Retention bonus

A cash incentive a buyer commits to a key employee for staying through the ownership transition, paid out only if they remain for an agreed period after close.

The people who actually run a small business rarely have contracts, and a sale is exactly when a competitor recruits them; a retention bonus buys the buyer time to earn the team's trust, so diligence should price the cost of holding the two or three people the business cannot lose.

In numbers: Offering the lead technician a $15,000 bonus to stay 12 months costs about 1% of a $1.5M deal and is cheaper than losing the person half the customers ask for by name.