People ethics

I’ve been brushing up on the process of buying and selling businesses (exiting is one of the components of the Digital Asset Incubator) and heard an interesting conversation on the podcast “The How of Business”.

The lady who had sold her business mentioned that she had to keep the sales process secret from her team until the deal had been done (she didn’t say why, but I’m also aware of situations where sellers choose to be transparent about the business being for sale, and other situations where it’s kept under wraps. Could be for various reasons – personal, contractual, buyer request, seller request, etc).

She spoke about how hard she’d worked at finding and retaining staff over the years, then importantly, how she spent longer than average in finding a right-fit buyer for her business that would continue to look after that team.

Ultimately, the business owner wants a great price for the business they’ve built and grown – that’s the money part.

But some owners also want to ensure that the people whose livelihoods they’ve been responsible for over the years, are not suddenly at risk of losing their job under a new owner.

This part of the conversation caught my ears because it raises an interesting question about ethics during a sale: To tell, or not to tell.

For this particular sale, on the one hand it’s very much in line with the triple-bottom-line values of caring for people, or at least putting as much effort into protecting their well-being as you put into pursuing the dollar.

On the other hand, it likely raises some eyebrows as it skirts the delicate ethics of handing over a whole business to a new owner, where that team’s job security is now under someone else’s control.

When you run a solo business, the only team member to consider (at your end) is yourself. But when you have a team of people who are essentially bundled-in with the handover of the business, you’re kinda tinkering with their jobs.

As I said – some situations require keeping a potential sale secret, some don’t.

In my humble opinion, whether keeping it secret or not – it’s always the responsibility of the owner/seller to consider the team’s well-being in a sale… which may not necessarily mean disclosing all the details of the sale to them.

(For the record, that component of the Incubator program specifically covers selling a business, or asset, as a solo business owner. If you have a team and are considering an exit, or just want to listen to the podcast where that conversation took place, it’s on 👉 The How Of Business).