If you've never sold a business before, the language around deal structures can feel like its own language. Swim club owners exploring a sale often assume it comes down to one number, a check at closing, but in reality, most deals are built from a combination of pieces, each doing different work. Here's a plain-English guide to the structures that actually show up in swim club and swim school sales.
Upfront cash
This is the simplest piece: a lump sum paid at closing in exchange for the business. Few deals are 100% upfront cash, because that shifts all the risk to the buyer, they're betting the club performs as well after the sale as it did under your ownership, without any structure to protect them if it doesn't. Owners who want a completely clean break and are willing to accept a lower total number sometimes prioritize maximizing this piece.
Earn-outs
An earn-out ties part of the purchase price to the club's performance after closing, typically over one to three years. If enrollment, retention, or revenue hits agreed targets, you get the additional payment; if it falls short, you get less. Earn-outs let a buyer offer a higher total price than they could with cash alone, because it's partly self-funding, the club has to actually perform to trigger the payout. For sellers, it means some of your total price depends on decisions the new owner makes, so the terms of the earn-out (who controls marketing, staffing, pricing during that window) matter enormously and are worth negotiating carefully.
Seller financing
In seller financing, you act as the lender for part of the purchase price. Instead of the buyer paying a bank or investor, they pay you directly over time, usually with interest. This can make a deal possible when a buyer can't or doesn't want to finance the whole purchase upfront, and it often means a higher total sale price and a steady income stream for you. The tradeoff is that you're taking on credit risk, you're betting the buyer will run the club well enough to keep making payments.
Staged buyouts
A staged, or phased, buyout means the buyer purchases the club in pieces over time rather than all at once, for example, a 30% stake now with the remaining 70% purchased over the following few years at a pre-agreed formula. This structure is common when a founder wants to de-risk gradually rather than exit all at once, or wants to stay involved as a coach or advisor during the transition while ownership shifts. It can also let a buyer prove themselves to you, and to your staff and families, before taking full control.
Non-profit conversions and mergers
If your club is a 501(c)(3), there's no ownership equity to sell in the traditional sense. Non-profit clubs typically move toward a merger with another organization, a management agreement where an outside operator runs day-to-day operations under the non-profit's board, or in some cases a conversion to a for-profit structure with the assets and programs transferred to the new entity. Each path has real legal and tax implications and is worth working through with counsel who understands non-profit conversions specifically.
Which structure is right for you
There's no single "best" structure, it depends on how much certainty you need now versus later, whether you want to stay involved, how much risk you're comfortable taking on the buyer's future performance, and your own tax and retirement picture. A buyer who's willing to build the deal around what actually matters to you, rather than pushing a single template, is usually a better sign than the buyer with the highest headline offer.
Third Place Ventures structures every deal around the individual club and family, earn-outs, seller financing, staged buyouts, or non-profit conversions, whatever fits. If you want to talk through what might work for your situation, reach out any time.