There is concern that focusing solely on creating new businesses could ignore the importance of protecting existing companies.
Every year thousands of small firms – often family businesses – disappear because there is no one to take up the reins.
Presenting the findings of the project 'A Helping Hand for SMEs' at the closing conference of SME Week in Madrid yesterday (31 May), Eurochambres said business transfer is often overlooked in the EU, even though one in three company owners are expected to retire within the next decade, affecting an annual average of 690,000 SMEs.
Research suggests that most of these owners will simply close their business and, of those that do transfer them to someone else, more than 20% are likely to fail within five years.
"Start-ups are of course vital for growth, but it is unquestionably more efficient to maintain established companies and jobs,"said Ben Butters, EU affairs director at Eurochambres.
"Measures must be put in place across Europe to facilitate and follow up on business transfers, and thus help ensure that many successful companies – and the jobs that they provide – do not disappear," he said.
Mentoring schemes to help buyers overcome post-takeover difficulties are a valuable tool, yet they remain uncommon.
A pilot project financed by the European Commission and run by Eurochambres offered ten days of personal coaching to 890 entrepreneurs who had recently taken over a small company.
The project identified essential areas of knowledge and competence for the successful transfer of business ownership. In particular, buyers expressed the need for training in the areas of accounting and finance, strategic management, human resources and access to finance.
Butters said mentoring schemes demonstrated ways to maximise the chances of a company surviving and called for similar programmes to be rolled out across Europe.
