Selling your business is one of the most important negotiations of your life—and it’s easy to lose control if you’re not careful. In this post, we unpack the mental traps sellers fall into, the pressure to become passive, and the single mindset shift that can keep you in the driver’s seat. You only get one shot—don’t give the buyer the upper hand.

Perhaps our biggest takeaway is a shift from Boomer owners who often have a singular passion for their business to Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z who often see their business as one of many life passions.

What could this generational shift in private business ownership mean for your business?

You’ve accomplished everything you set out to do; probably more. Now you’re ready to exit the business you’ve built from the ground up,

After reviewing your options, you’ve determined the best decision is to run a formal sale process to fetch the best offer for your company. Under this scenario, for a variety of reasons more than ever before, your most likely buyer will be a “financial buyer”. Let me tell you who this buyer is, and what they are looking for in your business.

While purchase price is an important factor, and often the most important, it is not the only factor to consider. An offer is only just that, an offer. It is not a closed deal. To get to a closed deal, you should also consider offer terms and certainty to close, in addition to price.

You’ve got your anxiety about the inevitable: your exit from your company. You’ve heard a few stories and you know that selling your company is just as competitive as making a buck in your industry.

In your day-to-day business, you know the market and you’ve played the game for decades. But in the market for the buying and selling of businesses, you know it’s an unfair fight. You know that someday soon you’re going to need to step into the ring.