redactedIf you are a business owner past retirement age and have not started to transfer your business, you are in good company, and the reasons are usually practical. In the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIBredactedsuccession survey, the most common barriers were finding a buyer or successor (47 per cent), being too busy running the business (37 per cent), not knowing what the business is worth (37 per cent) and never having done this before (34 per cent). A fifth reason, which the survey does not measure, is that the sale may not replace the income the business pays you. Waiting is understandable, but it has a cost. CFIB reports that 80 per cent of owners aged 65 and older plan to leave within 10 years, and only 4 per cent expect to stay longer. Yet only 6 per cent of all owners have a formal written plan. The gap between those two numbers is where owners lose options: the earlier you start, the more choices you have about who takes over and on what terms. Start here: staying is not a failure Many owners past 65 are not avoiding the subject out of carelessness. They built something over 30 or 40 years, they know it better than anyone, and the next step is unfamiliar. A first transfer of ownership is a one time event. There is no practice run, and there is no one inside the business who has done it before. This article looks at the reasons owners give, what the research says about each, and what you can do in the next 90 days. It is written for owners who are already past the age at which they expected to be finished, and it assumes you are weighing the decision with your family, your business partners and your advisers. A note on the evidence. The CFIB survey reports barriers for all owners, not separately for owners aged 65 and older. It does report timing by age. We use the barrier data as a guide to what owners of every age face, and we say where we are inferring. What the research says about owners at your stage CFIB's Passing the Torch report, based on 1,731 small business owners surveyed between May 21 and June 11, 2026, gives a clear picture of intentions and a less comforting picture of preparation. • Intentions. 63 per cent of owners plan to leave within 10 years: 8 per cent within 12 months, 35 per cent within one to five years and 20 per cent within six to 10 years. • Age. Among owners 65 and older, 80 per cent plan to exit within a decade, and only 4 per cent expect to remain beyond that. Among owners under 50, 39 per cent expect to stay more than 10 years. • Preparation. About 6 per cent have a formal written plan, about 44 per cent an informal unwritten one and about half no plan at all. • Urgency does help. About 23 per cent of owners exiting within 12 months have a formal plan, compared with 5 per cent of those exiting in six to 10 years. Read together, these figures say that owners past retirement age mostly know they will leave, and most have not yet written down how. The question is why. Reason 1: you cannot find a buyer or successor This is the most common barrier in the survey, cited by 47 per cent of owners. It is also the one that feels most outside your control. Who is the next generation of owners, and where do they come from? CFIB asked owners how they expect to exit. The answers show how wide the field is: • Sell to unrelated buyers: 54 per cent. • Sell to employees: 28 per cent. • Sell to family members: 21 per cent. • Transfer to family without a sale, for example by inheritance: 19 per cent. • Close the business: 13 per cent. The figures add to more than 100 per cent because owners could choose more than one route. The takeaway is that most owners expect to sell outside the family. If you have been waiting for a family successor who has not stepped forward, consider whether an employee group, a competitor, a customer, a supplier or a financial buyer is a better fit. Selling to employees through an employee ownership trust (EOT) may qualify for a capital gains exemption of up to $10 million. The exemption was originally limited to transfers between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2026. Miller Thomson reported on June 29, 2026 that the federal government announced in its Spring Economic Update that the sunset clause would be removed. That report does not name the bill or give the date the change takes legal effect, so confirm the current status with counsel before you rely on it. EOT sales are usually financed from the company's future cash flow, so the seller is paid over years. Reason 2: you are too busy running the business Thirty-seven per cent of owners cite this. It is the most honest reason on the list, and the hardest to fix, because the same dependence that keeps you busy is what a buyer will discount. CFIB found that owners with no formal plan were more likely to say they were too busy (38 per cent) than owners with a formal plan (27 per cent). That does not prove that planning frees time, but it suggests the owners who made the time were not less busy to begin with. A practical response is to treat the first step as small. Ask your accountant for a list of the documents a buyer would request. Block two hours a week for 12 weeks. Hand one recurring responsibility to a manager each month. These steps cost little and they start to reduce the dependence that buyers price. Reason 3: you do not know what the business is worth Valuing the business is also cited by 37 