In ten years, more than 500,000 managers of VSEs and SMEs will have passed the test. How can we support this strategic handover?
Behind this figure lies a very concrete reality which represents hundreds of thousands of companies, employees, entire living areas and sometimes unique skills sectors. Artisanal bakeries that bring a village to life, subcontractors industrialists at the heart of regional value chains, service providers or family businesses anchored locally for generations, all actors who are often discreet, but essential to the balance of our productive model. This handover, however, remains largely underestimated. For lack of buyers, certain companies disappear, know-how disappears, territories become fragile. But by limiting ourselves to a defensive reading, we are missing the point, because when well supported, this transition also constitutes one of the most powerful levers of development and innovation available to France today.
A transmission is being prepared.
The first challenge is that of anticipation. Too manyentrepreneurs still approach the sale of their business as a final formality or as an emergency, to be settled in the last months before departure. However, a successful transfer is ideally prepared two to five years in advance: document the processes, clarify the accounts, secure the governancestructure responsibilities, reassure teams, identify potential buyers, find the right financing. A significant part of the leaders of TPE-SMEs have not started this work. This lack of anticipation is one of the primary causes of transmission failure and this is precisely where support, both public and private, can make the difference.
Because a company that is well prepared to be transferred is a company that is better valued, sold more quickly, and gives its buyer the best chance of success. This is not cosmetics but strategic management in its own right.
A territorial issue, not just a market one
These companies are not abstract assets. They bring villages to life, maintain crafts, and enliven commercial areas that the big brands have long abandoned. Transmit a SMEsit means preserving much more than a production tool, it is above all maintaining human and economic wealth in our territories, contributing to the influence of local know-how. Our German and Italian neighbors have understood this for a long time, their solid and internationalized network of family SMEs is largely based on a culture of transmission anchored in practices and supported by coherent systems.
France has businesses. It still sometimes lacks the culture and tools to ensure its continuity.
Change your outlook on recovery
This is perhaps the most structuring project, cultural before being fiscal. In France, business creation is widely valued and it is a strength. But this momentum should not overshadow another equally structuring issue: managing the end of life of companies. Entrepreneurship “from scratch” can no longer be the only path celebrated in our business schools, our incubators, our media. Taking over a business also means daring,innovation managerial, a concrete contribution to the resilience of our territories. It is choosing to be part of a story to move it forward with a fresh perspective, a new ambition, and often a considerable lever for transformation.
Forming a true “spirit of transmission”, as sharp as our culture of innovation, is a long-term project. But it is urgent to open it up, in the courses, in the stories, in the support systems. Actors like Bpifrance have an essential role to play here, alongside private networks and platforms capable of effectively connecting sellers and buyers.
The right levers exist, but they still need to be fully exploited.
As for public systems, relevant tools exist. The Dutreil pact, which significantly reduces the transfer rights during a conditional transmission, is the most emblematic example. Planned in the 2026 budget, it would on the contrary deserve to be modernized and expanded, particularly for transfers to third parties, which are currently less well covered than family transfers. Access to funding for buyers, the clarity of support systems and the development of efficient networking platforms are all levers on which public and private actors can move forward together, with pragmatism.
An opportunity to seize
A motivated and well-supported buyer is not a continuity manager. He is a accelerator of transformation: digitalization of operations, evolution of managerial models, commitment to ecological transition, opening to new markets. SMEs transferred under good conditions can bounce back, reinvent themselves, grow and sometimes even internationalize. This is a dynamic that France can offer itself, provided that it approaches this wave of transmissions as an opportunity for growth, renewal and innovation.
Transmission can no longer be seen as a simple individual passing of the baton. It constitutes a collective transformation, at the heart of economic and territorial balances, and directly engages our capacity to preserve what makes our territories vital. In this context, France has a strategic lever that is still under-exploited: making transmission a growth engine in its own right. Not in opposition to business creation, but in complement.
Behind each company transferred, there is much more than a legal structure, there are loyal customers, experienced teams, consolidated know-how and market positions built over the long term, i.e. capital that years of creation would not be enough to reconstitute. This capital is considerable. Not taking care of it would mean accepting that it will depreciate due to lack of anticipation and support. Because a successful transmission is a birth certificate. On condition that we give it the means to be thought out, prepared and supported to meet its challenges!
