If a buyer asks you to stay involved after selling your business, start with a specific task. What are you being asked to explain, who will take it over, and who will decide what happens next?
For a Canadian owner planning a handover to a third-party buyer, those are useful questions to put on paper. Begin with one piece of work you know well. Keep proposed arrangements and unanswered questions visible as you discuss them with the buyer and your advisers.
Clarify what staying involved would mean
BDC’s transition guidance recommends planning with the buyer and consulting legal, accounting and other advisers about what information to provide and when. It also recommends planning communications together for employees, customers, suppliers and financial partners.
BDC says a buyer may want a formal continuing relationship with the seller after the sale, and advises sellers to understand what is expected of them through the transition. For sellers retaining minority ownership or financing the buyer, BDC raises the question of their role and voice in key decisions after closing.
Use the record below to prepare that discussion. It is Deal Flow Canada’s original discussion aid. It does not assign responsibilities, establish decision rights or replace your agreements.
Work through one handover task
Copy these eight fields and replace the example entries with your own questions. Mark each answer as proposed, confirmed or unresolved; include who confirmed it and when. A filled field should not disguise an unanswered question.
Fictional planning example: A seller knows why a recurring customer request has previously needed an exception. The buyer proposes that its operations lead learn the process. Who may approve a future exception remains unresolved. The details below describe no real company, agreement or outcome, and set no standard arrangement.
1. Task or recurring situation
What exact work are you discussing? Write down the situation and the help being requested. Keep this record about that task rather than a broad promise to be available.
Example entry: Explain how the recurring customer-request exception has been handled.
2. Current knowledge holder
Who can explain the process and the reasons behind it? Keep that question separate from who is meant to perform the work in future.
Example entry: The seller can explain the history. This entry records knowledge, not approval authority.
3. Incoming responsible person to confirm
Who is proposed to take on the work? Has that person confirmed the arrangement, and what still needs to be discussed?
Example entry: The buyer’s proposed operations lead. The arrangement remains to be confirmed.
4. Decision authority to confirm
Who needs to answer the approval question? Record where the confirmed answer will be found; do not fill this field by guessing from someone’s title or shareholding.
Example entry: Unresolved: who may approve an exception after the sale? Explaining the old process leaves that question open.
5. Expected availability to discuss
What help is being requested, when, and what remains unagreed? Leave the frequency and end point open until confirmed. Include how a request for further help will be handled.
Example entry: One walkthrough has been requested. Its timing and any further availability remain unagreed; one walkthrough is an invented detail here.
6. Handover evidence
What demonstration or record could show that the incoming person has the information being discussed? Describe a proposed check and identify what has actually happened.
Example entry: Proposed: the operations lead explains the workflow using a fictional request. That demonstration has not happened; this is not evidence of completed handover.
7. Communication owner to confirm
Who will coordinate what staff or external contacts are told, and when? Record the proposed audience and timing without treating the entry as permission to share information.
Example entry: Unresolved: who tells staff where future questions should go?
8. Unresolved question and next answer
Which question still needs an answer, who needs to answer it, and where will you record the response?
Example entry: Buyer and seller need to identify who will confirm the approval arrangement and any agreement-specific advice required.
Take the open questions into the discussion
In this example, describing the customer process leaves the approval question unanswered. Keep both visible when discussing the handover. Do not mark the whole task complete because one explanation has been given.
Before setting the record aside, ask: which help am I offering, which arrangements have actually been confirmed, and what should happen if more help is requested? Keep unresolved points open for the relevant people and advisers to answer.