Chapter 44. Negotiations
Selling a company is a long, drawn-out process, fraught with peril. Like any complex deal, there are a thousand ways for it to fall apart. Your job as the CEO is to guide the company through the process without letting the company disintegrate while itâs happening.
Donât Wreck the Company
Small companies have limited ability to focus. There are only so many people, and so many things that they can do at once. As you start the process of negotiations around a sale, no matter how much of a long-shot speculation it is, people will get wind of it and start to focus on it.
Then bad things start to happen. People start to relax without even realizing theyâre doing it. They start to think of consequences in different termsâhey, this will be a problem a year out; the deal will probably go through by then. They start to shift their decisionsâmaybe we should focus our energy on the parts of our product that we know the acquirers are interested in.
You start to take your eye off the ball of day-to-day management. Your attention is split between the dull details of sales targets and product reviews and the exciting, high-stakes negotiation for your companyâs future. The team can sense youâre not pushing as hard.
Then they start to worry. âDid you hear the company is for sale?â they whisper in the hall. It has a worrying sound to it. Optimists start budgeting for a windfall. Pessimists start worrying about being fired. Everyone starts looking for ...
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