I spent a few days this month ringing all the people whose business we sold during the past few years. I must admit that my original reason for making these calls was to see if I could get some more referrals. However, the feedback from the people I spoke to was so fascinating that the project quickly took on a life all of its own.

Until quite recently, most of the people that we sold businesses for were of retirement age. Consequently, their post-sell lives were often devoted to hobbies, travel, passive investment, charity work and looking after their grandchildren.

These days a lot of the people that we sell for are much younger and retirement is still many years away. A common myth is that business sellers spend their millions on a mansion, a string of exotic cars or a yacht. In my experience this is incredibly rare. In fact, I can think of only one person who spent their money in such a way.

Second careers

A much more common occurrence is for clients to start another business in a different sector. One of my clients received an eight-figure sum for his business at 1pm. He treated himself to his favourite pizza and at 2pm, he sat down with a blank notebook to start the process of coming up with some ideas for his next business.

Some of my clients have been extraordinarily successful in their second career. One set up a new business in the medical sector which, after three years trading, is already worth five times as much as the letting business which took him 20 years to build.

Property development is another well-trodden path. So many of my clients say that they have been so busy advising their clients on their development projects, that they have not had the time to do their own. The client who stands out in this category is one who converted a hideous former office building into flats and made more money from doing this than he had made in the whole time that he owned his agency.

Back to basics

One final example of this that comes to mind is the client who, at the age of 65, sold his large mixed sales and letting agency to one of the big corporate chains. He agreed to take a part-time job with them for six months to help to achieve a smooth transition. More than a decade later, and he is still there.

He said that he has never been happier because he now spends every moment of his working time valuing beautiful country houses in one of the prettiest parts of Britain. Prior to selling his business he used to spend most of his time dealing with VAT returns, IT compliance and other dreary administrative tasks.

The crucial thing is that whatever you do must be something that you feel excited about when you wake up every morning, and something that you want to do for the love and the challenge regardless of the money. Very few people ever get to do this, and it is a lovely way to end a career.

Adam Walker is a business sales broker who has specialised in the property sector for more than 40 years.