In a perfect world you, or your advisers, would arrange to have other investors willing and anxious to buy up the shares your venture capitalists want to sell. That way your venture capitalists would be happy (because they had obtained a good price for their shares), your other shareholders would be happy (because they had received a good valuation on their shares), and the business could proceed unencumbered by disgruntled shareholders (unable to get out at a reasonable price), or alternatively by disgruntled ex-shareholders (sitting on lower profits than they were expecting to obtain).
The world is rarely perfect, but there are things you can do to push it in the right direction:
- Do what you can to make sure that your figures - sales, profits, profit margin and dividends - are moving in the right direction.
- Build up a relationship with your outside shareholders, and try to develop a 'feel' for their intentions. Do not hold it against them if they are planning to sell your shares - they will not be as committed as you are, but their help will have been worth having while you had it. When they decide to sell, you want to be the first to hear about it.
- Maintain your relationship with intermediaries and, if possible, develop a relationship with other potential investors.
