Close your business the right way.
Closing your business isn’t as simple as shuttering your doors. It’s a complex process to end your tax obligations, reduce your liabilities, and maximize your share. Owner Actions can help. Sign up today for a step-by-step guide, articles, and resources that will simplify the challenges of your business exit.
What can Owner Actions help you take on?
Winding down.
Before sharing your plan to close your business with your customers, you should determine how you'll fulfill your outstanding orders, whether you'll accept new orders, and the date by which you need to wrap up operations.
A great many factors will weigh into your decisions, including your contractual obligations (and what happens in the event of non-performance), the amount of time it will take to complete each request, how long your employees will stay on, and whether you have the supplies and inventory you need to fulfill remaining orders.
What should you do about the orders you can't fulfill? Our guide to winding down operations will help you determine your next steps.
Dividing what's left.
After selling your remaining assets, collecting your outstanding receivables, repaying your creditors, and covering your final federal, state, and local tax obligations, you may have a pool of proceeds that will need to be distributed before closing your bank accounts.
How you should you distribute those proceeds? The answer depends on the structure of your business. Learn more in our brief guide to distribution.
Maintaining your records.
By law—or in some cases, best practice—you should store many of your business's essential documents long after ceasing operations. The primary reason is that they can help you defend against audits and lawsuits, which may occur years after the closure of your business.
Our guide to recordkeeping after the close of your business can help you determine what you need to keep on hand (and for how long) and what you can safely destroy.
"It's emotionally tough to close a business. Owner Actions' free step-by-step actions plans can make the process a whole lot easier."
Mark Fleming
Co-founder and CEO of Owner Actions
Articles that drive action
Tell the IRS and Other Tax Agencies That You're Closing Your Business
Once you’ve decided to dissolve your company, tell the IRS and your state and local tax agencies your plans for …
How to Terminate Employee Savings and Benefit Plans
There are many steps to winding down your business’s operations. Once you fulfill your business’s outstanding orders and release your …
How to Settle with Creditors Before Closing Your Business
If you’re following our closing guide, then you’ve already reported your planned closure to your landlord, bank, suppliers, utility providers, …
How to Report Your Business Closure to Your Creditors
One step many owners miss in the closing process is notifying creditors. This must-do step is important because it helps …
Help Your Employees Transition to Government-Sponsored Health Insurance
Did your business offer health insurance? If so, you might wonder how your team will maintain health care coverage until …
Share Your New Contact Information with Your Employees and Network
Before parting ways with your employees, contractors, suppliers, and others you work with on a regular basis, take time to …
Navigate Your Final Tax Filings for Your Small Business
There are many steps to closing your business. After completing projects, selling assets, and paying debts, you'll need to make …
How to Sell Your Business’s Remaining Inventory, Equipment, and Items of Value
An important step of closing your business is selling off the assets it needed to conduct its operations. Before proceeding, …
How to Tell Your Customers Your Business Is Closing
Ready to tell your customers about your impending closure? This is an important step you'll need to take when you’re …
