Feelings are obviously very personal and will vary with each situation.  By no means am I an expert on feelings, on the contrary, I have been called insensitive, frank, blunt, uncaring, unemotional, and a few more that I can’t repeat.  My intent here is not to tell you how you are going to feel but more an overview of the feelings that you might experience.  I ran my business with my head and if I experienced a wave of emotions after selling my business then you may too.  Each person will have different levels of feelings but I want you to be aware of that closing your business is an emotional experience.

Change is hard, regardless of who you are.  Some people are better at handling change than others.  Generally, entrepreneurs are on the far end of the scale when it comes to living with change.  What I’ve found though is that many business owners look to sell their business after they have settled into a routine.  The fire is out of their eyes, the drive to improve and increase revenue seems to settle down.  They are not open to growth and generally are at a point that the business satisfies their personal and financial needs and they don’t want to work any harder.  They are in a rut but they like it there.

Most business owners have a love/hate relationship with their business.  The business often times has provided their highest highs and lowest lows (except for birth and marriage, bla, bla, bla).  Now lets start with the bad feelings you might experience so we can end on a high note and you can leave feeling happy.  The first feeling will be regret.  This feeling can come from the price you received all the way to what you are going to do next in your life.  This business has been your family and leaving it is difficult.  You will reflect on the changes you made, the growth times and hires you made.  Regret might be a short term feeling but something to be aware of. 

The next will be jeolousy.  Not everyone will be excited about you selling your business.  Many people will believe that they are the reason your company was successful and are jealous that you sold it.  Family members may think that you just made “pay dirt” and might come to you for money.  Or worse, they aren’t used to you being around the house so much and now your start to run the house like your business. Finally, your customers might feel like you abandoned them and now they have to decide what to do.

Then there is anger. This is usually towards the buyer as they come in and start making changes.  You mentally understand that you don’t own it but watching them is like watching a train wreck.  It hurts and angers you when they don’t ask your opinion or they go into different directions with the company. Then it all breaks when the buyer brings in their own employees and removes those that did so well for you.  It’s like seeing your 20 year old daughter go out with a biker dude and you really don’t want to watch where this is going to go.

On the good side there are some awesome feelings you will also experience. Relief, relaxed and rejuvenated.  The relief comes and goes since you did close the sale and received some money, but you also financed part of the sale price.  So every time the next payment clears the bank, you have another level of relief. It’s not until the final check clears that the complete relief comes.  Relief will also come immediately as the weight of the company comes off your shoulders.  The cashflow, payroll, sales, collections, taxes, etc. are no longer your problem and that will be a great, great relief.

Relaxation comes from the relief that you are no longer responsible for the day to day operations and you can pull the after burners off to take some time off.  It will be an amazing feeling to just do nothing.  You can not set your alarm, go work out at 11:00am and maybe not fall asleep at 9:00pm on a Friday night because the work week made you so exhausted.  This is a great time but it only lasts a little while.  Soon you will get bored and start to fill your time with house projects and hobbies that you love.  Enjoy it, it’s fantastic!

Rejuvenation is after the relief and relaxation and then hopefully you will become the person you once were.  You will not always be on the phone, distracted, unhealthy and tired.  You can find the things that fill your batteries and start to give back.  Your new found freedom offers the world of opportunity so take it.  Find your fire again, find your kindness and love, and find what really matters to you and embrace it.  

The emotional rollercoaster will be big but at least you are aware of it.  Embrace the change, be open to the feelings that you have and be honest with yourself as you go through it.  There will be some good and bad, but in the end it is what you make of it that really matters!  Make this day your best day ever!     

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Selling a Small Business, Sell Your Business, Exit Stories, Exit and Answers, Emotional Selling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.