Best Books To Read In 2024 Before Selling A Business

Looking to sell your business in 2024? Check out these must-read books to prepare yourself for a successful exit. From motivational classics to strategic guides, these selections offer valuable insights and practical advice you should know before selling a business.

Think and Grow Rich

By Napolean Hill

It has been hailed as the best-selling success book of all time. Originally published in 1937, it was updated in 2007 to meet the needs of the modern-day business owner. While the book is not necessarily about selling a company, it is known as the grandfather of all motivational literature and delves into a philosophy that has been coined as the “Law of Success.” It tells the stories of great business legends, such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison. The updated version of the book was crafted by Arthur R. Pell, Ph.D. He is a widely known thought leader in the world of human resources, as well as an expert in the philosophies of the original author, Napolean Hill. New perspectives included in the best seller are those of today’s most successful businesspeople, such as Bill Gates and Sir John Templeton. The book has also been updated to reflect today’s terminology and generational topics. As of 2022, it had sold more than 70 million copies.

 

The Seller’s Journey: How (Smart) Sellers Navigate the Obstacles to Exiting Their Business

By Denise Logan 

Unlike most books about succession planning, The Seller’s Journey is a fictional narrative that is set in Montana’s Glacier National Park and tells the story of a business owner one year after the successful sale of their company. It’s an intriguing story that brings life to the seller’s experiences over multiple years, including what went right and wrong. It is a great read for preparing yourself for the challenges that you may face in the process—the kind that can completely throw deals off track—while still providing a positive take on selling a business in a successful way.

 

The Art of Selling Your Business: Winning Strategies & Secret Hacks for Exiting on Top

By John Warrillow

In 2022, this book was named the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Silver Medalist in Business & Career by the Axiom Awards. It is actually the last in a trilogy of books by the author that focus on building value, so we would be remiss not to mention the first book, Built to Sell, as well as the second, The Automatic Customer(both of which are great reads for any business owner). While the first book is about getting small business owners to think about their company as more than a job, and the second is about the importance of recurring revenue, the third book focuses largely on the freedom that you have as a business owner to do what you want, whenever you want. It delves into addressing important questions that business owners face when selling, such as maximizing value, market timing, and negotiation tactics, to name a few.

Seasons of Selling: Four Essential Stages for Maximizing the Sale of Your Family Business and Protecting Your Wealth

By Randall Childress

In this deep dive into the tactical aspects of selling a business, American financial advisor Randall Childress guides owners through the complex process of getting a company sale-ready, how to properly market it to potential buyers, and how to get the most value out of the transaction. What makes this book different from similar texts is how he focuses on the overall process of selling a company from start to finish by using the metaphor of the four seasons and how it reflects the emotional journey of a business owner who has decided to sell and exit their business. The text is a result of Childress’s experiences after his time in the financial services sector helping many high-net worth individuals craft succession plans that resulted in large liquidity exit strategies.

 

The Exit-Strategy Playbook: The Definitive Guide to Selling Your Business

By Adam Coffey

Adam Coffey has been CEO of three private-equity-backed companies and is the best-selling author of The Private Equity Playbook. He came out with this second text to help business owners understand what kind of buyers are out there, and how to create the best team of expert advisors to sell your company. It provides a great walk-through of the sale process from the perspective of a middle-market investment banker. The book is an excellent tool for learning how to navigate the sale process from someone who knows it well enough to know how to sell smart, not fast.

 

Finish Big, How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top
By Bo Burlingham 

The author of this book is a successful business journalist who interviewed several entrepreneurs across many different industries with the goal of identifying the most critical factors that led to whether they were happy after the sale of their companies. This compilation of cautionary tales explores the practical challenges of selling a business as well as the emotional ones by reviewing real-life scenarios. Another quality that makes this book unique is how it delivers on living a life of value and leaving a legacy behind, rather than just focusing on the transactional value that can be derived from selling a company.