The Case for Selling: How an Exit Can Give a Founder Back Their Focus
For many entrepreneurs, building a business begins with a passion for the work itself. However, as the business grows, the work you once loved gets buried under the work that simply has to get done.
A CIBC survey of more than 1,000 small business owners found that two-thirds work longer hours than they did as employees, and 61% reported significantly higher stress. More than half said they’d given up most hobbies since starting their business. Separately, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has cited research finding that 48% of owners experienced burnout in a single year.
While these numbers are discouraging, they don’t necessarily mean something has gone wrong. In many ways they’re evidence that the business worked; it grew big enough to demand all of this.
Still, they raise the question: is this the work I actually want to be doing?
Selling as a Means to Reclaim Your Focus
When founders think about selling, the conversation often focuses on retirement or liquidity, but many owners pursue a transaction to regain focus.
The right acquirer can provide support in areas such as operations, finance, HR, and legal. That was the experience of Hans Hallin, who founded the Swedish industrial software firm MOPSsys. Two and a half years after selling to Perseus, Hans was still mentoring his successor monthly and working one or two days a week.
Tony Dietrich described a similar experience following the sale of Campana. With Perseus helping in areas such as finance, HR, and legal, he was able to focus more of his energy on customers and the business itself. As he put it, the acquisition gave him “the best of both worlds”—the ability to operate like a small business while benefiting from the resources of a much larger organization.
For founders who still love the business but no longer enjoy carrying every operational responsibility, selling can be less about stepping away and more about getting back to work that inspired them to build the company in the first place.
Selling as a Means to Start a New Chapter
Another option for founders considering an exit is a clean break and head into retirement.
Andrew Scothern, who co-founded Ibcos in 1979, always said he wanted to retire early and meant it. By 58, with the business thriving and a capable team in place, he stepped away rather than hanging on simply because he could. What the sale bought him was time, and he spent it without compromise sailing the Caribbean, diving in the South Pacific, climbing Kilimanjaro twice, crossing six continents.
Brad Bell saw his exit as an opportunity for something more. After building his business for nearly 30 years, he sold and went on to lead Mission Aviation Fellowship, a humanitarian organization he’d wanted to join for more than a decade. Brad’s mentor posed a question that stayed with him through the acquisition process: “You’ve had business success, now how are you going to have significance?” For Bell, his exit was the thing that made a second act of significance possible.
The Part That Worries Founders Most
For most owners, the most difficult part of selling is ensuring their employees and customers will be taken care of after the deal closes. That’s why choosing the right buyer is often the most important decision in the process. While founders may be ready to step back from ownership, many are not ready to see the business they’ve spent years building fundamentally changed by a new owner whose priorities differ from their own.
At Perseus, businesses are acquired with a long-term mindset. Our buy-and-hold model is designed to preserve what makes each company successful while providing access to the support and capabilities needed to continue growing. That approach allows founders to pursue their personal and professional goals with confidence that their employees, customers, and company will remain in good hands.
When the right fit exists between investor and entrepreneur, a transaction can offer more than financial security. It can create the freedom to refocus, retire, or pursue new ambitions, knowing the business you’ve spent years building will continue to thrive.
A Different Way to Think About Selling
For many founders the hardest part of selling is the concern that the culture, values, and relationships they’ve built will disappear once ownership changes hands.
With the right buyer, a sale can create confidence that the business, your employees, and customers will continue to thrive as you enter your next chapter.
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