How will you exit your business?

• How much do you need (or want) for your business? Ideally, you'll want the sale of your business to meet your retirement and estate-planning goals. So, you'll need to think carefully about these goals and what costs they may entail. And these issues aren't just financial — for example, when you think about how you may want to spend your time in retirement, you might realize that you don't really want to exit your business completely. So, you might decide to sell just part of it, or sell it entirely, but stay on to help manage it or possibly do some consulting for the new owners.
• How much is your business worth? You may want to calculate your business' value three to five years before your planned exit. You could do this on your own, but it's typically advantageous to use professional valuation services. If you're gifting or selling your business to family members, selling it to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) or settling an estate, you'll need to get a more formal qualified appraisal to meet IRS standards.
• How can you close the gap between what you need and what your business is worth? The amount you need from the sale of your business to support your retirement goals may be more than what your business is actually worth. To help close this gap, you could try to boost your business's profits through the usual means, such as introducing new products, raising prices or cutting costs. But you might also try to lower the amount you need from the sale by working longer, reducing your personal spending and saving more outside the business.
• Who will take over your business? When planning for a successor for your business, you have several choices, including selling to a family member or an outside buyer. Going public or liquidating the business are also options. These are distinct paths, but depending on your circumstances, one might be more appropriate for you than another. To cite just one factor, if you don't have an obvious choice for a family member to take over the business, you might have to consider other buyers. In any case, you'll need to explore all the economic and personal factors involved in the choice of successor. 
• Who can help you with your exit strategy? Exiting a business can be complex. To ensure you're making the right moves for your overall financial and family situations, you may want to build an exit strategy team, possibly consisting of your financial, legal and tax advisors. You may also need to enlist the services of a commercial banker and a business evaluation expert. Each of these professionals can bring a different area of expertise to your exit decisions, and together they can help address all the issues related to your exit strategy.

North Adams Police Investigating Suspicious Fire at Concession Stand

Staff ReportsiBerkshires
06:20PM / Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Fire Chief Brent Lefebvre, left, and Commissioner of Public Services Timothy Lescarbeau check the damage to the concession building. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Authorities are investigating a suspicious fire that occurred at the Windsor Lake concession stand on Wednesday afternoon. 

 

The fire was called in just before 5 p.m. as "visible flames and smoke." There was dark smoke coming from a storage area on the backside of the building and firefighters were able to quickly knock it down.

 

Power was shut off to the building and fans set up to push the smoke out. Wire and Alarm and Commissioner of Public Services Timothy Lescarbeau also arrived on scene. 

 

"Right now we're just trying to make sure all of the flames are out and that there's no reoccurrence, and then the Police Department will do their investigation," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey. "It is a suspicious thing that we're closed and we weren't cooking hamburgs." 

 

There was damage to some of the items being stored in the building, including two kayaks that melted, plus the lines & buoys for the swimming area, chairs and some benches. 

 

The concession stand was not open this year, so nothing was on in the kitchen; the other items were stored at the beginning of October. 

 

There were people up at the park, walking and enjoying the view. One woman who was out with her dog said she'd walked by the stand and noticed two people on bench near it, but no smoke. When she came back about 20 minutes later, the fire engines were there.