How to be happy retiring from your consultancy, without losing yourself | CREATED BY JACKY SHERMAN Published: 19/02/2026 @ 09:03AM #WhatMakesAHappyRetirement #ConsultancyLife #SuccessionPlanning #UKBusiness #FounderExit #WealthPlanning |
What makes a happy retirement when you've been in consultancy for years? It's less about stopping work and more about designing your identity, boundaries and next mission. Here's a clear, friendly way to exit well without becoming the shadow founder ... What makes a happy retirement? Peaceful days, no stress, Contentment in old age You don't retire from a consultancy the same way you retire from a job, because the firm has usually been an extension of your identity, your relationships and your daily sense of relevance. If you're asking yourself what makes a happy retirement, you're already ahead of most founders, because you're treating it as a design problem rather than a vague hope. The goal isn't to vanish; it's to exit in a way that feels coherent, dignified and emotionally sustainable!You'll probably recognise the hidden trap: you may tell yourself you only want to stop the day-to-day, yet you still want the firm to run properly, clients to stay close, and standards to remain as high as yours ever were. That tension is normal, but it becomes corrosive when your nervous system has used control as a form of security. If you've been the person copied into everything, the person who resolves every dispute, and the person who decides pricing, hiring and 'what we stand for', stepping back can feel like being irresponsible. In reality, it's simply a change of system, and systems can be redesigned: - The first move is to separate your personal worth from the firm's continued success. That sounds lofty, but it's practical: you need a psychological boundary so the consultancy can thrive without it feeling like a personal slight. What makes a happy retirement is being able to watch the firm do well without needing to reach in and prove you still matter.
- Next, you'll want to give your competitive drive a new arena before you remove the old one. Advisory life gives you scorecards all day long: winning work, out-thinking the room, landing the client, and being the trusted name. Retirement removes that feedback loop, and “I'll put my feet up and relax” rarely satisfies a mind that's been trained to compete. What makes a happy retirement is having a replacement game that you genuinely respect, whether that's building a small portfolio, writing, mentoring, governance roles you actually care about, or a project with a finish line.
- You'll also want to plan for the sudden drop in validation that no one talks about in polite business circles. Clients praising you, colleagues deferring to you, being introduced as Founder & CEO, seeing your name in the press or in a niche sector's whisper network - those are powerful reinforcers. When they fade, you can feel oddly invisible even if your life looks enviable from the outside.
- The hardest part, for many founders, is succession planning done late. If you've been postponing naming a successor, avoiding governance reform, or telling yourself you'll know when it's time, it's usually not a timing issue; it's an emotional risk issue. You may fear irrelevance, cultural drift, or the firm becoming something you don't recognise. But the longer you wait, the more abrupt the handover becomes, and the more likely you are to hover afterwards.
- You should also be honest about your emotional ownership of staff. If you hired people early, watched them build families, and helped them through crises, stepping back can feel like abandonment even when you know it isn't. The fix is not to stay half-in and half-out, because that quietly undermines new leadership and keeps you emotionally on-call. The fix is to agree on explicit boundaries that are kind, visible and durable, so you can remain supportive without remaining central.
- Money matters too, but mostly because clarity reduces anxiety. If you're selling equity, restructuring ownership or drawing dividends, get crisp advice early so you're not making emotional decisions under pressure. Even a founder who claims not to care about the cash can feel a sharp pang of regret later if the deal structure feels sloppy, or if tax surprises show up at the worst possible time. You don't need to become a tax technician, but you do want to understand the shape of Capital Gains Tax implications, timing, and what 'enough' looks like for the life you're actually going to live.
- A quiet, but crucial factor is resilience, because retirement exposes whatever work used to regulate for you. When the pace slows, you may notice irritability at home, restlessness, or a sense of flatness that doesn't match the privilege of your situation. That's not failure; it's your system recalibrating. Build resilience into your future plan by treating your next chapter like a transition program: structure your week, keep a small number of meaningful commitments, and design your environment so you're not tempted to fix problems at the firm, just to feel useful.
The best test of readiness is simple: can you imagine the consultancy making decisions you wouldn't make, and still feel broadly content because the firm is healthy and your life is full? If the honest answer is no, you don't need to delay forever; you need a better design. What makes a happy retirement is a defined post-exit mission, a successor with real authority, a governance system that doesn't route through you, and a life that gives you status, challenge and belonging without requiring the firm as your main stage. You're not trying to retire from being you! You're simply trying to retire from being the bottleneck. When you treat the exit as an engineered transition - identity, control, competition, validation, succession and financial clarity all aligned - you stop fearing that you're erasing yourself. You're simply moving to the next iteration, and you can do it with more intention than most. What makes a happy retirement is leaving a consultancy that can stand without you, while you step into a new chapter. Whatever that looks like, it should feel purposeful, sharp and genuinely yours.
Until next time ...
JACKY SHERMAN
Would you like to know more? | If anything I've written in my blog post resonates with you and you'd like to discover more of my thoughts about what makes for a happy retirement, then do feel free to call me on 07970 638857 and let's arrange an initial chat over a coffee to see how I can help you. |
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