Munay Zamorano became a business owner before finishing her business studies. At 23, while working as a student employee for a natural cosmetics distributor, she offered to buy the company after its owner said she planned to sell. Zamorano now encourages young people to consider taking over established businesses, not only launching new ones.
She had little experience running a company and raised 30,000 euros in personal capital by cashing in a fund she had been saving since school. After several meetings, she secured a bank loan and became the company’s managing partner. The bank asked her to include childcare arrangements in her business plan because she was visibly pregnant, a requirement she describes as discriminatory. Her child’s father took on most of the care work.
The business later employed up to five people and, according to Zamorano, generated annual revenue of between 300,000 and 350,000 euros. But a major customer responsible for 40% of sales left, and she had also grown disillusioned with the industry. She eventually sold the company for roughly break-even, with the buyer taking over the outstanding loan.
Zamorano now advises young entrepreneurs and promotes business succession. She says taking over a company can offer an established business model and an income from the outset, while arguing that the option remains less visible than startup creation. She learned the term “business succession” only two years after her own acquisition.
The need for new owners is reflected in figures from the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce’s 2025 succession report. It recorded 9,636 business owners seeking advice about succession, compared with 4,016 people interested in taking over a company—a ratio of 2.4 businesses per prospective buyer. DIHK expert Marc Evers said that almost 60% of businesses seeking advice could be left without a successor. Among the owners surveyed, 72% were considering handing over their businesses because of age rather than financial difficulties.
Zamorano leads workshops that cover how to identify a business to acquire, assess the skills required, arrange financing and plan a handover. While she took the plunge without much preparation, she recommends gaining industry and management experience first. She also suggests buying a business with others: according to the succession monitor cited in the report, around 80% of companies are acquired by a single person.
She wants succession training to be more widely available and hopes more women will consider taking over companies. The 2025 succession monitor put women’s share of business acquisitions at 18.9%. The DIHK says its 79 regional chambers offer seminars, workshops and webinars for prospective buyers, supported by around 300 experts nationwide. Zamorano says she hopes to return to running a business herself, though she has no specific plans yet.
Sources: Handelsblatt.