5 Essential Insights from Hundreds of Rural Exit Stories

After 13 years helping rural business owners navigate exits and transitions, Business Advisor Darrell Goertzen has seen almost everything. From smooth six-month sales to seven-year decision journeys, family feuds that split siblings apart, and retail businesses struggling to find buyers in today's challenging market. Here are the five most critical lessons learned from witnessing hundreds of business transitions that every Alberta business owner needs to understand.

Lesson #1: Time is the Biggest Shock.
It Takes 2+ Years to Sell a Business

"Most business owners haven't sold a business before, so the biggest issue they face is wrapping their heads around the time that it takes to sell," Darrell explains. "On average it takes two years or more to sell a business and when I say that to business owners for the first time their faces fall."

The misconception comes from our hot real estate market experience. You've seen houses sell in a day with multiple offers and no conditions. Business sales don't work that way. There are no pre-approved buyers like in real estate. Financing takes weeks or months to arrange. Due diligence around understanding business details takes additional weeks. Even a fast sale from start to close is six months minimum.

"The house next door sold last week and it sold in one day," Darrell notes. "Went on the listing Tuesday night. Wednesday they had showings from 9:30 in the morning till 3:30 in the afternoon. They had two offers. Wednesday night they selected one. It had no subjects. It was done. It doesn't happen like that" with businesses.

This timeline reality affects everything from retirement planning to business operations during the sale process. Proactive business owners start understanding their exit timeline years before they plan to sell.

Lesson #2: Entrepreneurs Stay Reactive Until the End and it Hurts Them

"Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs. Most are very reactive and that's what's made them successful," Darrell observes. "Economic conditions change, you react, you adjust."

This reactive nature serves business owners well for decades, but becomes problematic during exit planning. "When they come to the end, they also tend to be reactive. But the problem is if you leave it too long and run out of energy or enthusiasm for the business or have a health situation, that's going to affect the value of the business and the sellability of the business."

Darrell has worked with business owners whose timeline stretched from first conversation to actual sale readiness took seven or eight years because situations kept changing. The ideal planning window is two years, because it  "gives enough time that you can adjust things in your business if the value isn't quite what you want or if through the process of looking at it you determine there are some things that are going to make it harder to sell."

Lesson #3: Buyers Consistently Underestimate Seller Knowledge

The biggest mistake buyers make? "Underestimating the knowledge that the seller has about the market," according to Darrell. When acquiring a business, buyers often focus solely on operational questions like "How does the inventory system work?" or "How does the POS system work?" while missing out on a goldmine of strategic insights.

Here's what buyers should understand: sellers know their business intimately. They understand what customers want, why the business has been successful, and what growth opportunities exist. More importantly, sellers often have identified specific improvements they never pursued—not because the ideas were bad, but because they lacked the time, energy, or financial resources to implement them at their stage of business ownership.

"It's absolutely fine to make some immediate changes" says Darrell, "but that first month after you complete the sale, you should also be picking the past owners brains about everything to do with the market and the customers."

As a buyer, you're entering with fresh energy and potentially more resources. Ask the seller: What are the three biggest opportunities you see for growth? What would you do differently if you had the capital? What customer needs aren't being fully met? This isn't about avoiding change—it's about leveraging the seller's years of market observation before you reinvent the wheel.

Lesson #4: Collaboration Beats Adversarial Negotiations Every Time

ExitNavigator achieves an 88% success rate for mediated sales compared to just 25% without mediation. The difference? Collaboration over competition.

"The best transitions in business ownership occur when the buyer and seller are working together," Darrell explains. "If they're in a collaborative position as opposed to an adversarial position, they work out a deal that works for both of them but also works for the customer, for the business, for the employees, for everybody."

When buyers and sellers focus on "What's best for the business?" instead of "How do I get the most out of this?", everything changes. Both parties channel their energy toward customers and employees, creating a recipe for business improvement. "Most owners want their business to continue to be successful. So both the buyer and the seller are on the same wavelength looking at the future of the business."

Lesson #5: Family Succession is the Most Emotionally Complex Transition

Family business transitions present unique challenges that make them the most complex exits Darrell handles. "Value is way more complicated. There's business value, but then there's also sweat equity if they've worked for 20 years in the business. There's feelings about what other siblings might think if you're selling to one sibling and not the other."

The most challenging aspect? The actual transition process. "Transition, because the transition is like going into a minefield unless it's planned really well." Parents want the comfort of knowing their children will take over, but resist committing to timelines. "I'm not ready to be sidelined yet, but you'll take over when I say, right? And we'll give you a good deal. Don't worry about it. But let's not talk about any details right now."

This creates a difficult situation for the next generation. "I expect absolute loyalty and you to do whatever jobs I give you until such time as I decide that I'm ready to hand over the business." The consequences can become unintended family strife, causing rifts that may dash dreams of a continued family legacy for the business.

The solution requires abandoning entrepreneurial instincts: "If you want your business to get passed down to your family, you need to plan. And it needs to be years in advance with everything written out clearly.”

The Small Town Difference

These lessons take on even greater significance in rural Alberta communities where stakes feel more personal and resources are often limited. In small towns, business owners tend to develop deep emotional connections to their businesses' future impact within their towns and communities.

"I have owners say to me all the time, I have to drive by that place to go to town. I don't want to see it closed up. I don't want to see it empty. I want my business to be successful, so I want to sell it to somebody who's going to make it successful."

This is the heart of rural business transitions; they’re not just financial interactions, they’re community continuation efforts. When a hardware store, café, or service business changes hands successfully, it maintains jobs, keeps essential services local, and preserves the economic foundation that small towns depend on.

Understanding this dynamic helps both buyers and sellers approach transitions with the right mindset. It takes committed parties working toward common goals: sellers who prioritize business continuity alongside financial return, and buyers who see themselves as community caretakers, not just business operators.

With proper guidance and realistic expectations, these transitions become opportunities to strengthen rural Alberta communities rather than simply individual business deals.

Ready to navigate your transition with lessons learned from rural business exits? Book a free consultation with ExitNavigator today to discuss your specific situation and community goals.