Omar Zenhom argues the best time to sell a business is when it's healthy and growing, not when it's struggling. Growth strengthens your negotiating power and valuation. Staying too long is like pushing more chips onto the table in poker: the longer you wait, the more risk you take.
You might have a thriving, growing business today, but that's exactly when selling can make the most sense. Selling when things are going up puts you in control. It puts you in a very strong bargaining and negotiation position. Selling when things are flat or even declining puts you in a corner, puts you in a position of weakness. Every year you stay in business, you're effectively pushing more chips onto the table. Going to use a poker example, and sometimes that's the right move. Most of the time it is, but sometimes it's an unnecessary risk. And when a strong buyer is interested in your business and your business is healthy and it's growing and it's valuable, that is often the best time to sell and not the worst. And it's kind of counterintuitive because you don't want to sell. Because you're growing, things are going up and you're making more and more profit. It feels wrong to sell, but it's actually the best time to sell. It's when you're going to get the most value.
