Throughout the process, Cygan felt she had nothing to lose because she could have walked away from the negotiations at any time. The terms being offered were attractive. The consolidator offered payment in just two increments (based on the future revenue projections in late 2007 and 2008).

Cygan negotiated a multiple of revenues in excess of industry standards, and the buyer was willing to keep her on the payroll as a consultant through 2008. The terms included a two-year non-compete clause covering 2008 and 2009, but because she would be working through 2008 as a consultant to the acquirer, her non-compete period actually only applied to 2009.

With a stipulation that she work only 30 hours a week for the buyer throughout 2008, Cygan believed she could both keep her hand in the business and engage in such outside projects as speaking engagements and a book she wanted to write.
In May of 2007, Cygan engaged a high-profile attorney to help her with the sale. "At that point, I still had not decided if I wanted to sell my firm, but I felt the need for expert advice as I negotiated with the consolidator." Hiring an attorney turned out to be a valuable decision, says Cygan, because he had enough expertise to negotiate changes to the legal agreements and add clauses to protect her interests.

As she got closer to finalizing a deal, Cygan continued to be plagued by many questions. "I obsessed over questions like, 'Was this the right decision, was I going to regret selling my company at age 49 and was I out of my mind?' Further, how would my clients react? Would they hate me? Would they stay in year 2008 or would they flee? And would the buyer take good care of them and provide great service?" Cygan knew that if a large number of clients left in 2008, her second-year payout could decline significantly.

And, of course, employees were an issue, too. What would they think of all of this? "I had negotiated that the buyer would keep most of my employees, so I didn't feel that I was deserting them," says Cygan.

She signed preliminary legal documents in late September 2007 and final sale documents in December 2007. She received her first payout in December 2007 and her final one in December 2008.

The sale process by that point had gone as smoothly as it could have. Yet there were inevitable surprises along the way.
First, Cygan discovered that once the sale documents were signed in December 2007, she had absolutely no leverage with the buyer. "I learned this very quickly in early 2008, and all of 2008 turned out to be very adversarial." To make matters worse, Cygan's junior advisor-her replacement in the eyes of the clients-resigned in February of that year, forcing the buyer to look for a new lead advisor.

Without a replacement, Cygan says she was again working horrendous overtime, and the tension in the office mounted. "There were several months where we didn't have a lead advisor, so I was working more hours per week than I'd worked during the recent years leading up to the sale. My focus was on client service. Not surprisingly, clients were very concerned that I was leaving at the end of 2008 and my replacement had just resigned."

This went on for several months while the consolidator was negotiating back and forth with the advisor it ultimately hired. In the meantime, Cygan finally asked for overtime pay and received it, somewhat lessening her burden.

At the same time her buyer-seller relationship was souring, the stock market nose-dived in late 2008, as did the assets and projected revenue that would determine her second payout. "Fortunately, I had been working hard at bringing on new clients throughout 2008, so the revenue of the new clients helped to cancel the negative impact of the market, leaving me with an attractive second-year payout." For this reason, Cygan advises others like her to remain in place for some period of time after the sale to help the newly sold company get off to a smooth start and preserve the seller's benefits from the sale.