In the first days of your career transition you will have a number of ideas and thoughts going through your mind. In addition, this will likely be a new experience for you and you may be faced with a number of situations for which you need to be prepared. Let's deal first of all with the thoughts that you may have.
In almost every case, you should move sooner, you should go faster rather than slower. In almost every instance in your career, you have undertaken action promptly and efficiently. In fact, you're probably known as an action-oriented person and a strong decision-maker. While delaying a search a reasonable time will almost invariably not harm you, it could easily be argued that it will not help you either. Please understand that I am not saying you must move immediately, without exceptions. If you have a vacation planned, or a meeting, or it just feels like you need to take a couple days off; that is fine. What I am saying is that to delay beginning your job search for a month or more is almost invariably not the right thing to do.
This may be an appropriate option for you. Invariably, individuals such as yourself - people with great success in their careers, with extensive general management experience, and with the financial resources to comfortably assume this kind of risk - may find success in buying a business. This is not a decision to be taken lightly, and there are several issues of which you may not be aware that do need to be considered. We should clearly discuss this option before you make your final decision, and I am happy to do so immediately or in a few days if you wish.
This is a difficult area, but one for which there is a very precise answer. At this point, given that there are a number of issues that have not been addressed or thought through properly, your best response would be something along the lines of:
"Thanks very much for your call and your interest. I really appreciate being able to count on people like you. At this point, I am thinking through exactly what I want to do and how I want to proceed. I am in the process of doing that as well as developing my resume and other documents. I think I am about a week or two away from being properly prepared to sit down and talk with you and to ask you for assistance. Let me get this next week or so under my belt. And, let me get all of these thoughts organized. And, let me get my resume and other documents together. Once that is done, I will give you a call and we can get together. Again, I really appreciate your interest and I will be looking forward to seeing you soon."
We would suggest that you tell the truth all the time. I know this subject may be difficult for you, and it may be embarrassing as well. Nonetheless, no one can ever be in complete control of what is said, what is believed, or what is perceived. By your taking an aggressive, straightforward approach to these issues, you will always be best served by making your statements known and letting others say that they have spoken to you and this is exactly what you said. It's probably best that you say something like "Yes, I have left. It probably was time for me to go, although I would have certainly preferred to leave under slightly different circumstances. I accomplished a lot and I am very proud of my association with them. Right now, my focus is on the future; and, quite frankly, I'm in the process of thinking through a number of issues. I'm sure you could help me in that process. It may be just a bit premature at this point to do so. So, let me give you a call in a week or so and we can get together. I really appreciate your interest and your reaching out to me."
Obviously, not every phrase is specifically correct for everybody; and there may be other things that you need to say as part of the specific circumstances under which you have left and because of either who the individual is to whom you are speaking or your relationship with him/her.
This is a very common occurrence and relatively easy to handle. First of all, let's assume that you have an old resume or something that is in unfinished form. If the request is serious and you truly feel that it is an appropriate opportunity, it probably is fine to give this document to the person. You must, however, tell him/her very specifically that this is old or still in draft form. You should add that you will be providing an updated resume within a very short time. You need not be embarrassed nor reluctant to give someone this document; but you must tell him/her that a more appropriate document will be forthcoming soon.
Let's assume that you don't have a draft resume or an old resume. In this case you should tell the person that you don't have such a document or are not happy with what you do have; but you will provide him/her with a completed resume in a very short period.