The Silver Tsunami: Why More Business Owners Are Preparing to Exit 

Ask a room full of business owners in their sixties what their retirement plan is, and you will often hear some version of the same answer: “The business is my retirement plan.” It is said with confidence, sometimes with a laugh. But behind that confidence is a quiet assumption that the business will simply convert into cash when the time comes, on demand, at the price they have in their head. A generational wave now reshaping the entire economy is about to test that assumption for millions of owners at once, and it is why exit planning for business owners has moved from a someday idea to an urgent priority. 

It has a name: the Silver Tsunami. 

A Whole Generation Reaching the Exit at the Same Time 

Baby boomers built an enormous share of the privately held companies operating in America today, from machine shops and medical practices to distribution firms and landscaping empires. Estimates suggest they own something close to half of all small businesses in the country. Now that generation is moving through its sixties and seventies together, and a historic number of companies will need to change hands within the decade. 

Here is the part most owners underestimate. The majority of these businesses were never built with a transition in mind. Study after study finds that most owners have no written exit plan, no successor identified, and no clear sense of what their business is worth. As one advisor put it, “Owners spend forty years building the asset and forty minutes thinking about how they will sell it.” Succession planning and a real exit strategy rarely make the to-do list until the wave is already at the door. 

Why This Matters Whether You Sell or Buy 

The economics here are not complicated, and they cut in opposite directions depending on which side of the table you are on. 

For owners preparing to sell, the wave is both an opportunity and a warning. Right now, buyer demand is strong and the supply of prepared, high-quality businesses is limited, which supports healthy prices. But as more boomer-owned companies flood the market, buyers will have their pick. The businesses that stand out, with clean financials, a capable team, and revenue that does not depend on the founder, will still command premiums. The rest will compete on price or fail to sell at all. 

For buyers, this is one of the great acquisition windows in modern history. Entrepreneurs, search funds, family offices, and private equity groups all see the same thing: thousands of profitable, durable companies about to need new owners. The buyers who build relationships early and approach owners with genuine respect will reach the best opportunities before they ever hit the open market. 

Getting Ahead of the Wave: Exit Planning for Business Owners 

Whether your exit is one year out or ten, the preparation looks the same. A useful way to think about it: 

• Know your number. Get a professional business valuation so you understand what your business is worth before you need the answer. Understanding how your business is valued turns a hopeful guess into a figure you can build a plan around, and you cannot plan a retirement around a number you have never actually measured. 

• Reduce how much the business needs you. A company that runs without the owner is an asset. One that cannot is a job that ends when you leave. 

• Clean up the financials. Buyers pay for clarity and walk away from confusion. Three years of clean books are worth more than the tax savings that messy ones once provided. 

• Line up your successor. Whether the future owner is a family member, a key employee, or an outside buyer, starting succession planning early gives you real options later instead of a rushed decision under pressure. 

• Get a head start with CurtisWiltse. We know how to value your business at maximum value and we provide all the support and assistance you need to build a strategic exit strategy and sell your business when the timing is right. Call CurtisWiltse today at (801) 704-7997. 

The owners who thrive in this wave will not be the ones with the biggest businesses. They will be the ones who prepared while they still had the luxury of time. 

At CurtisWiltse, we help business owners get ahead of the Silver Tsunami rather than get swept up in it. The wave is coming either way. Whether it lifts you or leaves you behind comes down to what you do before it arrives. Learn more at curtiswiltse.com, watch our latest exit planning insights on our YouTube channel, and get everything you need to sell your business at maximum value.
 

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