Journal

Succession insights

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

  1. Running the Company Before Owning It: A Two-Stage Timeline for Family Succession

    When the successor child leads before holding the shares: the milestones, from T-36 to T+36 months, that separate management from ownership cleanly.

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  2. Taking Excess Cash Out Before the Sale: Dividend, Capital Reduction or Price

    Surplus cash in a Swiss SME up for sale: ten checks to choose between a dividend, a capital reduction and the price, with no tax surprise after closing.

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  3. How Many Weeks of Exclusivity to Grant a Buyer

    Exclusivity costs the seller of an SME between CHF 30,000 and 120,000 in fees, time and price. Item by item, and how to put limits on the clause.

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  4. Six Months of Handover Often Beat Two Years

    The seller's handover period gets negotiated long to reassure the buyer. Seven criteria that set its real length, and how to shorten it without alarm.

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  5. Sixty-Five Is Not a Sale Date

    The statutory retirement age is the default calendar for selling an SME. It is a pension milestone, not a business one: what should really set the date.

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  6. The Successor's Impostor Syndrome: What the Person Taking Over Goes Through, Not Only the Seller

    The person who buys an SME often feels illegitimate inside a company someone else built. Field notes on what that doubt does to the handover period.

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  7. The Seller's Non-Compete Clause: What It Really Prohibits, and for How Long

    Activity, territory, duration, who is bound, contractual penalty: how to read a seller non-compete clause line by line, and frame it before you sign.

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  8. An External CEO Before the Sale: What a Bridge CEO Solves and What It Shifts

    Hiring an external CEO before selling reassures the owner. Four common assumptions about the bridge CEO, tested against what a buyer actually looks at.

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  9. The Red Lines to Set Before the First Offer, Not During the Negotiation

    Net floor price, how long you stay, what happens to your people, exclusivity: the short list of what is not negotiable, written before any buyer speaks.

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  10. Adjusting EBITDA: What a Buyer Adds and Subtracts Before Making an Offer

    The EBITDA in your accounts is not the one behind the offer. From T-24 months to closing: what a buyer adds, subtracts, and where it gets negotiated.

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