For many founders, their company is more than just an income source or professional achievement. It is part of their identity: a source of community, an embodiment of their purpose, an extension of their very selves. For such founders, there is an emotional dimension to selling their business – one that is both exciting and daunting.
Here, an experienced outside perspective can be particularly invaluable. At Lombard Odier, we’ve walked this path with many founders. And we’ve learned that, while valuations and sale structures are essential, they need much more than just a well-negotiated deal. Quality succession planning and understanding the potential psychological impacts of an exit are equally vital to a successful transition – one where the founder is equipped to step back from the business and look to the future.
Letting go – a powerful step forward
From the outside, a business sale might appear to be the logical conclusion to years of hard work – a reward in the form of a smorgasbord of new opportunities. But the reality is often more complex.
When you’ve spent years nurturing an organisation – leading teams, building culture, solving problems, steering growth – stepping away from the routines that once defined your day, the role that gave you purpose and the team that felt like a second family can be challenging. Without these everyday anchors, even a founder armed with the most considered sale strategy may find themselves navigating a surprisingly unfamiliar adjustment process alongside the pride and relief that comes with a successful exit.
This is why succession planning frameworks are so important. Most obviously, their structured approach ensures the founder’s efforts are fairly rewarded while preparing the company to continue succeeding without them. But just as importantly, they also help founders emotionally prepare for one of the most significant personal transformations they will ever experience.
Selling the company isn’t just a transaction requiring rigorous financial planning - it’s a transformation that calls for a different mindset
Identity, purpose and post-exit drift
Entrepreneurs are, by nature, highly driven individuals, and the structure and pressure of running their business is often what fuels that drive. Replacing that fuel source requires the entrepreneur to confront questions they may never have needed to ask before: How do I define success going forward? Who am I without this company? What now?
These questions may be especially challenging for founders who have spent decades in a single venture, whose personal identity is tightly bound to their company and its success. For them, selling the company isn’t just a transaction requiring rigorous financial planning - it’s a transformation that calls for a different mindset.
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learn more In our experience, it can be important for founders to have at least a rough sense of the direction they want to take after the sale, to avoid ‘post-exit drift’ – a period when wealth may be secured, but direction is not. Yet entrepreneurs often lack the time to refine their thinking. Inevitably, the period immediately after the sale – when they finally have the headspace to sit back and apply critical thinking – becomes the time to decompress and work through how they want to re-set their goals.
In our experience, it can be important for founders to have at least a rough sense of the direction they want to take after the sale, to avoid ‘post-exit drift’
We encourage and support our clients to engage with these questions of future direction even before a sale is on the horizon. What are your values beyond the company? What does post-exit fulfilment look like? What kind of impact do you want to have in the next chapter of your life? How might your children or heirs play a role in shaping and carrying forward the wealth and legacy you’ve built?
Succession and continuity: the people and performance side of selling
Even after they commit to selling, founders are usually profoundly concerned about the future of the company they created and feel a strong duty to ensure continuity and ongoing success. Many have cultivated close relationships with their employees, clients and partners, so handing over the reins in a way that serves the community they’ve nurtured is a vital component of good succession planning.
Will the new owners honour the founder’s vision? Take care of the company’s employees? Preserve its values and culture? Far from being purely operational, such questions also address legacy and personal responsibility.
Preparing to sell your business means having honest conversations with your family, your leadership team, your advisers and – perhaps most importantly – yourself. These conversations are not always easy, but they are essential. They help you surface what matters most, so you can shape a vision of post-sale life for you and the people who will remain with the company after you’re gone. In this context, truly comprehensive succession planning is both a logistical process and an emotional journey.
To give founders confidence that their legacy is secure, their leadership transition must be managed carefully. This includes ensuring the next generation of leaders are fully prepared to take the reins, whether they’re internal successors, family heirs or new owners. Transparency, communication and shared values are all crucial components of smooth handovers.
Read also: Family businesses and wealth: our expert’s advice on transferring successfully to the next generation
Timing is also important. Rushed transitions can lead to regret, but protracted handovers can leave both parties in limbo. Striking the right balance will look different for every entrepreneur – some remain in an advisory capacity for a set period, while others prefer a clean break. Either way, careful planning helps ensure both stability for the company and peace of mind for the founder.
At Lombard Odier, we help clients think strategically and empathetically about succession planning, so relationships endure and the founder’s influence is felt long after they’ve walked away. A thoughtful leadership handover serves to reassure key stakeholders, from employees and clients to partners and suppliers.
Succession planning is not only a safeguard for legacy – it’s a strategic lever that enhances market appeal and strengthens negotiating power
Importantly, early succession planning also has a direct impact on valuation and buyer confidence. Buyers place a premium on businesses with clear leadership continuity, strong governance and well-prepared transition plans. In this way, succession planning is not only a safeguard for legacy – it’s a strategic lever that enhances market appeal and strengthens negotiating power.
Read also: What’s your number? Defining your business exit strategy | Lombard Odier
Stepping into the next chapter: a framework for clarity and purpose
Letting go isn’t about walking away without emotion. It’s about being led by intention – whatever the founder might be feeling – as they prepare for a new chapter by developing the mindset and mechanisms they need to move on with clarity and purpose.
At Lombard Odier, we often help clients think through three key questions before they exit:
- What do I want to walk away from?
- What do I want to walk toward?
- What legacy do I want to leave behind?
These questions form the foundation of a post-exit framework that aligns capital with passion, and emotional well-being with financial readiness. We help our clients model their future capital requirements in line with their lifestyle and goals, ensuring the transition brings material stability as well as personal fulfilment. This includes building portfolios that reflect the founder’s risk appetite and liquidity needs, while also leaving room for flexibility as new opportunities and interests emerge.
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learn more After exiting their company, founders tend to invest their time and energy in things they always wanted to explore but never previously had time for. The most successful transitions tend to involve a reimagined sense of contribution. Some find meaning in philanthropy or impact investing. Others start mentoring, take on advisory roles or launch entirely new ventures, perhaps discovering new talents in creative industries, education or scientific innovation along the way. Fulfilment can even come from reconnecting with family, travel or personal growth.
With the right support, founders discover that parting from their creation isn’t about losing their identity. It’s about the freedom to craft a new one
Selling a business is a monumental milestone, and how it was achieved helps define the next chapter of an entrepreneur’s life. When succession planning is handled with foresight, empathy and intent, the emotional impact of an exit can be positively transformative.
Founders who take the time to prepare emotionally as well as strategically are far more likely to emerge from the process with a renewed sense of clarity, purpose and joy. And with the right support, they discover that parting from their creation isn’t about losing their identity. It’s about the freedom to craft a new one.
At Lombard Odier, we are here not just to provide wealth management for entrepreneurs, but to accompany and guide them on their journey. We understand that your company is an important part of your legacy – but not all of it. Together, we help you move on, with purpose and confidence, to whatever comes next.
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