In '97 I took on $400k of seed money and rolled my Business Systems Consulting business into an Application and Web Development startup. We quickly grew the company to 30 employees and about $2MM/year in revenue. But my partner and I were 50/50 owners and always butting heads which ended up causing 100 hour work weeks - I wanted out so that I could my life back.

In '99 I found a buyer for the business and was really excited when I found out that the circular customer life cycle that I had created doubled our valuation. We did an all stock deal for $4MM. I had a 20% stake in the surviving company and a manageable 60 hour work week.

In the transaction, we used my partners family attorney and CPA along with one financial/tax advisor. It was an incomplete team at best, and I paid the price. The surviving company was bankrupt in less than a year, and I had taken no cash and not required an Unroll Clause so that I could get my business back. My net worth went from millions to almost nothing over night.

Here is what I learned from that:
*Begin with the end in mind: What do you want out of the business? What's the exit strategy? Be crystal clear on this point.
*No 50/50 partners: If you must have a partner, make sure an odd number of people can quickly vote on the issue, and that all are solid team players.
*Dream Team: This is probably the largest transaction of your life. Spend the money to get a rock solid team to handle the sell of your business. Use an exit strategy consultant that will look at the big picture.
*Cash or Unroll: Make sure that you get your cash, or at least a solid Unroll Clause with a realistic way to unroll it if your buyer fails.

In case you are wondering, I am doing Business System Selection and Implementation and could not be happier. (Ok, maybe I would be a bit happier if I had cashed out the $2MM :-)