Work can be exhausting. When you’ve worked in the same industry, in the same building, with the same people, for 40 years, you get tired. When you start out you have a list of business goals to achieve and once you’ve achieved them, fatigue sets in. Your mind drifts to the future, to cruises and golf courses and time away from the day-to-day drag of running your insurance agency.
Half a Lifetime Can Be Tiring
When you decide to sell your agency, that drag is at its strongest. It’s common for owners to feel the full weight of their time in the business weighing on their shoulders. Most owners in that position can’t wait to get the sale done. The funny thing is, achieving that business goal and agreeing to sell can change their minds.
The fatigue that sets in is usually associated with age or with the stagnation of the business. When you’re dealing with the day-to-day operation of a successful business that isn’t growing, you can grow weary. With most of your business goals achieved and half a lifetime of work behind you, passion for the business and drive to succeed fade away. Instead you’re left with apathy, exhaustion and dreams of retirement.
One of the things we tell owners when they tell us they’re tired, is to wait and see how you feel closer to the sale. An amazing thing happens when you sell your agency, you can fall in love with the business again.
Falling in Love Again
The process of selling your agency will make you do a lot of things you’ve never done before. You will look at your agency, the successes you’ve had and the business goals you’ve achieved with a new set of eyes. You will look at the agency as an outsider. When you discuss the value of the agency with a financial advisor, it can give you a whole new perspective.
By talking about the history of the business, you remind yourself of the work it took to build it. You remember the feeling of satisfaction when you achieved a business goal. The drive to be successful never leaves you; it just gets pushed into the background. When you get a reminder of your abilities that drive can come flooding back.
We have dealt with clients who started the sales process with one goal, retirement, and discovered whole new ones during the sale. They went from exhausted to restless, from weary to excited and from apathetic to driven. We have watched owners fall in love all over again.
For a free consultation with the Sukay & Associates executive team, please click here. We can assist, and talk you through your options.