10/09/2026
Should you sell your business?
Most owners start with the price.
What will a buyer pay? What's the business worth?
But if the sale has to fund the rest of your life, there's a better first question:
How much do you actually need?
70% of business owners say they need to sell to retire, according to a 2023 Exit Planning Institute study.
Yet the purchase price and what you walk away with are two very different numbers.
Here's a simplified example from our latest article:
$20 million purchase price
Minus $4 million rolled into the buyer
Minus $1.5 million in escrow
Minus a $2 million earnout (not guaranteed)
= $12.5 million cash at closing
After estimated federal taxes, about $9.5 million is left to work with.
That's less than half the headline price.
And it's before attorney fees, banker or broker fees, state taxes, and working capital adjustments.
So what can that support?
In our illustration, a $10 million portfolio supported about $470,000 a year over a 25-year retirement, or $325,000 a year over 45 years. (Before taxes, in today's dollars. For illustrative purposes only.)
There's another piece owners often miss.
The business may be paying for part of your life today. Cars, insurance, whole family on the phone plan.
Waiting has its own risk, too. Half of business exits are forced by one of the five Ds: death, disability, divorce, distress, or disagreement.
The best time to sell is on your own timeline.
In the full article, Kristin McKenna, CFP®, President of Darrow Wealth Management, explains how to find your number, what the purchase price doesn't show, and how to lower your risk if you're not ready to sell yet.
Thinking about selling your business? Before you weigh any offer, figure out what you spend, what you'd keep after taxes and deal terms, and whether it's enough.
