Should I get my personal finances in order before I start this process?

Yes, and this is a step owners often leave until after a deal is already shaped, when it's harder to act on. How a sale is structured — a share sale versus an asset sale, cash at closing versus payments over time — has real consequences for your personal tax position, and some of the planning that reduces what you personally pay needs to happen before terms are finalized, not after.

The most relevant example is the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption, which can shelter part of a personal capital gain on a sale of qualifying small business corporation shares — roughly $1.25 million as a base amount, indexed annually, so confirm the current figure rather than relying on an old number — but only certain deal structures and only businesses meeting specific qualification tests actually get the benefit of it. Whether your corporation and your shares qualify is a fact-specific question that needs an accountant's review well before you're negotiating structure with a buyer.

Beyond tax, it's also worth having a clear personal picture of any debts you've personally guaranteed for the business, since those don't disappear automatically just because the business is sold. An accountant and a business lawyer working together, early, tend to catch more of this than either working alone.