Handover check › Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions about the handover check
Why the check pays off even if the handover is still years away. What it can bring in financially. How it works, who comes to your business and what it costs. The answers, with worked examples and sources.
The benefit
Why the check pays off
Why is a handover check worthwhile if I only want to hand over in ten years?
Preparing a business handover takes time above all, because most of the things holding back your value cannot be fixed overnight. Moving an office to digital processes, getting knowledge out of your head and into the business, building up a successor: that takes years, not weeks. If you know early where you stand, you can take these steps calmly and pay for them from current earnings.
What do I gain if I do not sell the business in the end?
A great deal. Everything that makes a business valuable to a buyer also makes it better for you: fewer hours in the office, figures you have under control at any time, and a business that can run for two weeks without you. At its core, the check is an honest review of your company. The handover is just the occasion.
Does this really raise the sale price?
Nobody can guarantee that. But the connection is clear: the value of a business depends on its sustainable profit and on how much risk the buyer takes on. A lighter office workload improves profit, documented processes reduce risk. And whatever deferred investment a buyer has to catch up on, they deduct from the price.
Does it pay?
Three worked examples from everyday business
A business or handover check finds weak spots that nobody sees in day-to-day work. A single gap of €10,000 already makes a difference. The examples use simplified, deliberately cautious assumptions.
What do overdue invoices that nobody chases cost me?
An example: in your business, invoices worth €10,000 have been overdue for weeks because reminders are not sent. If a fifth of that is never paid, you lose €2,000. If that happens every year, it adds up to €10,000 by the handover in five years. On top of that comes the money you are missing in the meantime and have to finance through your overdraft.
Assumption: 20% bad debt without consistent dunning. A regular reminder run that goes out automatically every week closes this gap.
What do quotes that nobody follows up cost?
An example: every month, quotes worth €10,000 are left lying because nobody calls after they have been sent. That is €120,000 a year. If consistent follow-up wins only one in ten of them, that is €12,000 more revenue. At a 30% gross margin, €3,600 more a year stays in the business.
Assumptions: one in ten followed-up quotes becomes an order, 30% gross margin. A follow-up reminder that pops up automatically after a week takes hardly any time.
What does this mean overall for my earnings and my sale price?
Together, the two gaps in the example add up to €5,600 more in earnings per year: €2,000 from the invoices, €3,600 from the quotes. That alone is more than the handover check costs. Over five years up to the handover, it comes to €28,000.
When you sell, the higher profit counts again: if a buyer applies a multiple of 3.5 to the sustainable profit, the possible price rises by around €19,600. The multiple is an assumption for illustration, not a valuation. But a higher profit always counts twice when you sell: once in your pocket, once in the price.
The timing
Why you should not wait until just before the handover
Why should I not wait until the handover is imminent?
Because then you no longer have a choice. The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce recommends starting concrete planning and the search at least three years before the planned handover. According to KfW Research, many successions fail because preparation starts too late. If you start shortly beforehand, you sell the business as it stands at that moment rather than as it could stand.
How much lead time do other business owners consider right?
In a survey of 500 Austrian small and medium-sized businesses commissioned by the Austrian Chamber of Notaries, half considered one to five years of planning time ideal, a third six to ten years. For a trade business that still wants to change its processes beforehand, the longer end is more realistic: buyers and banks look at the development over several years, not at a single good year.
What happens if no successor can be found in the end?
Then closure looms, and with it the value of your life’s work is gone. According to KfW, one in four small and mid-sized companies in Germany is considering closing once the owner retires. In the succession advice of the chambers of industry and commerce, around 9,600 businesses face only about 4,000 interested parties. If your business is ready for handover early, you hold the better cards in this competition.
How it works
How the handover check works
How does the handover check work?
In four steps: a half-hour preliminary conversation, one day in your business, a written evaluation and a joint conversation about the roadmap. From the preliminary conversation to the review usually takes three to four weeks.
What do I need to prepare?
Very little. The annual accounts for the last three years, a current list of open invoices and quotes, and half a day of your time on the day on site. Everything else we clarify in the preliminary conversation.
What is in the evaluation?
What is holding back your value, ranked by how much it costs, a rough assessment of how a buyer would see your business today, and a roadmap with the next steps up to the handover. It is not a formal business valuation; that belongs with an auditor or tax adviser.
Do I have to continue after the check?
No. The check stands on its own. You can implement the roadmap yourself, with your own people or with me. You make that decision after the review, not before.
Working together
Who comes, and what happens to your figures
Who comes to my business?
I do, myself. No team, no junior learning on your business. The person who holds the preliminary conversation also comes to you and writes the evaluation.
Do my employees need to know what it is about?
That is your decision. Many owners do not want the word handover to be heard in the business yet. In that case, the day on site is simply a look at the office and processes, which is exactly what it is.
What happens to my figures and documents?
They stay with you. I only take what I need for the evaluation and pass nothing on to third parties, not even to banks or potential buyers. On request, I sign a confidentiality agreement in advance.
Do you work with my tax adviser?
Gladly. The tax and legal questions of the handover belong with your tax adviser and your notary or lawyer. I take care of the business itself: processes, leadership, figures and what a bank wants to see. Both belong together. If you do not yet have a specialist for the handover, I can, on request, put you in touch with tax advisers, lawyers or M&A specialists from my network.
If the sale is already under way
Conversations with prospective buyers
If your business is already for sale or is to be sold in the coming months, I can, on request, hold the first conversations with interested parties or sit at the table with you. So that you only spend your time on those who really can and want to buy.
Do you also hold the first conversations with prospective buyers?
Yes. If your sale is already under way or coming up soon, I hold the first conversations with interested parties for you. Only those who convince there sit at the table with you afterwards. That way, you invest time and money only in conversations where a deal is taking shape, not in interested parties who just wanted to have a look.
Can I lead the conversation myself, with you just sitting at the table?
Of course. Then we prepare the conversation together, I sit in, ask the questions about financing and plans for the future, and afterwards give you an honest assessment of the interested party. You decide how things proceed.
How do you tell whether an interested party is serious?
By three things: whether they can finance the purchase price, meaning they bring equity and a bank; whether they have the professional qualifications your trade requires; and whether they have a plan for the business that goes beyond the purchase. The buyer’s bank will ask these questions later anyway. Better they are asked before you invest time.
What does an interested party learn about my business in this conversation?
Only what you have approved beforehand. Figures and documents are only shared once the interested party has signed a confidentiality agreement. I represent only your side, never the buyer’s.
What does support for these conversations cost?
That depends on how many interested parties there are and whether I lead the conversations or sit in. We agree the scope and a fixed price after the free first conversation, before the first meeting takes place.
Costs and funding
What the check costs
What does the handover check cost?
€4,500 as a fixed price, net plus VAT. This includes the preliminary conversation, the day on site including travel within Austria, the written evaluation and the review of the roadmap.
Is there funding for the check?
In Austria and Germany there are funding programmes for consulting and digitalisation in small and mid-sized businesses, depending on the federal state and the project. Whether and which funding could apply to your business, we clarify in the first conversation.
Your question is not here?
Then ask me in the first conversation. In 30 minutes we clarify where your business stands, whether the check is worthwhile for you and whether funding could apply. Free of charge and with no obligation.