Succession Guide
Step by step: how to hand over your life’s work in an orderly way.
Succession Guide
A concrete roadmap for the orderly handover of your life’s work — with seven fillable worksheets.
- 30 pages, 8 chapters — from taking stock to the handover phase
- All four routes weighed: family internal, MBO/MBI, sale, investor
- Seven fillable worksheets — readiness check, timeline, decision matrix and more
- The twelve most common pitfalls and how to avoid them
Who it is for.
Owners of mid-sized companies who want to put their succession in order over the coming years — whether a family-internal handover, a sale to management (MBO/MBI), an external sale or an investor entry. Anyone still undecided whether a sale is the right route will also find a measured basis here.
Tax advisers, lawyers and banks who support owners through this process will also find the guide useful.
What you receive.
A 30-page digital PDF in eight chapters: from taking stock, through personal preparation, the four routes of handover and making the company ready for transfer, to value, price, financing, the six-phase process and the twelve most common pitfalls.
Together with seven fillable worksheets that turn the reading into a dated roadmap, plus a glossary of the key terms.
The five routes out of your own company
Succession is not a single decision but a chain of them. Anyone facing it has five realistic basic options — with very different consequences for price, timeline, tax burden and what remains of the company. This overview places them side by side.
Handover within the family
The emotionally obvious route is the economically most demanding one. Two questions decide everything: does the child really want it, or is it fulfilling an expectation? And is it capable, technically and in terms of leadership, of what the business needs? Both answers must be honest before structures are built. The transfer usually happens step by step via gift, share sale or a combination — often linked with maintenance payments for the handing-over generation and an arrangement for siblings who step back. For tax purposes, holding periods and payroll requirements must be observed, otherwise a granted relief falls away retroactively. And: the price will almost always be below market value. That is legitimate, but it must be a conscious decision and openly named to everyone involved.
Management buy-out — selling to your own management
The managers know the business, the workforce accepts them, confidentiality is preserved. The bottleneck is money: managers rarely have the equity for a market-level purchase price. In practice a combination is therefore used — bank financing, a vendor loan, an earn-out over three to five years, sometimes a minority stake taken by a financial investor. For you that means: a relevant part of the purchase price depends on the future performance of the business you are about to hand over. Review the sustainability of the financing just as strictly as you would with an outside buyer, and have securities provided.
Management buy-in — selling to an individual entrepreneur
An external buyer takes over the business in order to run it himself. This group often pays more than your own management, because it is buying a job and a life project, not just a return. It is at the same time the most demanding group to approach: the candidate must be a professional fit, be financeable and be accepted by the workforce and key customers. The handover phase is longer here than on any other route — six to eighteen months of induction is normal and belongs in the contract.
Sale to a strategic buyer
Competitors, suppliers, customers or sector-adjacent groups typically pay the highest prices because they can realise synergies a financial investor does not have: customer access, locations, technology, purchasing volume, personnel. That price has a flip side. The business is integrated, the name often disappears, duplicate functions in administration and sales are cut. Anyone who wants to see their life’s work preserved as an independent entity is in the wrong place here. In addition: a competitor looking into your Data Room is a competitor who knows your figures — access must therefore be strictly staged.
Investment by a financial investor
Private equity firms and family offices usually buy majorities, but leave the operational management in place and want to sell on after four to seven years. For owners who want to take out capital without exiting immediately, this is a viable route: you sell eighty per cent, stay invested with twenty and share in the second sale — the so-called second bite. The price: professional reporting, advisory board structures, growth pressure and a debt leverage the business has to carry. For companies below roughly two million euros of EBITDA, however, the circle of interested parties is thin.
Going deeper on the individual routes: Business succession · Selling a company · Finding an investor
If succession is resolved through a sale and the company is a GmbH, the rules on the sale of GmbH shares apply in addition.
Frequently asked questions.
In what format do I receive the guide?
As a digital PDF. The download begins immediately after payment; we also send the PDF and the invoice by email. The seven worksheets can be filled in on screen or printed out.
Do I need prior commercial knowledge?
No. The guide walks you through the process step by step; technical terms such as LOI, SPA, earn-out or MBO/MBI are explained and summarised in a glossary.
Does the guide replace professional advice?
No. It provides orientation, structure and helps prepare decisions. It does not replace legal, tax or transaction advice under mandate — at the decisive points it explicitly refers to the right contacts.
Looking for concrete, individual support? An overview of our services can be found under Business succession and Selling a company.