Shawnee Love   •  
December 8, 2017

If you are looking to sell your business, and worrying about multipliers, and due diligence requests from potential buyers, the last thing you may be thinking about is HR.

And even if you are thinking about it, you might not realize all of the aspects of the transition process that HR can help with.  Things like:

• Getting the business ready to operate without you,
• A communication plan and speaking notes,
• A transition plan to the new owners,
• Identification of potential issues due to differing leadership styles between the selling owner and the buyers,
• Wrap up of employment letters, notice and/or pay,
• Retention strategies for those key employees,
• Benefits changes,
• New contracts of employment,
• Confidentiality management, and
• Identification of people issues which could affect the sale (people on leave, unusual compensation arrangements, promises made but not yet fulfilled, etc.),

Additionally, you may be surprised to find out that even though selling is usually a good news story, you might need some help with your own emotions surrounding the event (selling your baby isn’t easy after all, even if it doesn’t need you anymore) not to mention what you are going to do the first day you don’t need to show up for work anymore.

That’s why you need an HR pro in your corner.  They take care of these critical transition details which are easy to overlook.  Additionally, a good HR support during an exit will increase the likelihood that the new buyers can be successful as well because it improves the transition execution.  Don’t be like the 70% of mergers and acquisitions which fail, get good HR help.