uEntrepreneurs have management and expansion in their blood. On the other hand, they are far from letting go of their life’s work. This is how Hans-Robert Jacobsen explains that the vast majority of entrepreneurs plan and regulate their own succession too late. “Instead of making the question taboo in the family or putting it off in the company because day-to-day business consumes all capacities, one should ask oneself: Who and what is best for the company?” says Jacobsen. He outlines the range of options as follows: “How can the company be maintained for the employees, and how will it bring the owner family either future dividends or the highest possible sales proceeds after taxes?”
Surprisingly, Jacobsen is not speaking pro domo with his plea for a regulated company succession. His employer is the digital German entrepreneur exchange DUB.de, on which 1,600 entrepreneurs are currently offering their companies for sale – not infrequently because the orderly handover of the business did not work out. “As with online dating, we then bring together suppliers and customers with requirement profiles that are as identical as possible,” says Jacobsen. But despite the digital possibilities that allow regionally unlimited “matching” on the stock exchange platform, the situation remains the same: companies and practices are difficult to sell, especially if the entrepreneur is old or has only invested little in the future often not at the price the owner imagined.
