The dream of owning a company occupies many managers who have consistently worked their way up the career ladder over the years. But how do you look for a company as a potential successor? Norbert Lang, a consultant from Memmingen who specialises in business succession, gives three tips on how to identify a company that is ready to be taken over.

Away from the external determination and momentum of existing company structures, towards self-determination and working for oneself in one’s own company - this is the main motivation for wanting to start a company succession.The chances of making this dream come true have increased significantly in recent years, as a large number of family businesses are facing the solution of the succession issue and successors within the family are only available in approx. 60% of cases. In order for the search for one’s own business to be successful, a structured approach and competent support in all phases of preparation and realisation are recommended.

1. company successor should know profile and competences

The first step for the future entrepreneur is to become self-critically aware of his or her own profile and competencies. This includes professional experience, personal strengths and weaknesses, inner drivers and preferred external conditions, as well as financial possibilities.

2. clear definition of a search profile

The second step is to specify the search profile of a suitable company. Many people only think about industry, turnover and regional location and forget that family businesses in particular are shaped over the years by the personality of the owner.

If, for example, the previous entrepreneur is a rather omnipotent doer, you will find employees who are used to being closely managed and expect clear instructions. It is just as possible that the previous owner is an introverted tinkerer who has built up a team that acts as a self-directed team with a high degree of personal responsibility. If, when deciding on a successor, one neglects the evolved company structures and the comparison with one’s own management style, this quickly leads to great tensions in the company, which may cause the entire succession to fail.

When looking for a suitable company, it is therefore important not only to look at key business figures, strategic perspectives and financing models, but above all to realise that a company is a living organism whose potential for success is based on the people working there and the way they interact.

Only when one’s own entrepreneurial profile has been clearly worked out and the profile of a suitable company has been defined can the search begin in the third step.

For this purpose, searches in public exchanges such as the German Enterprise ExchangeWe also offer direct approaches to suitable companies and, above all, the integration of network contacts.

3. use neutral intermediaries

Without the involvement of a neutral intermediary, research and initial contact is very difficult, as both the transferor and the transferee are dependent on the utmost confidentiality and discretion when clarifying the succession issue.

Professional succession advisors ensure this necessary high level of confidentiality by ensuring that concrete information on companies, persons and backgrounds only flows after the seriousness of the interest has been verified, detailed mutual confidentiality agreements have been signed and the transmission of the information has been approved in each case.

Experience shows that the chances of finding a suitable company increase immensely if the future entrepreneur involves a competent advisor and intermediary from the very first step, with whom he first defines his own entrepreneurial profile and then works out in a structured way which company he is looking for before the search is started in concrete terms.