Retirement is getting closer and there is no plan

You may have a date in mind for slowing down without having decided what happens to the business. Perhaps the date has moved twice. There is always another contract to finish, another employee to hire or another reason that this year would be inconvenient.

That does not necessarily mean you are reluctant to retire. You may simply be unsure what you would be agreeing to if you started a conversation about selling.

Would someone expect you to name a price? Would employees find out? Would your children think you had made a decision without them? Could the company even interest a buyer if so much still depends on you?

Those are reasonable questions to bring to a first meeting. You do not need to arrive with the answers.

BDC’s August 2026 analysis found that only 24% of surveyed businesses likely to exit within five years reported a formal succession plan or exit strategy. That finding concerns a specific group of respondents, not every Canadian owner. It does, however, describe a recognizable problem: an intended departure can be much further along than the preparation for it.

What do you want to stop doing

Before asking who might buy the company, describe the work you want to leave behind. An owner who wants fewer emergency calls has a different problem from an owner who needs to release most of their wealth from the business.

Consider an illustrative example. The founder of a regional maintenance company wants to travel with their spouse while both are healthy. The business earns money, and the founder enjoys customer visits. What they dislike is being the only person who can resolve scheduling disputes and approve unusual purchases.

An immediate sale might eventually suit them. For now, a capable manager with proper authority could address part of the problem. Keeping ownership would still leave the family exposed to the company’s financial performance, however. A quieter telephone would not turn their investment into retirement cash.

Now consider an owner who already has a strong management team but needs sale proceeds to support retirement. Delegating further may improve the company, but it does not answer the funding question. The owner needs a realistic view of potential proceeds, their timing and the risks attached to receiving them.

The options have different conditions

Selling the whole business to an outside buyer can release capital and transfer ownership. It may still require a handover period. Some offers include payments that arrive later or depend on future results. The words “full sale” do not tell you when your working responsibilities or financial exposure end.

Selling part of the company may provide some liquidity and a partner for the next stage. It also creates a new ownership relationship. You would need to understand who makes decisions and how you could eventually sell the balance. Partial sales are not available on attractive terms to every business.

Keeping the company while appointing management can preserve ownership and potential distributions. It requires a business that can afford and support that management, together with an owner willing to oversee an investment rather than every operating decision. Profits and distributions remain uncertain.

A management purchase may deserve consideration where there is genuine interest, capability and a credible funding plan. A family-owned business does not automatically have a family successor, and a valued employee does not automatically have the means or appetite to buy it.

There are also businesses for which selling particular assets or an orderly wind-down warrants examination. An honest options discussion should identify that possibility where relevant. Nobody should promise a buyer before understanding what can actually transfer.

You do not need to choose among these paths in the first conversation. You need to discover which ones are plausible enough to investigate.

Start with the information already available

For an exploratory meeting, I would begin with what the company does, who owns it, how it earns money and what you want your involvement to look like. Existing financial statements can help when you are comfortable sharing them through an agreed confidential process. You should not need to commission a large report simply to explain your situation.

Include constraints that could change the choices. A lease renewal next year, a co-owner with a different timetable or a key employee considering retirement may matter more initially than a detailed buyer list. If your spouse expects you to stop work completely, say so before anyone designs a two-year consulting arrangement.

Ask what the advisor proposes to do next, what it costs and whether it involves contacting anyone outside the advisory team. The scope of a confidential discussion should be clear. Agreeing to explore options should not leave you uncertain about whether a sale process has begun.

The useful outcome may be modest: check one financial assumption, talk privately with your family, or resolve a management gap before reconsidering a sale. Put a date beside that next step so the question does not disappear into another busy season.

My own position is straightforward. The owners who get the best outcome are the ones who start this conversation two or three years before they need it, because that is when the options are still open. Once a buyer is at the table, most of what would have improved the result can no longer be done in the time available.

If retirement is becoming real but the plan is still unclear, I welcome a confidential exploratory conversation. “I do not know what my options are” is a perfectly workable place to begin.