Transition
The first 100 days
The business you bought is the one that exists the day after closing. Your first job is to keep it intact while you learn how it really works.
New owners often arrive with a list of improvements. The businesses that weather a change of ownership best are usually the ones where the new owner changes almost nothing visible for the first three months. Customers and employees are watching for signs that the place they rely on is about to change. Give them reasons to stay.
Before closing
- Agree the announcement plan with the seller. Who tells employees, when, and in what words. Then key customers and suppliers.
- Agree the seller's transition role in writing: hours, duration, responsibilities.
- Line up the basics: bank accounts, payroll, insurance, licenses and logins in your name, ready on day one.
Days 1 to 30: stability
- Meet every employee one to one. Ask what works, what frustrates them and what customers complain about. Listen more than you talk.
- Call or visit the largest customers with the seller. Introduce yourself and say what will not change.
- Keep prices, hours, staff and service the same.
- Secure cash. Know your weekly cash position, payables and receivables. Set up approvals for payments.
- Pay people correctly and on time. A missed payroll in the first month undoes a lot of goodwill.
Days 31 to 60: learning
- Learn every role you can. Spend time doing the work.
- Map the processes: how a job is quoted, scheduled, delivered, invoiced and collected. Note where things get stuck.
- Compare reality to your diligence. Are revenue, margins and customer behavior what you expected? Write down the differences.
- Start a weekly scorecard of a few numbers: revenue, gross margin, cash, new customers, complaints.
Days 61 to 100: first improvements
- Pick one or two improvements with clear benefit and low risk to customers. Fix something employees have complained about for years; it builds trust fast.
- Document as you go. Write down each process you learn so the business depends less on any one person, including you.
- Plan the next year with what you now know: hiring, pricing, equipment and growth.
What to avoid
- Raising prices or cutting staff in the first weeks.
- Replacing systems before you understand why the old ones exist.
- Letting the seller disappear early, or stay so long that nobody knows who is in charge.