When the reseller thinks about stopping: succession, sale, partnership or closure — the four paths of a planned exit

## When the reseller thinks about stopping: succession, sale, partnership or closure — the four paths of a planned exit

October 2024, a Friday afternoon at the Herreira stockroom. Marlene, my reseller in Goiania for seventeen years, arrives unannounced. Seventy-two years old, one of the first resellers I sold pieces to in 2008. Always impeccable, always punctual, always among the top three biggest billers in the network. She sits in the office chair, looks at me and says: "Patricia, I am going to stop." Silence. "But I do not want to erase what I built. I have eight hundred active clients in my notebook. I have Renata, my niece, who has worked with me for five years and has the touch. I have my own warehouse at home. I am going to stop, but how?" I looked at her and answered the first thing that came to mind: "Marlene, you should have thought about this three years ago." She nodded slowly. "I know. I did not. And now?"