When to turn in your keys

Good grief, Charlie B: We're heading pell-mell toward the last quarter of 2018 and, just maybe, toward the day you hand the keys to your successor.

Or maybe not.

Every working American ultimately faces planning and financial issues as retirement inevitably comes closer, but entrepreneurs - whose businesses generally are the financial base for retirement - have the additional task of making certain that their retirement-generating business is financially attractive to a new owner.

That's not necessarily an easy task. Often the need to plan comes as something of a surprise, even though for most of us, the sale of our business - or some type of retirement plan based on the business - is what we count on.

There are several triggers:

• "Sometimes the (daily) routine just becomes boring," says Barry Goodman, a former CPA and one of three founders of SVA Value Accelerators. SVA offers a variety of sophisticated business transition counseling from offices in Chicago, Denver and Miami.

• Or, and it happens to many of us, "The business owner simply becomes too old to keep up," Goodman says. Part of the "too old" is a lack of willingness to stay abreast of changing (and sometimes confusing) technology.

That seems a little harsh, but Goodman points to Blockbuster - there apparently is just one Blockbuster store left, in Oregon - and to Kodak as examples of businesses that fell to technology changes.

"Look at how technology changed the way people take pictures," Goodman says. "Look at the way Netflix has changed the way we watch movies on our televisions. Look at how Amazon is changing the retail sector."

Technology isn't bad, Goodman notes. Business owners simply must keep up, a task that takes time, energy and, often, money.

• Equally likely to trigger a sell-the-business-and-retire thought is "The wake-up call when a friend has a health issue," Goodman says. Sometimes it's a spouse or business partner with the issue.

• Far more pleasant is the unexpected offer that arrives from a deep-pocketed buyer - who perhaps might want you to stay on for a year or so in a transition role.

Whatever the impetus, experience indicates most business owners need some professional assistance to get their business positioned to have maximum appeal to a potential buyer. The balance sheet obviously matters, but so do the management team and the business' marketplace standing.

Unfortunately, Goodman says, "Too many (business owners) have no retirement transition plan." Others, though, "know they have an obligation to the family" to do some early planning.

In addition to a business transition specialist, a qualified financial adviser is a must. "Wanting to retire and being financially ready to retirement are two completely different things," Certified Financial Planner Matthew Frankel wrote for The Motley Fool advisory column last month.

His example: If you need $4,000 a month to retire comfortably and your only income is a $1,600 Social Security payment, you have a big gap to fill.

• © 2018 Kendall Communications Inc. Follow Jim Kendall on LinkedIn and Twitter. Write him at Jim@kendallcom.com. Read Jim's Business Owners' Blog at kendallcom.com.