Journal

Succession insights

Practical perspectives on preparing and executing a business succession worldwide, with Swiss expertise.

  1. How Do Business Owners Retire? Free to Say No to an Offer

    Most sell or hand over the company. Those who do it well know years ahead what the price must fund, and save outside the firm so they can say no.

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  2. Can You Retire From Your Own Business Without Selling It?

    Yes, if the company can pay a manager at market rate and still produce your income after that. Then your role changes: you govern from the board.

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  3. Business Succession Planning: Who on Your Team Retires When You Do?

    List your key posts with birth years. If two or three fall within three years of yours, a buyer sees several successions: allow about five years.

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  4. How Do You Pass Your Business to Your Children? First Make Sure Their Yes Could Have Been a No

    Hand the business to a child once their yes could have been a no at no cost: inheritance, family place, income. Eleven steps to make the no possible.

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  5. Should I Sell My Business? What a Sale Costs, and What It Costs to Fix the Fatigue Instead

    Sell if you'd still want to leave once the load is lifted. If you want relief, buy it first: one salary a year, and it can be undone. A sale can't.

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  6. Earn-Out Agreement: What Happens to Your Deferred Price If You Leave Before the End?

    For each way of leaving, your earn-out agreement should say if the deferred price keeps running, is paid out now or is frozen. Silence lets it vanish.

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    Marker drawing of a sale contract seen from above with one paragraph circled in copper, and an employee badge on its lanyard lying beside it

  7. What's the Formula for Valuing a Business? Two Assumptions Make Most of the Number

    The business valuation formula fits in one sentence. Two assumptions, the rate and the value of distant years, make most of the number. How to read them.

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  8. Should I Sell My Business or Close It? When It's Worth Less Than Its Debts, Selling Often Costs Less

    When your business is worth less than its debts, closing it often costs more than handing it over for almost nothing. What to negotiate, and until when.

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  9. How to Find a Buyer for Your Small Business: Start With Those Who Already Know It

    Your likeliest buyers often already know your business. List them, rank them by real interest and leak risk, and you know whom to approach first.

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  10. What Happens to Your Apprentices When You Sell Your Business?

    What happens to apprentices when you sell, why the right to train can leave with the owner, and what to do from two years out to a year after.

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