because it is. Many owners wait, wait and wait some more, and then find themselves in this predicament. Don’t kid yourself. When the warning signs are on the horizon, that doesn’t mean they’re going away. Get out while you’re ahead, because over time, you’re going to fall behind.


Rock LaManna helps printing owners and CEOs use their company financials to prioritize and choose the proper strategic path. He is President and CEO of the LaManna Alliance, and provides guidance on how to grow a printing business, merge with a synergistic partner, make a strategic acquisition, or create a succession plan. Rock can be reached by email at [email protected].