The day before closing, an email landed from our biggest customer.
They were churning.
A six-figure contract. A material part of our revenue. Just before Christmas.
I had been spreadsheet rich for a few weeks now and the deal was already done in my head.
Now I'm sure it's dead.
I call the buyer and tell him.
As it's ringing I'm thinking, This is going to kill the deal for sure.
He tells me, "Look, that's disappointing, but we're not buying the company for one deal. We're buying it for the future."
We still got the deal done and now I remember it as just one of many rollercoasters.
I've sold four companies. Two small wins, a big win and a loss.
Every one was different. But each ran through the same five feelings.
1. Thinking About It: Anxiety
It starts with a realisation. You and your business aren't where you want to be.
Sometimes that's for good reasons and you're ready to move on.
Sometimes it's for bad reasons as the business isn't working out.
Either way, the feeling is anxiety and uncertainty. And a head full of questions:
What is the business actually worth? (Start with How Much Is Your Agency Worth?)
Who are the buyers?
Can I actually sell it?
Have I built any value?
This can last days, months or years but eventually every business has this moment.
2. Going All In: Commitment
Once you decide to sell and are truly committed - there's no half-arsing it.
Nobody's going to sell your business for you. Even if you have a broker, you're still going to need to sell it through management presentations and general excitement.
I've never used a broker and have always gone direct. But I expect they're a great option in big markets or when you don't know who the buyers will be.
But going direct doesn't mean one deck sent to 50 different people.
You build a different presentation for each buyer. What they're really interested in and what's in it for them (see How to Negotiate the Sale of Your Company).
Then it becomes a sales process. And in any sales process:
The best answer is yes.
The second-best answer is a quick no.
The third-best answer is maybe.
You'll get a lot of maybes.
People want to stay in the loop and see how it goes. That can mean weeks without a reply and wondering if they are still interested. It can eat a lot of your time and energy.
The formal steps are in How to Sell Your Agency. The feeling is commitment, and you'll need all of it.
3. The Wait: Fear
You find the right buyer. But you still can't transact tomorrow.
Deals take weeks, sometimes months with tons of analysis, strategy and negotiation.
It's like the final weeks of pregnancy where time moves extremely slowly.
This is where uncertainty turns into fear.
A dying deal feels like lost momentum. Or it's the back and forth on terms. The buyer takes a little longer to get back to you, and you start questioning yourself.
Did I push it too far? Should I email again? Change the terms?
Then there are the real shocks, like that email before Christmas.
Moments like that wreak havoc on your nervous system.
There's an old line - "I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened."
That's true when you're going through something as intimate as selling your business.
Most of the worries never happen.
4. Closing: Relief, Then Recalibration
In the final stages of selling my company in 2020, I went to one of our leadership team members with the incredible news. We were selling the company, and we had the next step for the business.
I expected her to be ecstatic.
She looked at me and said, "That's cool. What's it mean for me?"
I completely recalibrated.
She hadn't been on this journey for the last few months like I had. All the twists and turns, right to the end of the road.
She was still back on planet Earth.
My job was to bring her on the journey. In her language - what it means for her, not how excited I am.
That's the work after closing. You start again on the emotional process, but this time it's with your team.
Change in ownership can be a time for people to reassess where they're at in their career. As the deal is announced and the dust settles - some people will leave. That's fine.
Treat everyone well and keep them focused on the future. (More in The First 100 Days of an Acquisition.)
Speak in their language: what it means for them, not how excited you are.
5. Letting Go: How Attached Are You?
Letting go is different for everybody. I think it's directly tied to how attached you are to the business.
There's the admin side. Weekly syncs. Monthly reconciliations.
Then there's the identity side.
My loss brought relief. The business just wasn't working, and we found an outlet for it. The weight of the world came off my shoulders.
My win was the opposite. It sent me soul searching. What do I do next? Who am I?
I haven't mastered letting go. But here's what I've found.
The best way to let go is to find yourself again in something else.
I truly believe the best form of purpose is serving others. For me, that's building Wolf IQ.
Thinking About Selling Your Company?
Here's what I'd say:
Expect the anxiety, then go get answers. Target buyers, business saleability, valuation.
Tailor every pitch. One deck sent to 50 buyers isn't a sales process.
Push for a yes or a quick no. Don't let the maybes eat weeks of your life. Get people in or out.
When bad news lands mid-deal, tell the buyer straight away. They will find out anyway.
After closing, talk to your team in their terms. They're starting where you started.