Let’s start by getting a lay of the land, should you be at a point in your business career where the thought of transitioning the business to family, a third party, or simply closing it down. This is a very scary time for a leader to go through. Your life and your work have been so tightly bound together that the collision of reality and emotions can genuinely feel overwhelming. You are going to need a team of trusted advisors who coordinate together your best outcome based on your desires, intentions, and other factors like tax and legal ramifications.
Much like when you may have started the business or acquired it, you may or may not have had a lot of experience in running the business. You very well could have the technical knowledge of the product or service, but the office end might very well have been something new and surely not your initial strong suit. You might have gone it alone and figured it out. Congratulations on your perseverance. Now that the business has grown and is part of your financial portfolio, you could be want to go it alone again. It could be self-satisfying or maybe some ego.
You are likely only going to be selling, exiting your business once. If you plan on starting another business or buying one, etc., then it is definitely an opportunity to learn as much as you can from this experience so you can leverage that knowledge for the next one. This is why having a facilitator who has assisted many owners and leaders in the transition process is part of your perpetuation team.
Not discounting the importance of other advisors, who are necessary in the transaction, like legal counsel, tax counsel, real estate, etc., they all have their models and plans of their past transactions. Yes, they represent you and your best interests, but do they help you navigate the emotional dynamics of exiting your business?
Early on in mapping out your best intentions, it is good to view your options not through the lens of a model or box of legal papers, but through the lens of what you actually want to accomplish in this significant personal event in your life. Over the past 35+ years, JKL Associates has been honored to have been a part of numerous perpetuations and exit strategies. Each owner had their own set of unique elements they wanted to achieve. Sometimes the legal and tax folks were pretty baffled at the strategies but were successful in architecting the sale documents to conform to the owner’s objectives.
By utilizing a facilitator early in your thought process and preparing for a best-outcome transition, you can be guided into many areas of thought that need your attention and subsequent resolution. This gives the owner a bridge to walk across as they make a significant transition not only for their business but in their personal lives.
If the transition is within the family, then a final objective is to sift through all the family dynamics that could occur if the transaction went one way or another. Keeping the family whole and allowing them all to gather around the table at holidays means that it is not just about the paperwork and tax ramifications but about how each member of the family views the final outcome and if they walked along the proper path of better understanding and appreciating why the plan was crafted in a particular way.
If you or a colleague is thinking about exit or perpetuation of the business in the next 3-5 years, now is the time to enlist a Promise Guide to walk the path with you. Give JKL Associates a call at FL – (407) 984-7346 or MI (313) 527-7945
Journey On!
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QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS – EMAIL US AT PARTNERS@JKLASSOCIATES.COM OR CALL OUR OFFICES – MI AT (313) 527-7945 FL AT (407) 984-7246
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