In the first blog I mentioned that even before Mom suffered
her stroke, I had developed an exit strategy from my business. I also had a concept for a new business venture that I was keenly interested in pursuing. A big step in this plan was listing my business for sale with a Mergers and Acquisitions firm. My adhesive tape business had received a good deal of interest right away and I received three different letters of intent in the first few months. Due to a variety of reasons, the interested buyers pulled out before the negotiations even started. It was not until a couple of months after Mom’s illness, did the next letter of intent come through.
This interested buyer came in for a visit in August and we came to an agreement on price in September. The due diligence process was excruciatingly slow. It is during this process that many deals fall apart. Much of the delay was due to the buyer’s loan process. Over three months went by before an actual closing date was set.
During this time, I had many discussions with Mother about our options after the business was sold. I knew she would be happier nearer to her friends and I, too, had friends in the Dallas area. I had lived there for 17 years prior to moving to Austin. Mother was aware that she was not likely to ever be able to live on her own again. She was quite happy to move to Dallas. She would just say, “I want to go wherever you are going.” When I asked her if she would rather find another assisted living facility near where I bought a home or live in the new home with me with the assistance of in-home caregivers. She said, “I need the think about it.”
While all this was going on, I started my business plan for the new company. There was much research to do and I was having great difficulty deciding on a name. I also wanted credentials, so I enrolled in an on-line course to become a certified antique appraiser. I was doing my best to lay the ground work for the next few months.
About a month before the closing on the sale of my business, Mother told me that she had made a decision. She wanted to try living at home. She wanted to have more freedom and feel more independent in her daily activities. She wanted to be proactive with her therapy in hopes that she could still improve her speech and movement. She was tired of doing the same thing every day. She was bored in the assisted living facility and needed more variety. She missed socializing with her friends and hoped she could resume playing in some of her bridge clubs. It was up to me to make it happen.
The business closing went through in the middle of February. I had agreed to a 3 month consulting agreement to help with the transition of the business ownership. That gave me a few months to finish my plan and start building a network of professionals to help me in the overwhelming process of downsizing and consolidating two homes, listing the homes for sale and coordinating the timing of all of it. It should be a snap, right? After all, that is a big part of what I am going to be asking people to hire me to do.
The next blog will start explaining the process of downsizing….
