The person behind it
Who takes over your business?
A fair question — and it deserves more than a résumé. Here is what you should know, including the parts that do not flatter.
Said openly
Jonas Schmitz is young — younger than most people who will make you an offer. He is building this field right now, and there is no completed takeover this page could point to.
That is not a detail to be discovered later. It belongs at the start of every conversation, because you can only weigh what you know.
The person behind it
What speaks for a young successor
- Time, not an exit
- A buyer who retires in ten years is no succession — only a postponement. Someone who is thirty years from that can carry your business through a generation.
- No fund in the background
- There is no investor demanding a return by a fixed date. That is why a handover here can take the time it needs.
- Reachable in twenty years
- If something is wrong with the business in a decade, there is still a person to call — not a portfolio manager who has moved on.
- Willing to learn the trade
- Nobody claims to know your craft better than you. What is offered is the willingness to learn it — from you, and from the people who have carried it.
The person behind it
What you should rightly examine
These are the weak points. Ask about them — a counterpart who dodges them has answered you already:
- Experience
- Years in the trade cannot be replaced by good intentions. Ask how the operational gap is to be closed — through you, through the team, through experienced advisers.
- Financing
- Ask who provides the money and what happens if a bank withdraws. A serious buyer names the structure before you ask twice.
- The first case
- Someone has to be first. Ask what that means for you concretely — and let the answer be written into the contract, not into a brochure.
The person behind it
How to examine me
Questions you should ask any interested party, including this one:
- What exactly do you intend to do with my business in the first two years?
- Who finances the purchase, and what is your own stake in it?
- Which of your commitments are you willing to put into the contract?
- Who can I call who has dealt with you before?
- What happens if you cannot continue — is there a provision for that?
- Why my business, and not another one?
The person behind it
How to make commitments binding
Everything on this website is worth exactly as much as what ends up in the contract. Your lawyer can secure these points for you:
- Continuation of the company name for an agreed period.
- Protection against dismissals for a defined time — beyond what the law already provides.
- Retention of the location, with a contractual penalty if it is abandoned.
- Instalments or a seller's loan, so payment depends on the business actually continuing.
- A right of information for you after the handover: figures, staffing, direction.
The person behind it
Who sits at the table
Your tax adviser is welcome in every conversation, from the first one. If you prefer, your adviser makes the first contact and you stay out of it until it becomes concrete.
The chambers of commerce and crafts advise on succession free of charge and independently. Using them costs you nothing and is expressly encouraged here.
Nothing is signed without both sides having legal counsel. A handover that has to be rushed is the wrong handover.