Retiring, how much notice to customers?

[cajunpedaler]

I don't think I'm going to want to do upholstery for the public much more than a couple of more years.  I am 60.5 yrs young, but my hands and wrists are beat to hell and back..just like the rest of us.
I want to continue doing projects till they put me in the ground, but these will be fun projects for myself and family and friends. 

Has anyone ever decided to pull the plug on the business and then told the public?  How much notice?  I'm also thinking it could backfire a couple of ways..one, I could get so overwhelmed that I would really burn out, OR...it would be a ghost town, because customers would just start looking for their new upholsterer now..

Perry

[MinUph]

My previous boss retired in December and told the clients about 6 months prior. It worked out fine. I was taking the shop over so the change was a little different than yours. If I were to retire and close the business I would not give more notice than the backlog was. In other words if you had 4 months of work ahead of you then let the clients you work with know at that point. This would give them ample time to find a replacement and you wouldn't get swamped. You want to stay on the good side of your regular customers so don't burn bridges. You might just want some work after retirement.

[byhammerandhand]

Depends I think to some degree on the type of customers you have -- are they sending you jobs every week, every month, or every few years?

A good analogy would be how much time would you give an employer?   How much time would you expect an employer to give you that you were being laid off/fired?  (ie., customer to give you that they were quitting/closing/pulling out?)  The typical is two weeks (though my son-in-law has to give 90 days!)    In some (most?) environments, the company will let you go early for whatever reason (loss of productivity, spreading the discontent, not able to start and finish and project)  When I worked for a company that had periodic layoffs, the typical thing was "At 2:00 pm, call your people into the office.  At 1:59, we'll revoke their computer sign-ins.*   You will tell them, give them their termination packet, collect their office keys, escort them to their office to pack up their belongings, and take them to the door."    Was not a pleasant experience on either side of the table.

* which normally caused panic when there was a computer network outage for all.  Are you down???

I decided to "pull the plug" at the beginning of last year and keep just one regular customer, essentially going "part time" or "semi-retired."  I told them in person a few weeks before Christmas that the end of the year would be it.  It's a relatively slow time anyway.   The only customer that complained  of the short notice.  It was the one that (a)I got a call from the delivery company on Sunday that I should not show up Monday at 8 for our normal work appt. because another delivery company had come and picked up the inventory on Saturday, and (b) I went to the store one Tuesday to find a note on the door that they had closed on the prior Saturday.  That was the first information I got.   They a few months later reorganized and opened a new location under a new name (presumably they were trying to pull a fast one and get out of debts, leases, etc.) with same staff and same product lines.

But you're right, if you give too much notice, then you'll either be flooded with "one more things" or they'll start to investigate alternate providers, or both making workload had to predict.


That's my take on it.

[byhammerandhand]

Oh, and I think most of them would take me back in a heartbeat as they've had a hard time finding reliable people to do what I did.   I ran into one of them at the hardware store a few weeks ago and he said he'd been through three of them already and had reverted to doing his own deluxing and repair work.

[SteveA]

You don't owe anyone anything.  When it's time put the gone fishing sign up.  Will you not wait until you're 62-1/2 ?
SA

[sofadoc]

Over the years, I've had a lot of customers bring me work and say "We had taken this to another shop. But he kept them for several months, and then suddenly announced that he was retiring. So we had to pick them up and bring them here".

It seems to be the way that it's done. I've had other shops call me and say "I'm closing my shop. But I still have a lot of unfinished work. Is it OK if I refer them to you?"

I think that shops who are contemplating retirement prefer to keep their options open as long as possible.

I don't think that you owe anyone any prior notice. Like you say, it could backfire a couple of different ways.

[byhammerandhand]

I meant to mention before I was away for the day.   My way of analyzing situations like this is to look at from the other direction.  What happens in one direction leans the other direction, too.   Would you expect your customers to give you six months' notice that they will not be sending you any more business?

[Darren Henry]

I agree that putting your notice out there too soon may A) tip the apple cart and B) leaves you between a rock and hard place if you change your mind for what ever reason.

If I were to retire and close the business I would not give more notice than the backlog was. In other words if you had 4 months of work ahead of you then let the clients you work with know at that point.

. .

I agree with Paul. When your backlog reaches almost to your retirement day---notify your regulars and turn away new clients. It would be nice if you were comfortably able to refer them to someone (preferably an up and comer) just in case you need to tap into them once in a while. They will remember that you looked out for them.