Half-Retirement™ is an alternative business exit strategy. Instead of selling the business, the owner keeps the income stream. This is attractive because Half-Retirement™ eliminates much of the reason for selling a business – headaches. By eliminating the sources of ownership stress, the possibility of not selling the business becomes a viable reality, and the income stream can be saved.
If you have ever sold a business, you know it can be a long process. There are many moving parts in a business, and they all need to be part of the negotiation. In some cases, selling a business only takes a few months, in other cases, it takes years.
Half-Retirement™ is no different. Yes, there is a Half-Retirement™ Mindset that is required to pull off Half-Retirement™, but there is also work . You can’t decide to sell your business today and have it off your hands tomorrow. The same is true for Half-Retirement™. You cannot decide to Half-Retire® today and be Half-Retired™ tomorrow. When you sell a business, there is quite a bit of work preparing financial information for the buyer as well as contract negotiations. In the Half-Retire® process, neither of those activities will take your time, but different ones will .
To successfully Half-Retire®, you will need to systematically detangle yourself from your current work. Keeping the business humming while you are detangling is tricky. You will need to follow a system such as our 98/2 Delegation process to find your starting point, as well as know which portion of your work is undelegable. You may need to adjust your business model, operational model, and people model. These changes may be minor and painless or significant and difficult just like a tricky business sale can be.
Don’t be discouraged. It’s taken you many years to get the business to this point. You may be feeling a little “out of gas,” (read the post “How do I Half-Retire®, I’m Out of Gas”) but you are on the precipice of a significant financial opportunity. Half-Retirement™ can radically improve your financial position and your work-life balance. It’s worth the effort.
Remember, as you complete portions of the Half-Retire® process, you gain time. You can parlay this time into accomplishing more Half-Retire® tasks, and the snowball grows! You can accomplish full Half-Retirement™ (working only two, half-days a week), so don’t settle for Half-Retired™ in name only. Please email or call us to tell us how we can help.
