[4] This isn’t eBay

According to a 2023 report by Project Equity, 2.9 million business owners plan to sell in the next decade.  In Alabama, 53% of businesses are owned by people age 55 and older.

Business is intensely personal.  Careers shape lives and they impact families and communities. We meet every day with founders and owners who have poured themselves into their companies. Their fingerprints are everywhere.

Unfortunately, Project Equity also reports that 1 in 3 business owners over 50 have a hard time finding a buyer.

We recently had the opportunity to meet with a business owner in his bedroom.  He was having health problems and working through his options.  As he lay in his bed, you could feel the fire which drove him to start the company 25 years earlier.  There is nothing corporate about a meeting like that - it is raw and real.  

When we talk to owners, we often use the language of ‘marriage’.  This isn’t eBay - you are picking a partner.  

But, the better word might be ‘adoption’.  

Who will take care of your people and customers when you’re not around?