One looks back, the other into the future: Two different paths to business succession

The joint project Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland interviews Elena Siebelt (Bocholt) and Julius Gräler (Münster) in the podcast.

At the age of 27, Elena Siebelt is already an entrepreneur and founder, while Julius Gräler has yet to succeed in his company: In episodes four and five of the podcast "How was it with you...? Company succession in Münsterland" of the joint project Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland, both have their say and shed light on the topic from two different perspectives.

The story of 27-year-old Elena Siebelt from Bocholt is doubly exciting. Although it was clear to her for a long time that she wanted to follow her parents' profession, everything came faster and differently than she thought. In 2016, she not only took over her parents' Hotel Residenz, but also founded her own motel, the "Motel B", shortly afterwards. With this, she is pursuing a digital concept to expand her target group even further and to enable uncomplicated check-in and check-out. In the fourth episode of the podcast, those interested will find out what role her father still plays in the business, why she had a second hotel built in her garden and what ideas she has for the future.

Julius Gräler, on the other hand, is about to take over: the 29-year-old will succeed his father in the company Kootstra Rad- und Schiffsreisen in Münster and thus continue the family business. This decision was not a matter of course for him or his father. Originally, the Münster native had taken a completely different career path and worked as an educator for many years. In episode five of the podcast, Julius Gräler tells us why he changed his career again and what thoughts, plans and sometimes fears he had in the run-up to the takeover.

You can listen to all podcast episodes published so far at www.youngstarts-muensterland.com and on various well-known audio platforms such as Spotify, Deezer, Soundcloud, Apple Podcast and Google Podcast. Further episodes are already being planned.

The joint project Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland is behind the production of the podcast. "With our podcast, we want to bring interested parties closer to the topic of business succession and get listeners excited about this step," emphasises Frank Sibbing, head of the Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland project. For the project itself aims to strengthen the start-up intensity in Münsterland and to develop new start-up potential and target groups with target group-specific offers. More information is available at www.youngstarts-muensterland.com.

The project is funded by the European Union and the NRW Ministry of Economics as part of the ERDF call "Regio.NRW". Münsterland e.V. is implementing it as lead partner together with the following partners: Wirtschaftsförderung Kreis Coesfeld GmbH (wfc), Wirtschaftsförderung im Kreis Warendorf (gfw), Technologieförderung Münster GmbH, TAFH Münster GmbH, Wirtschaftsförderungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft Steinfurt mbH (WESt) and Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft für den Kreis Borken mbH (WFG).