Company & Succession - Responsibility for family and company

SMEs are the heart and backbone of the German economy. More than 40 million people in Germany are employed in a medium-sized business. German SMEs stand for stability and innovation. The vast majority of companies are family-owned, which ensures stability, responsibility and continuity in company management. But for several hundred thousand of these businesses, succession is imminent in the coming years. The regulation of business succession is of immense importance for the further development of the businesses, but it is also a very personal topic that many entrepreneurs are reluctant to deal with and often do so too late.

Within the family or externally?

Until now, succession within the family was considered the most popular variant of business succession. For many entrepreneurs, it was taken for granted that the baton would be passed from one generation to the next. But a change has been observed here in recent years. More and more entrepreneurs and their descendants no longer consider family-internal succession as the best or the only possible solution. According to a study by the German KfW, for the first time, a sale of the company is the prefered way of succession. KfW for the first time, the option of selling the company is the majority desired variant of succession.

Solution Design

The problem remains that the planning and implementation of one's own succession is often tackled too late and sometimes even half-heartedly. One's own succession should be planned and prepared at least one year before the planned generation change. The more deeply the entrepreneur is still significantly involved in the current day-to-day business, the more important is a tailor-made design of the succession. Especially if a sale of the company is targeted, the preparation of the company for a sale is essential for success.