FORT WAYNE BUSINESS OWNERS
A sale price is not a personal plan. See what the company, the deal, and your life after closing need to leave you, before the paperwork starts deciding for you.
90 minutes. No charge. Confidential from the first call.
THE OWNER’S SIDE OF THE SALE
For most owners, the company has carried several jobs at once: income, identity, a family legacy, a retirement plan, and the place where every important financial decision gets made. A transaction can solve one problem while exposing all the others.
Business exit planning puts the owner’s questions on the table before the deal narrows the choices. What needs to be set aside for taxes? What does debt change? How much has to remain liquid? What does a sensible personal paycheck look like after the wire arrives? And what should not be decided in the first ninety days?
START WITH YOUR NUMBER
The headline sale price rarely tells the whole story. Taxes, transaction costs, debt, earnouts, and payment timing can make the number that matters very different from the number everyone repeats.
We help you describe the personal number first: the resources you need to live well, support the people you care about, and choose the next chapter without asking the business to carry all of it.
HOW THE WORK FITS
We begin with the life the proceeds need to support, not with a generic retirement worksheet. That includes household spending, family commitments, insurance, charitable intentions, and the work or projects that may matter after the company changes hands.
When the deal takes shape, we look at cash at closing, a seller note, an earnout, debt, and tax assumptions alongside your CPA and attorney. The point is not to replace them. It is to make sure the owner’s decision is clear before the documents are final.
Closing day creates a different kind of work. We help you decide where the proceeds sit, what belongs in a tax reserve, how cash flow changes, and which permanent decisions can wait while life settles down.
ONE TABLE, SAME ASSUMPTIONS
A business sale can move fast once serious interest arrives. Teversham works alongside your existing professionals, not around them, so the personal plan stays connected to the assumptions being made about the transaction.
WHAT A GOOD PLAN MAKES EASIER
Every sale has moving parts. A revised valuation, an asset-versus-stock conversation, a new payment schedule, or an earnout can change what is realistic for the owner. When your personal priorities are already visible, those changes have somewhere to land. You can ask better questions before a term sheet becomes a decision you have to live with.
That does not mean trying to predict every outcome. It means separating decisions that deserve attention now from decisions that can wait. A tax reserve, cash available for the first year, insurance, and family commitments are practical items. The next venture, the next home, or a permanent investment allocation may need time. A good plan gives both kinds of choices their proper place.
The work also gives your spouse or partner a clearer role in the conversation. Many owners have carried the business decisions alone for a long time. A sale changes household life as much as it changes a balance sheet. Making the personal plan visible helps the people closest to you understand the tradeoffs before the closing calendar takes over.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The first conversation is about your situation, not a sales pitch. We listen for the questions behind the transaction: what you need the sale to accomplish, who else needs to be considered, and what has become urgent. If you already have an offer or a letter of intent, bring it. If you are years away, bring the questions you have been carrying around instead.
After the meeting, you receive a simple one-page letter within a week. It explains what Teversham heard, what belongs at the front of the line, and what the work would cost. That gives you room to decide whether the fit is right before you begin a planning engagement.
The aim is not to turn every uncertainty into a spreadsheet. It is to give the owner a steady personal frame while the company, the advisers, and the transaction do their work. That is often the difference between a deal that merely closes and a transition you can live with afterward.
A PRACTICAL FIT
This is useful when you are two to five years out, when you are beginning succession conversations, or when a letter of intent is already forcing decisions. You do not need a finished valuation, a signed offer, or a perfect stack of documents to begin.
Teversham is based in Fort Wayne and will meet at the office or at your shop or plant within an hour of town. The work stays confidential, and the first conversation is simply a chance to understand where you are and what needs attention first.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The earlier you start, the more choices you have. Two to five years can create room for succession work, personal planning, and coordination with your CPA and attorney. But it is still useful if an offer, letter of intent, or closing date is already in front of you. The right starting point is the point where you want a clearer personal answer.
No. Teversham is not a business broker and does not take a success fee on your sale. The work is personal financial planning for the owner, including what the deal may leave after taxes, debt, and the choices that follow closing.
Yes. Your deal team handles its own work. Teversham helps keep the owner’s personal plan in the same conversation, so the tax assumptions, cash at closing, earnout, seller note, and first-year decisions are considered together.
It is a 90-minute conversation with no charge. Bring what you have, even if it is incomplete. Within a week, you receive a one-page letter that sets out what was heard, what should come first, and what the work would cost.
START WITH THE PERSONAL NUMBER
90 minutes. No charge. Or call (260) 555-0127.