Journal

Succession insights

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

  1. Selling Your Business Is Not a Release, It Is a Loss

    Everyone promises the selling owner a freer life. What actually follows the signature is closer to a loss, and it helps to name it before closing.

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  2. Legal Due Diligence: The Files a Buyer Opens First

    The twelve legal files a buyer checks first, and what each one needs to prove before the data room even opens.

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  3. The Board of Directors in an SME Succession: An Underused Ally

    How to tell whether an SME's board is a real governance body or a formality, and what that changes for the succession.

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  4. Company Real Estate and Succession: Sell Together or Split It Off

    Selling the building with the company or splitting it off changes financing, tax timing, and post-sale income. A criterion-by-criterion comparison.

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  5. Negotiating Your Own Sale Wears You Down in a Different Way Than You'd Expect

    Eight months of negotiation cannot be run like a professional mandate. What actually wears an owner down first, and how to plan around it.

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  6. What a Recurring Revenue Line Costs When Nothing Proves It

    Revenue called recurring but never proven gets discounted at the price stage. What actually documents it, and what it costs to build the file in time.

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  7. No Family Successor? The Realistic Options for Your Company

    With no successor in the family, two families of paths remain: hand over to someone who keeps running the business, or exit without a single buyer.

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  8. Ruling Out a Competitor as Buyer Is a Mistake, Not Caution

    A competitor often pays the best price yet sees everything along the way. How to sequence disclosure instead of excluding the buyer outright.

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  9. Telling Clients and Suppliers About a Succession: When and How

    Months usually pass between signing and the last supplier finding out. What each stage of that sequence protects, and the order that makes it work.

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  10. Getting Your Numbers Ready: The Financial Quality a Buyer Expects

    Clean accounts, a normalized owner's salary, monthly reporting: ten points a buyer's financial due diligence checks before price talks even start.

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