Putting your business on the market is a major, and potentially life-changing, decision. Whether you retire, shift to a new opportunity, or just want to hand the company over to someone with more enthusiasm, it can be difficult to let go of something into which you’ve poured much of yourself. These strategies can make the transition easier and increase the odds of a lucrative sale.

Sooner or later, every entrepreneur will either want to retire or be forced to. Yet most never think much about the future of their business after they’re gone. It’s easy to become so tied to your business that you cannot separate your identity from it. Even if you cannot imagine leaving your business any time soon, the time to plan is now. Here’s a rough overview of your options. 

It’s a familiar scenario to exit planners: a small business owner in the suburbs has owned a business for many decades. Now they’re seriously considering an exit. Their sales are up and the economy is thriving. New entrepreneurs are eager to invest in quality businesses. But there are liabilities, too: the owner’s tax returns do not align with their profitability thanks to unreported sales, personal expenses, and other creative tax management approaches. This tax minimization has been highly successful, but it now presents a serious barrier to highlighting the full profitability of the company.

Finding a buyer for your business is a lot like dating. Business owners are often so flattered to have an interested buyer that they forget to focus on ensuring that the buyer is the right buyer. Buyers are not scarce if you sell your business, and its story, in the right way. 

If you’re contemplating a business sale, odds are good you’ve never done this before—and that even if you have, it’s only been once or twice. Selling a business is a skill that demands practice, which many sellers lack. To get the most out of the sale, avoid these rookie mistakes:

You’ve committed a significant chunk of your time, and maybe of your life, to your business. You’ll never know when the best time to sell is until after the fact. This uncertainty is enough to push many owners over the edge. Others continually delay putting their company on the market, hoping the market will continually rise. It won’t. Here’s how to live with the uncertainty and find the right time to sell your company. Here are the basic criteria you need to evaluate before putting your company on the market. 

Selling your business is not something you do suddenly. The further ahead you think, the more successful a sale has the potential to be. Here are the biggest mistakes sellers make when putting a business on the market.