Selling or transferring a business: preparing the handover beyond the transaction

Selling or transferring a business is never just a financial decision. For an entrepreneur, it is often the culmination of a life’s work, but also the beginning of a demanding transition, bringing together valuation, governance, operational continuity, family transmission and personal preparation. It is precisely at the intersection between business, wealth and life planning that Lombard Odier Corporate Advisory supports entrepreneurs.

For many founders, their company is more than just an income source or professional achievement. It is part of their identity: a place where they feel at home, an embodiment of their purpose, an extension of their very selves. For such founders, selling their business carries an emotional dimension, one that is both exciting and daunting.

In this context, the external perspective of an experienced adviser can be particularly valuable. For Maxime Dubouloz, Director Corporate Advisory at Lombard Odier, this conviction lies at the heart of the team’s approach: supporting entrepreneurs at the decisive moments in the life of their business, from strategic reflection and sale preparation to transmission, governance, valuation and the alignment of the company with their private wealth.

While valuation, transaction structuring and negotiation are essential, they are not enough. A successful sale also requires the company to be prepared to operate without its founder, the future role of the family or management team to be clarified, and the wealth and personal implications of the founder’s departure to be anticipated.

Preparing to sell your business: a strategic and personal challenge

From the outside, selling a business may appear to be the natural outcome of years of hard work and multiple risks taken. But for a founder, this stage is more complex. It requires the ability to detach emotionally from a role, a team, a culture and a daily rhythm that may have shaped their identity for many years. This is why preparing for a sale must integrate the human and emotional, operational and wealth planning dimensions of the transition from the outset.

This is precisely where structured support can prove so valuable. For Maxime Dubouloz, the challenge is to help entrepreneurs step back early enough, before the sale process has even begun. Ahead of a transaction, this support helps to objectify the value of the business, identify points of dependency on the founder, prepare future governance and define a realistic timetable. It also helps the entrepreneur to project themselves into life after the sale, so that the exit is not only well negotiated, but fully embraced.

Selling the company isn’t just a transaction requiring rigorous financial planning - it’s a transformation that calls for a different mindset

After the sale: redefining role, wealth and horizon

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.

Experience shows that entrepreneurs benefit from reflecting early on life after the sale. What role, if any, do they wish to retain within the company? How do they want to reorganise their wealth? What place should be given to family, philanthropy, new entrepreneurial projects or investment? These questions are not peripheral: they often determine the quality of the transition.

Experience shows that entrepreneurs benefit from reflecting early on life after the sale. What role, if any, do they wish to retain within the company? How do they want to reorganise their wealth? What place should be given to family, philanthropy, new entrepreneurial projects or investment? These questions are not peripheral: they often determine the quality of the transition

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?

Transmission and continuity: protecting the business, strengthening value

Even when they decide to sell, founders often remain deeply attached to the future of the company they have built. They feel responsible for its employees, its clients, its partners and the culture that made it successful. This is why transmission should not be viewed solely as a transaction, but as a true handover that affects the continuity of the entrepreneurial project.

Will the buyer preserve the company’s culture? Will the management team be able to ensure continuity? Will employees and clients understand the purpose of the transition? These questions influence not only the founder’s legacy, but also the perception of risk among buyers, banks, investors and stakeholders.

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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.

In Switzerland, this level of anticipation remains insufficient. A 2025 study of 499 Swiss family businesses found that only 11% of respondents had completed a formalised succession process, while 47% had not yet begun to address the issue. It also showed that almost half of the companies surveyed had not yet identified a successor. These figures¹ confirm the importance of structured support early enough in the company’s lifecycle.

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 a decisive factor. Time should be considered a strategic variable in its own right: a sale prepared too late can limit the available options, reduce negotiating power or reveal operational weaknesses during due diligence. Conversely, preparing sufficiently early makes it possible to address sensitive issues before the process begins: client dependency, governance, financial organisation, tax, the founder’s role after the sale and family alignment.

Under the leadership of Maxime Dubouloz, Lombard Odier Corporate Advisory helps entrepreneurs approach these decisions with method, independence and sensitivity. The aim is not only to prepare a transaction, but to build a clear decision-making framework: understanding the options available, objectifying the value of the company, anticipating the expectations of buyers or successors, and placing the sale within a long-term wealth and family perspective.

Succession planning is not only a safeguard for legacy – it is 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 value companies that offer clear leadership continuity, strong governance and well-prepared transition plans. In this way, succession planning is not only a safeguard for legacy – it is 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: aligning business, wealth and life plans

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 Corporate Advisory, Maxime Dubouloz and his team often encourage entrepreneurs to consider three key questions before they begin a transition:

• What is the best option for my business: family transmission, management buyout, sale to a third party or opening up the capital?
• What economic value can I reasonably expect, and how can I secure or improve it before the transaction?
• What role, wealth structure and life plan do I want to build after the sale?

Once the sale scenario has been clarified, the next challenge is to translate the potential proceeds of the sale into a wealth strategy. This means modelling future liquidity needs, anticipating tax considerations, defining an allocation suited to the founder’s new risk profile and preserving the flexibility needed to finance new projects, support the family or pursue philanthropic commitments.

After the sale, many entrepreneurs reinvest their time, capital and experience in new areas: creating or supporting businesses, mentoring, advisory roles, private investment, philanthropy, family transmission or long-deferred personal projects. The success of this new stage often depends on the ability to transform the liquidity generated by the sale into a coherent framework for life, investment and engagement.

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 serenity. And with the right support, they discover that parting from their creation is not about losing their identity. It is about the freedom to craft a new one.

At Lombard Odier Corporate Advisory, Maxime Dubouloz and his team support entrepreneurs well before, during and after the decisive moments in the life of their business. Their approach combines expertise in sale and transmission, an understanding of family and wealth planning issues, and a long-term perspective. Selling or transferring a business is not simply about turning a page: it is about organising the continuity of what has been built, while giving the founder the means to write what comes next with clarity and confidence.