Germany’s entrepreneurs have a problem: in addition to skilled workers, they are desperately seeking successors to lead their companies into the next generation. Fewer and fewer of these successors come from within the family: the proportion of successors from within the family has fallen from well over 60 % to less than 40 % within ten years. The trend is downward. So entrepreneurs have to look for a successor from outside the family.
In the search for an external successor, Germany’s entrepreneurs are also fighting for the best minds. But a company succession is often out of the question for many qualified potential candidates: The shortage of skilled workers plays into their hands, so that a secure permanent position is often more attractive to them than the risky takeover of a company. The shortage of skilled workers thus leads to a shortage of entrepreneurs.
Permanent employment more attractive than the risk of entrepreneurship
Not all entrepreneurs are aware of this vicious circle. Many suppress the topic or put it off. After all, day-to-day business already offers enough challenges. And: most entrepreneurs run their businesses well into retirement age. In just ten years, the proportion of entrepreneurs over 60 in Germany has doubled. In the meantime, many entrepreneurs’ children decide against a family-internal business succession. Thus, this form of succession is no longer an option for many family businesses.
Lack of entrepreneurs in entrepreneurial families
This lack of entrepreneurs is dangerous for our SMEs and the situation is likely to get worse. After all, planning a company handover is not a matter of weeks or months, but rather takes two to five years, according to experience. A late company succession reduces the innovative power, delays urgently needed investments in companies and ultimately endangers jobs.
The current and future successor emergency has therefore already alarmed politicians, business associations and banks. Consultations, lectures and seminars on the subject of business succession are held regularly throughout Germany. The financing conditions and other framework conditions for business successors have improved significantly in recent years. The federal government, the states and the European Union provide attractive funding for business successors.
Senior entrepreneurs must take the first step towards business succession
But in the end, outsiders can only raise awareness of the problem. The first step must be taken by the senior entrepreneur himself. To ensure an orderly transition, an entrepreneur in his mid-50s should deal with his own business succession for the first time. This would be a good time.
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