The first action that you need to take is discuss your plans with a business attorney and your accountant. There are multiple methods to sell your business, and each require different preparations and structures before you sell your business. Speaking with me and your accountant will help you know what you need to do to be best prepared to sell your business, make the most profit from the sale, and make the sale as smooth as possible.

Among other options, you can sell your business to a partner, a local competitor, an interested person that you do not know, your management team, and your employees. You can pass your business on to your children or other family members. You can also decide to take your company public or even simply let your business simply stop functioning. There are other options to transitioning out of ownership of your business, and I would invite you to meet with me to discuss what option is the best for you and your business.

That is certainly an option! First of all, you of course want to verify that your children are interested in running the business after you give it to them. You will then want to determine how you want to transition ownership to them, whether as a sale, a type of gift, or as part of your estate plan. Each of these options will look and function differently from each other.