Retirement decisions

Retirement starts with deciding what you want to stop doing and what the business still needs to finish. These guides help you turn that intention into decisions about work, succession, premises and the equipment that may become available for sale.

If your departure date is firm, start by separating it from the last trading day. If the direction is still uncertain, examine the owner dependencies and possible continuation options first. Legal, employment and financial decisions need advice on your actual circumstances.

Dates and commitments

• Your retirement date and the last trading day are different decisions
• Retiring when nobody wants to take over the business
• Can reducing your hours be a step towards closing?
• When your business retirement date keeps slipping
• When should a retiring business stop accepting new work?

Your future role and retained work

• When retirement still depends on keeping a workshop
• Planning an owner exit when your capacity has changed
• Retiring from one part of a business you still own
• Make the retirement decision before agreeing another lease
• Could the business finish its last jobs without you?
• When a machine feels too important to let go

Advice and choices

• The first adviser meeting about retiring from your business
• Separate your retirement needs from assumed equipment proceeds
• Should you keep trading while looking for a successor?
• Choosing a stopping point for a seasonal business
• Retiring from a business run from home
• Keeping consultancy work after closing your workshop
• What to prepare when retirement has no fixed date
• When one owner is ready to retire and the other is not

Making the decision usable

• The last small order that keeps the workshop open
• Find the promises that could outlast your retirement
• Planning retirement before you are ready to announce it
• A working budget for the period between trading and leaving
• When you own the premises as well as the business
• Write down what you have decided about retirement
• When is it useful to discuss a retirement asset sale?

When you can describe the assets and the decisions still open, UK Auction Group can discuss the retirement disposal side.

Return to all business closure topics.