Retiring? License your records before you go

• Passing to family or a manager: the company carries on and so do its records. A license today can cover the history, leaving future records to the successor.
• To an outside buyer: your acquirer will review any license in due diligence. Agree the order with your M&A adviser. See selling your business.
• Closing: license before records are cleared out. See closed businesses.

Most buyers ask for three or more years. After 25 or 30 years in charge you may have much more, though the early material could be on paper or in software no one can open now. The binder you wrote so the crew could manage without phoning you is precisely what buyers want.

After the handover, someone else may call the shots. Until then, you pick what is included, check samples and lock in a written price. Give it a couple of months.