You are not just selling a means of income and independence for a new owner. You are stepping away from something you have built, protected, and shaped over years. That mix of money, identity, and responsibility can bring unexpected uncertainty, sadness, and doubt when it comes time to exit, even when you are excited about what comes next.
LINK has been guiding business owners through this process for nearly 30 years, with more than $6 billion in completed transactions across New Zealand and Australia. We have seen every version of seller hesitation, and we know what resolves it.
We see these internal “sticking points” regularly, and we treat them as a natural part of the process, not a problem. A broker’s role is not only to find a buyer, but to identify what may be influencing your decisions, separate emotion from commercial judgement, and apply structure and momentum to the sale. Once that psychology is understood, you move from hesitation to clarity, making stronger decisions from a position of control.
This is especially relevant right now. Many owners put exit decisions on hold during the downturn. As conditions improve and buyer confidence returns, the window to act from a position of strength is open, but it won’t stay open indefinitely.
The common psychological sticking points:
Every sale is different. The internal patterns behind hesitation are not.
- Loss aversion: the fear of regret
One of the strongest forces at play is the fear of getting it wrong.
Owners worry about selling too early, accepting too little, or handing over just before the business lifts. Because a sale is hard to unwind, the search for a “perfect” moment can stall progress.
A broker steps in here to reduce that guesswork. Brokers bring market evidence to the decision: testing buyer demand, pressure-testing valuation assumptions, and translating real feedback into clear options and timing. The goal is not to remove risk, but to see it clearly, price it properly, and move forward with confidence.
- Identity attachment: the business as self
For many owners, the business is tied to identity. It reflects competence, resilience, and standing in the community, so the idea of stepping away can surface unspoken questions: Who am I without this? What replaces the routine and responsibility?
When identity and ownership are tightly linked, practical gaps can be missed. Systems live in your head. Key relationships sit on goodwill and history. From the inside, that feels like strength. From a buyer’s side it reads as dependence, and dependence is a risk.
A broker’s role is to translate what you do instinctively into something a buyer can step into. They pinpoint where the business leans on you, then help shift that value into the business itself: clearer roles, stronger management depth, formalised relationships, and documented ways of working. The result is a business that feels transferable, protects your legacy, and gives you more negotiating power.
- Difficulty trusting the process
As an owner, you have built strong instincts about how your business runs, what matters, what doesn’t, and how to solve problems quickly. A sale process can feel the opposite: slow, formal, and vulnerable. Buyers and their advisers test the numbers and the story. Banks add conditions. Lawyers tighten language. Timelines move. It can feel like your business is being pulled apart.
It isn’t. This scrutiny isn’t just normal; it’s an essential part of any transaction. It is how a serious buyer justifies value, secures funding, and assesses risk before committing.
The difference between stress and stability is choosing the right partner to help you prepare and navigate the process end-to-end. At LINK, we qualify buyers early, set clear expectations, control what is shared and when, and run due diligence to a plan with milestones and accountability. When the pathway is defined, the scrutiny stops feeling personal and starts feeling like progress.
- Sunk cost thinking: valuing the sacrifice
Years of sacrifice shape expectations.
An owner who worked seven days a week in the early years may anchor value to what it cost them to build. A buyer anchors value to maintainable earnings and forward-looking risk. When those reference points differ, negotiations can stall.
Buyers do not price effort. They price evidence: clean financials, defensible add-backs, sustainable margins, documented performance.
This is where a broker helps you maximise the return on your years of hard work. They pressure-test the numbers before the market does, ensure add-backs are commercially sound, and present earnings in a way buyers, banks and advisers can validate with confidence. They turn what you have built into a clear, defensible case for value. They help you to protect that value through negotiation to ensure you exit with the confidence that your agreed price reflects the strength of the business you created.
A strong broker does not remove the emotion from selling. They manage it. They bring perspective where doubt creeps in, and momentum where hesitation lingers. The result is not just a sale, it is a deliberate exit, executed with clarity, control and confidence.
If selling is on your mind
If you’re considering a sale, a good first step is a confidential conversation with a LINK broker to sense-check three things:
- Timing: what the market is doing in your sector and what buyers are actively looking for.
- Value: what your business is likely to be worth based on maintainable earnings and buyer appetite, not guesswork.
- Readiness: what could slow a sale or weaken terms, and what you can tidy up now to strengthen transferability and reduce risk.
The sooner you understand your position, the more control you have over your timing, your terms and the outcome.