per cent of owners. Many owners carry a number in their heads that comes from a peer, a past offer or a rule of thumb. The risk is that the number is either too high, which delays action, or too low, which leads to a poor deal. Two things drive value more than most owners expect. The first is which earnings measure a buyer will use. Seller's discretionary earnings add back the owner's whole compensation, while EBITDA deducts a market salary for a replacement manager, and the two are priced on different multiples. The second is how much the business depends on you. A professional valuation, prepared by an adviser who is independent of any sale, gives you a range and a list of what moves it. Reason 4: you have never done this before A third of owners (34 per cent) cite a lack of experience because this is their first transfer, and 19 per cent say they do not know where to start. Among owners with no formal plan, 35 per cent cite inexperience and 20 per cent do not know where to begin, compared with 19 per cent and 7 per cent among owners who have a plan. Having a plan, in other words, is associated with feeling less lost. Experience is the one thing you cannot supply yourself, which is why the owners who do this well usually assemble a small team early. A tax adviser, a lawyer experienced in transactions and an accountant who knows your books can each answer a different part of the question. If you choose to work with a sell-side adviser, ask how they are paid and who else they refer you to, so you understand the incentives. Reason 5: the business depends on you Thirty-one per cent of owners say the business depends too much on their involvement. For a buyer, that is a risk to price. For you, it is a decision about how long you intend to stay. There are three common responses. You can build a management layer so the business runs without you, which takes time. You can agree a longer transition period with the buyer, which keeps you involved after closing. Or you can accept a lower price from a buyer who sees the dependence as a risk. None is wrong. What matters is choosing one deliberately, rather than discovering it in a letter of intent. Reason 6: financing the successor A quarter of owners (26 per cent) point to the difficulty of financing the successor. This is common when the buyer is an employee group or a younger family member who has limited capital. It usually means the price will be paid over time, which creates a different kind of risk for you, because you become a lender to the business you have just sold. If you are considering a staged payment, discuss the terms with your lawyer and your tax adviser together. Think about the security you will hold, what happens if the business underperforms and how your own retirement income would be affected if a payment is late. Reason 7: advice is expensive or hard to find About 22 per cent cite access to cost-effective professional advice, and 38 per cent of owners who made a plan did so without outside help. Some of that is cost and some of it is not knowing who to call. A useful first step is a single meeting with your accountant, with a short list of questions: what is the business worth, what would a buyer want to see, and what are the tax consequences of each route. Reason 8: the sale may not replace what the business pays you This reason does not appear on the CFIB list, and we want to be clear about that. It is an inference from the arithmetic, and a reasonable one. In its succession announcement, CFIB's Marvin Cruz noted that many owners count on selling the business to fund their retirement, and that without a buyer they may have to delay retiring or close the business altogether. When we model four revenue tiers from $1 million to $15 million in our white paper, net sale proceeds replace only about 8 per cent to 14 per cent of what the owner earns today, after costs, debt repayment and tax, at a 3.9 per cent sustainable withdrawal rate. The figures are illustrative, not forecasts, and your own numbers will differ. But if you have sensed that the sale will not support your lifestyle, you are not imagining the arithmetic, and it may be quietly holding up the decision. This is a reason to plan, not a reason to stay indefinitely. Owners can close part of the gap by building savings outside the business, keeping a property and leasing it to the buyer, or structuring the sale to use the lifetime capital gains exemption. The Canada Revenue Agency publishes the 2026 limit as $1.275 million per qualifying individual, and the shares must meet three tests: 90 per cent active assets at the time of sale, more than 50 per cent active assets throughout the preceding 24 months and 24 months of ownership. Confirm the details with a tax adviser, because the rules turn on facts. Reason 9: the business is who you are Manfred Kets de Vries, a psychologist who has written about leaders and retirement, described a pattern he called the retirement syndrome, in which a leader whose identity is fused with the firm struggles to let go. We treat that as a planning risk, not as a measured rate. In practice it shows up as owners who say they will start next year, every year. A clear plan for your time after the sale matters as much as the price. In National Bank's 2026 survey of mid-market owners considering a sale, 37 per cent cited spending more time with family, 36 per cent the ability to fully retire and 31 