Hand the Clients On, Do Not Just Close

Shutting a service business is quick in the legal sense and slow in the human sense. Customers keep calling. Staff find out on a Friday. The owner discovers that walking away with nothing still takes weeks of mess.

Handing the book on is slower at the start and cleaner at the end.

What buyers actually want

They want customers who will stay, a way to bill them, and a founder who will not poison the well on the way out. They can live with tired systems. They cannot live with a surprise that half the retainers were already looking.

How to talk about it

Say that you want the clients looked after. That sentence does more work than a speech about legacy. Then say whether you can stay for a defined handover or whether you need to leave.

A private discussion is the place for that. It does not belong on a public listing.

If this is your situation, start at the client handover page.