This is how 'Tinder' works for buying and selling companies

Jesús González has passed retirement age and is tired.

When he returned from summer vacation he hung the “Transpasa” sign in the bar he runs in the center of Madrid.

Since then, many parishioners have asked him about selling the business.

But no one has been interested enough to take over as head of this establishment with an employee who has been in the neighborhood for more than 40 years.

In the Community of Madrid there are still no programs like Reempresa or NegoziOn.

The first and pioneer has been operating since 2011 in Catalonia, managed by the Cecot business association with the support of the Generalitat and the Provincial Councils among other entities, and the second was launched in Bizkaia in mid-2022 following in its footsteps, but this time conceived directly from the Administration.

The idea is simple.

Just as there are platforms that connect future couples or apartment owners and tenants, the ideologists of these programs have created a digital market in which those who want to sell a business (many for retirement) and those who want to start a project register.

“It is good to help the creation of companies, for entrepreneurship to be fashionable.

But it was necessary to structure the market for transfers of existing businesses or small family companies that do not have a generational replacement mechanism and are at risk of disappearance due to the enormous wave of retirements that are coming," explains Oriol Alba, general secretary of Cecot.

Since the business confederation launched Reempresa, 4,480 SMEs have survived in Catalonia and avoided the loss of 12,500 jobs.

In addition to putting the parties subject to the transfer in contact thanks to this

marketplace

, the organization accompanies entrepreneurs throughout the process, advising them and guaranteeing the viability of the transferred businesses.

It has guided 19,400 restart processes and has assisted more than 10,700 companies that are sold.

“Our objective is to save companies and jobs,” says Alba, who adds that they are currently trying to replicate the model in the Balearic Islands, “but it takes a long time and does not begin to gain momentum until three or five years after its implementation.”

With this system, the business risk is much lower, he adds.

In fact, one of the great advantages of transferring existing small businesses or businesses compared to creating them from scratch is their survival capacity, which triples, according to Íñigo Calvo, professor at Deusto Business School.

After three years, more than 75% of the transferred companies are still open, while only 25% of the newly created companies survive.

“Business is stronger,” he adds.

At the same time, it focuses on the disadvantage of these operations outside Catalonia or Bizkaia: there is a market failure and that is that the information on the sale of businesses is not found, organized or accessible, which leads to many viable small businesses close while a similar business opens a few blocks away.

“That is why the Administrations must come in and become a kind of Tinder to mediate and accompany the transmission,” explains the teacher.

The average amount of companies purchased in Catalonia is between 50,000 and 60,000 euros.

They tend to be businesses (33%), hospitality businesses (31%) and firms in the service sector (28%), while industrial companies barely reach 5% of the total, in which case the cost of the transfer rises quite a bit: between 300,000 and 500,000 euros.

90% of the operations are below 120,000 euros, says Alba, “so that between the savings, the capitalization of unemployment and even the deferral of payment with the transferor, they are very accessible amounts,” he appreciates.

Tània Sagaste, at the door of the Doctodata headquarters, which she acquired three weeks ago.

Three weeks ago, Tània Sagaste acquired Doctodata, a comprehensive document management company with 5 employees and a turnover of around 250,000 euros.

Telecommunications Engineer with a lot of experience in innovation and entrepreneurship projects, she knows what it costs to set up a business from the beginning, which is why she opted for the transfer of an existing one whose owner will retire after the year that the transfer will last.

The businesswoman, who aims to automate processes and introduce artificial intelligence in massive data management, expects to invoice more than 300,000 euros this year and in five years to exceed 500,000.

“That's without the effort of starting a business from scratch, which takes at least three years,” she says.

“It is much better to buy an already active company where the partner has a salary from the first moment.”

In Bizkaia, the Provincial Council supported self-employment projects and the creation of SMEs until it decided to add the transfer of existing companies to avoid the closure of established businesses and contribute to solving the demographic problem that the Basque Country is experiencing, according to the PSOE deputy. Teresa Laespada.

NegoziOn is a program through which the Regional Employment Agency studies the business to be transferred, makes a viability plan and accompanies both parties in the transfer.

Since its creation, it has closed 93 assignments and on its platform it has 373 businesses looking for a boyfriend and 650 interested people, Laespada continues.

The Provincial Council also offers aid of up to 20,000 euros to close the acquisition.

Natalia Polak, owner of Oxford Erandio.

High age

The amount of the transfers has ranged between 5,000 euros for a hair salon and 200,000 for a hardware and industrial supply company.

The services sector is the one that moves 77% of operations;

the rest are from industry and transportation.

Most of the businesses in the window are more than 25 years old.

Almost 40 in the case of the herbal shop that Karina Silva and her daughter took over in the center of Bilbao after the retirement of its former owner.

This 61-year-old dietitian was looking for a space to consult.

And who was going to tell her that she was in the store that she had been shopping for for 14 years.

“For me it is a gift.

One of the dreams of my life and it was right there in front of me,” she says.

Silva maintains that “without the support and advice of NegoziOn it would have been more difficult for me to launch.”

She has requested two loans of 22,000 euros (the program will give her 10,000 euros) and, although at first, she had doubts, she is now delighted;

She has already improved sales by 20%, she points out.

For those who buy, the advantage is that the company has demonstrated that it is successful, that it is viable, highlights Laespada, who adds that the procedure requires less bureaucracy than setting up a company.

Natalia Polak, a 37-year-old Polish English teacher who last year purchased an existing academy in Erandio for 35,000 euros (with the cost of the work included), confirms this.

“Buying the student portfolio guarantees me some success.

It gives me confidence that I will survive,” she says.

In addition, she became an Oxford franchisee to attract more students and has already had to hire four teachers.

She expects to bill 100,000 euros for the first course, more than double that of her predecessor.

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