Do not liquidate first. The fee is paid before vetting, the gift becomes due only after vetting is completed, and the published terms of a recent programme can change, so a business sold early to fund a gift may leave the household without income and without certainty.
Order of operations protects the family more than speed does
The temptation for an owner in his sixties is to treat the sale and the application as one transaction and to run them together. Two features of this framework argue against it. The first is that the decision point sits between the two payments, so an applicant who has already converted a business into cash is exposed if vetting does not go as expected.
The second is that this is a new programme whose terms have already been revised, which makes an early irreversible step riskier than usual. A more careful sequence is to confirm the current official terms, take advice on whether an ordinary employment-based or family-based route would reach the same destination, decide on that comparison rather than on speed, and only then commit to selling. Where a corporate sponsor is contemplated, the tax and corporate consequences in both countries need professional attention before, not after.