Ready to sell? I’m talking about YOU, not your business.

There comes a moment when the founder says: enough. The itch to sell starts as a whisper and builds into a drumbeat. But how do you know if you are you ready?

It starts with two deceptively simple questions:

• What do you want to do with the rest of your life?
• And how much money will you need to do that?

Money first.

Many simply pluck a figure from the air — £2 million, £6 million, £10 million — with all the rigour of a toddler selecting sweets. Others adopt the “as much as I can get” route, which is useless.

The sensible way is to calculate backwards. Ignoring tax – because it keeps changing – let’s say you want £2 million net, and if the market offers 4x earnings, you will need £500K EBITDA. At a 20% margin, that’s ~£2.5 million revenue — an easily achievable target. But £2M may not be enough.

Let’s assume you want to retire on £150K a year. The rule of thumb is that a pension pot should be roughly 25 times the desired annual income. So, for £150K pa, a pot of £3.75 million is needed. Add, say, £300K to clear mortgages and debts. That takes you to £4,050,000.

Remember to account for generosity (voluntary or otherwise): buyers often expect 25% of proceeds to be shared with key staff. So, to retain £4.05 million net, a sale price of around £5.4 million is needed. Which, in turn, demands a profit of £1.35 million — implying revenues north of £6.75 million.

Daunting? Possibly. Impossible? Hardly. But it’s a long way from the starting figure. So do the maths.

And what about the rest of your life?

Most owners, mumble something about retiring, or doing a bit of consulting. These answers have the conviction of someone trying to choose a starter in a restaurant they didn’t pick.

Here’s some unsolicited but battle-tested advice: don’t retire entirely. The fantasy of endless leisure wears thin fast. Your friends will still be working, and your “spontaneous trip to Barcelona?” will clash with their work.

More dangerous is the slow drift of intellectual atrophy. The best antidote? Keep working — just on your terms.

Of course, most acquirers will require you to stick around. That said, an earn-out doesn’t have to be grim. Think of it as your Working Life 2.0: new faces, new dynamics, and — if you’re lucky — a bit of professional reinvention. When I joined Engine Group post-sale, being surrounded by adland creatives and digital wonks was hugely rejuvenating.

If you do plan a post-sale pivot, take the transition period seriously. Serve your time, avoid scandal, and start plotting your next act. Non-competes will limit your options — lateral thinking is your new best friend.

Focus, as ever, is the difference. Focus on what you think you want to do for the rest of your life, and focus on the arithmetic to work out how much you need to get there. Then focus on getting your business to the point where it can deliver for you.

As always, time is short, so good luck and get cracking.