ROLF POPP PRO Consult urgently recommends all small and medium-sized companies to consider the options and opportunities of an upcoming company succession in the nick of time. Especially in the event that the entrepreneur believes to have still enough time for making relevant decisions and arrangements.
In 2013 and 2014, approximately 22.000* German companies are affected by the problematic nature of company succession. This means 3 percent of all owner-managed companies. Out of this, 54 percent are striving for a family-internal and 17 percent for a company-internal arrangement. 29 percent - what means almost one third - are looking for an external solution.
Experience shows that the three groups are affected by partly massively underestimated problems and risks for the owner personally as well as for the future of the company. Therefore, the professional support of company brokerage respectively in company sale is really advisable.
By practice, unfortunately many entrepreneurs still look very rarely for a professional company broker. This means that a lot of money and interesting opportunities get lost. Very often, the result is the closing of the company by calling it an "organized retreat". Even with the named group of family-internal company succession many successions fail already in the second or third generation – even though they were regarded as safe by then. Also, more and more family-internal company successions don't fail directly but after one to four years later.
Rolf Popp - consultant in company brokerage and owner of RPPC ROLF POPP PRO Consult for 17 years - estimates the total number of current unclear German company successions at more than 100,000. This estimation includes planned internal successions as well as external ones. In spite of intensive search, no solution could be found or the different conceptions didn't match. The end of the company approaches in instalments.
In view of these circumstances, the entrepreneur should be prepared for a company succession by acting early and with a thorough and competent consulting partner. Strategical is a time range of 3-5 years of advanced preparation and a company valuation to get a realistic future estimation of the development.
The entrepreneur usually doesn't perceive the tasks and difficulties of the company succession or he underestimates the challenges.
Typical criteria for latent existing risks in a company succession can be the following:
The first and most important step is done when the subject of company succession is seen in a realistic and lasting way so that all necessary measures are installed timely. This is to be considered in case of family- and firm-internal successions as well as a company sale to an external purchaser.
Professional support and advise offers:
Punctually started, intensively prepared and professionally worked out, the process of company succession is a systematic and organized course which will solve its problematic nature.
The well-known management consultancy RPPC ROLF POPP PRO Consult - specialist in company brokerage (M&A) - recommends any entrepreneur to inform himself already when starting to contemplate about a company succession. A crucial range of information, tools and instruments are available on the Internet, as well as various online platforms, organizations, federations, tax advisors etc. - Especially M&A consultancies are providing a lot of experienced know-how for marketable valuation, target-oriented strategy and research processing, useful qualification of successors as well as solution-relevant negotiation. This is really helpful for a successful company succession and company sale.
ROLF POPP PRO Consult GmbH
The Management
Phone. +49 931-88068-18
* Source: Based on data of the IfM – Institut für Mittelstandsforschung