For some business owners, receiving a buyout offer is the ultimate sign they've made it. You’ve successfully built a company someone else wants to buy. Or maybe you’ve built a company that offers you just enough and now you want a quiet exit, but in a way that doesn’t leave your employees hanging. Either way, you must show the necessary leadership skills to ensure the deal is done properly.
After all, you’ve been the leader of your company from startup to buyout. The sale of your company represents a perfect opportunity to pay off any outstanding debt, secure payouts or packages for key personnel and put that golden finish upon your legacy as a business owner. But then, you begin to have doubts.
Your company may be one of many acquisitions. For example, at Pluribus Technologies, we're constantly on the lookout for companies that fit within the portfolio of who we are and what we do. And yet, our goal is not to just throw it all away and start anew. We buy companies we think have a good chance to grow and integrate within the larger architecture of our identity. But as the business owner – as the entrepreneur – what must you do to handle the pressure of losing one of the most precious things to you?
How to Keep Your Mind Clear as You Exit Your Company
First, beware of burnout. Both leaders and employees are already experiencing record levels of burnout. This generally happens because no one has a clear picture of what's expected or what's mission-critical work. As we acquire companies here at Pluribus Technologies, we're quite clear about what we expect and in what we offer in return. We focus on transparency and open communication in all that we do.
We work with business owners to create genuine partnerships as they psychologically let go of their companies. Whether at the corporate or business level, it's critical you forge partnerships, collaborate with others, and develop a mutual understanding of how you can work towards a common goal. As long as you're cool, calm, collected and utilizing a mutually agreed upon plan, there's no reason why there should be any problems along the way.
Before your company has been totally integrated into the new organization, you may feel wistful. There may be some temptation to think back on all the good times when you ran the company as a sole business owner and his or her employees. Yet more often than not you'll only remember the positive and downplay the negative. Don’t give in to the nostalgia, it will only leave you wanting, in more ways than one.
Embrace a Common Culture
Here at Pluribus Technologies, we pride ourselves on creating a corporate culture that the companies we purchase can be proud of. We integrate the companies we work with into the corporate ethos we live by.
We encourage business owners we work with to embrace the culture we espouse and hope they can find some commonality with us in the culture we work hard to incorporate within ourselves and the companies we acquire. We understand it can be tough and hard to understand, not just for leadership, but for employees as well.
We do our best to accentuate the innovative capacity of the organizations we bring into our fold. We do not acquire organizations just for one or two products or services. Instead, we try to find synergies and ways to create integrated solutions. We invite you to learn more about our investment criteria and find out if your company may be the right fit for us!