As an entrepreneur and female founder, I know what it’s like to care so deeply about your team and your customers that it keeps you up at night. I would joke that my business was a like my “second child” because it took just as much (sometimes more) of my energy than being a mom!

Over 14 years, I worked incredibly hard to build my business from a one-person operation to an international travel company with seven employees and dozens of contractors around the world, serving hundreds of travelers a year.

However, it took everything I had to keep my company going through the pandemic, and then to scale at an insane rate in the post-Covid travel surge.

By 2024, I was deeply burned out and knew it was time to sell my company.

Fortunately, I had been taking steps to prepare the company for sale over the previous two years. So when I had to sell for the sake my personal health and my team’s success, the process was a snap.

Selling my business was such a liberating and empowering process that I have since immersed myself in the world of M&A, expanding my financial knowledge and evaluating dozens of business for sale each month as a buyer and investor, mostly in the travel and tourism sector.

And I can tell you there are some telltale signs that make it obvious when a founder has planned their exist versus when they haven’t, and it makes a big impact on which deals close.