As a business owner, you need to consider the role you would like to have in your business transition to evaluate the type of suitors for your business transition.
In an ideal world, you’ll have 4 or 5 offers to choose from, and what you’ll find is that the companies or private equity groups will have different goals for your business.
One type of buyer might be looking at your company as a platform business. Under this scenario, they most likely want you to stay on for a longer period of time as they provide capital to help you take the company to the next level.
In another situation, your company might be more of a tuck in acquisition that they plan to integrate into a much larger operation. In this type of situation, they will likely want you to retain you for a shorter period (e.g., 3 months to 1 year) to help with the transition. However, once that time period is over, they will have their own management team which will to take over and run the business.
Ideally, you will enter into your transition with a good understanding of what you want out of the deal. By knowing what you want, your deal team has the greatest opportunity to deliver options that best fit your goals