per cent pursuing a new venture. Think about which of these is true for you and what your first year would look like. What the next generation of owners wants The buyers and successors you are looking for have their own priorities. In the same National Bank survey, which covered 504 owners with $3 million to $100 million of revenue, owners planning a sale or transfer ranked continuing the business (44 per cent) ahead of maximizing financial return (39 per cent). More than a third (36 per cent) said finding the right people to take over was a priority. That matters for you, because a successor who senses that you care about the business as well as the price may be easier to find and easier to work with. It also suggests you should tell the people around you what you want to happen to the business, not only what you want to be paid. What waiting can cost We have no reliable figure for how much value is lost by waiting, and we will not invent one. What the evidence does show is that options narrow. CFIB says the earlier owners start, the more options they will have. Its report finds that 13 per cent of owners expect to close the business, and its release notes that without a buyer owners may have to delay retirement or close. There is also a practical timing issue. The lifetime capital gains exemption tests look back 24 months, and operational changes such as building a management team can take longer. Starting 24 months or more before a target date gives you control. Starting six months before leaves you with the buyers who are available at that moment. Your next 90 days You do not need to decide to sell this year to begin. A sensible first quarter looks like this: • Month 1: get a number. Ask your accountant for a preliminary view of normalized earnings and an independent valuation range. • Month 1: list who could take over. Include employees, family, competitors, customers, suppliers and financial buyers. • Month 2: run the arithmetic. Estimate net proceeds after costs, debt and tax, then apply a cautious withdrawal rate and compare the result with what you earn and spend today. • Month 2: check the tax structure. Ask a tax adviser to review the lifetime capital gains exemption tests, any property held in the company and whether a family trust or an EOT is worth comparing with a third party sale. • Month 3: write a one page plan. Set a target date, a preferred route and the three things you need to change in the business before then. • Month 3: talk to the people affected. Discuss it with your spouse, your family and your business partners before you talk to a buyer. The goal for the quarter is not a deal. It is a written plan, which puts you among the small minority of owners who have one. Questions owners ask about starting late Why have I not started the process of transferring my business? The most common reasons in the CFIB survey are difficulty finding a buyer or successor (47 per cent), being too busy (37 per cent), not knowing the value of the business (37 per cent) and inexperience with a first transfer (34 per cent). A further reason, which the survey does not measure, is concern that the sale will not replace your income. Is it too late to start if I am past retirement age? There is no age after which planning stops being useful. Eighty per cent of owners 65 and older plan to leave within 10 years, so you are among the majority. The relevant limits are timing limits: some tax tests look back 24 months, and a business that depends on you takes time to change. Who will buy my business? Owners expect to sell to unrelated buyers (54 per cent), employees (28 per cent) or family members (21 per cent). Which route fits depends on the size of the business, how much it depends on you and what you want to happen to it. What if I cannot find a successor? Widen the field before you decide. Consider employees, competitors, customers, suppliers and financial buyers. If none is suitable, you still have choices, including a staged transition or an orderly closure, and a written plan helps you pick the one that fits. What to do next If you are past retirement age and the transition feels overdue, begin with the arithmetic. Our white paper, The Canadian Owner's Exit Reality, sets out four revenue tiers, a seven question readiness scorecard and a checklist for each tier, so you can see where you stand before you speak with a buyer. Download the white paper here: click to download Sources Canadian Federation of Independent Business (2026, October). Passing the Torch: How Canada's Small Business Owners Are Planning Their Exit (1,731 owners, fieldwork May 21 to June 11, 2026). redacted Canadian Federation of Independent Business (2026, October 22). Most small business owners plan to exit their business over the next decade, putting over $2 trillion at risk. redacted National Bank of Canada (2026, July 21). Survey of Western Canadian mid-market business owners (Angus Reid, May 4 to 20, 2026). redacted Canada Revenue Agency. Indexation adjustment for personal income tax and benefit amountsredactedlifetime capital gains exemption limit). redacted Miller Thomson LLP (2026, June 29). Ottawa makes $10 million EOT exemption permanent. redacted Barrett Tax Law. Qualified small business corporation shares. redacted Kets de Vries, M. F. RredactedThe retirement syndrome: The psychology of letting go. European Management Journal, 21(6), 707 to 716. redacted redacted