Family businesses are very common. Some are side jobs that people do while working in another field, but many are full-time operations that pay the bills. A lot of today’s major corporations started as family businesses.
What if you’re running a family business with your spouse and the two of you decide to get divorced? What should you do?
Start with a valuation
There are a lot of options, and they depend on many factors. However, the value of the business is very important no matter what. Get a valuation so you can know exactly what you’re dealing with. Once you have done that, you can decide if you want to:
- Sell the entire business to a third party so that you and your spouse can just go your separate ways.
- Buy your spouse’s half of the company so that you can keep it and run it by yourself.
- Sell your half of the company to your spouse so that they can keep running it.
- Continue to work together as business owners, even if you get divorced.
- Hire someone else to run the company so that the two of you can be hands-off owners who don’t have to interact that much.
What the best option is for you and your family is something you’ll have to decide on your own. For some divorced couples, working together would be easy. For others, it would be an absolute disaster. You have to consider your own situation carefully. Whatever you decide to do, just make sure that you are well aware of all of the necessary legal steps.