Key takeaways
- The first 100 days decide whether the business you bought is still the business you paid for, so the priority is keeping what works.
- Meet every employee, every important customer and every key supplier personally in the first weeks, in that order.
- Watch cash daily, because working capital surprises arrive before the first full month of revenue does.
- Change what is broken, postpone what is merely different, and write down everything you learn from the seller before they leave.
Closing day is the beginning. The business you have bought was held together by relationships, habits and knowledge that lived in the previous owner's head, and in the first 100 days all of it is at risk. Staff are deciding whether to stay. Customers are deciding whether to keep buying. Suppliers are deciding whether to extend you credit. Every one of them is watching to see what kind of owner you will be.
This is the plan we give buyers at BizSell.ca for those days. It is deliberately conservative, because the most common first-year failure is a new owner changing too much too soon. The second most common is running out of cash. The plan addresses both.
Before closing, prepare the first week
The first 100 days begin before closing. Agree with the seller how and when staff will be told, and plan to be in the building that day. Prepare a short, honest statement about who you are, why you bought the business and what will not change. Arrange the transfer of bank accounts, payment systems, logins, phone numbers and domains so that nothing stops on day one. Confirm insurance is in force in your name from the moment of closing.
Schedule the seller's transition time in writing, with the specific things you need them to do: introductions to named customers and suppliers, walking you through quoting and pricing, explaining the quirks of equipment and systems, and handing over the knowledge that was never documented. Record these sessions.
Weeks one to four, people and listening
Meet every employee one to one in the first two weeks. Ask what they do, what works, what frustrates them and what they would change. Do not promise changes. Listen, take notes and thank them. The people who have been quietly carrying the business will tell you more in these conversations than any report, and the act of asking tells them something about you.
Then meet the important customers, with the seller where possible, and the key suppliers. The message is continuity: same people, same service, same terms. Ask customers what they value and what they would improve. Ask suppliers about terms, history and anything the seller did not mention. Pay every supplier on time from the first invoice, because credit terms are the first thing a new owner loses and the hardest to regain.
- One to one meetings with every employee in the first two weeks
- Customer visits or calls for the top accounts, with the seller introducing you
- Supplier conversations confirming terms and continuity
- A daily cash position from day one
- The seller's transition sessions, scheduled and recorded
- A running list of everything you learn that was not in the data room
Cash, every day
Working capital surprises arrive early. The first payroll, the first supplier invoices and the first rent fall due before the first full month of receipts is in the bank, and if the working capital delivered at closing was lower than you expected, this is when you find out. Build a daily cash view in the first week and a weekly forecast for the first quarter. Chase receivables politely but immediately. Know your line of credit terms and your lender's reporting requirements, and meet them.
Resist the temptation to spend on improvements until you have seen a full cycle of revenue and costs. Money spent in month one on new signage or software is money that is not available in month three when a large customer pays late.
Weeks five to twelve, understanding before changing
Use the second and third months to understand how the business actually works as opposed to how it was described. Follow an order from enquiry to invoice. Sit with the person who does scheduling. Review the pricing on recent jobs against costs. Look at which customers are profitable and which are merely busy. Compare what you are seeing to the confidential information memorandum and note every difference, because some will matter for the holdback or for a working capital adjustment.
Fix what is clearly broken: a safety issue, a billing error, a customer being badly served. Postpone what is merely different from how you would do it. Staff and customers can absorb a new owner or a new way of working, but rarely both at once.
Day 100, the review
At the end of the period, write a short review: what the business is, what you have learned, what is working, what is not, and what you will change in the next quarter. Compare actual results to the plan you gave your lender. Decide which of the growth opportunities in the package are real. Decide which staff you will develop and which gaps you need to hire for. Then, and only then, start making the business yours.
If you are approaching closing on a BC acquisition and want help building this plan for your specific business, call or text (604) 632-4959. Post-acquisition integration is one of the services we provide, and the first 100 days is where it earns its keep.