The Post-Close 100-Day Plan For An SMB Acquisition

The hundred days after an acquisition close are the most important period in the entire deal. The operating decisions made (or avoided) in this window set the trajectory for the next two years. The plan I run is designed to land trust first, and to make material changes only after I have earned the right to make them.

Days one through ten: presence and listening

I am at the business, in person, for at least a week of the first ten days. Not in meetings about the business. Working alongside the people who run it. Riding routes, sitting in dispatch, working the phones, watching how the day actually flows.

The output is not a plan. The output is a baseline understanding of what is true about the business that the financial diligence could not have shown me. Who is good at their job. Where the operating bottlenecks live. What the seller's spoken and unspoken commitments to people and customers were. The operating reality, not the operating story.

Days eleven through thirty: stabilize and signal

The first thirty days are about stability. I do not change the comp structure, do not change the supplier relationships, do not change the customer-facing service levels. The only changes are ones the seller and existing operator agreed to before close as part of the deal.

What I do during this window is signal direction without forcing change. Conversations with each direct report about what is working and what is not. Meetings with the top ten customers individually. A communication to all employees about my commitment to the existing operating model and the timeline for any changes I anticipate making.

The goal is to establish that I am a real person, with real commitments, who is here to build on what works rather than tear it down.

Days thirty-one through sixty: diagnose and design

By day thirty, I have enough context to start diagnosing. This is when I bring in the operating systems thinking that is the reason the acquisition makes sense in the first place. Forecasting model, capacity planning, supplier consolidation analysis, customer segmentation review, financial reporting upgrade.

The work is mostly invisible to the rest of the business during this window. I am building the analytical foundation that will support whatever changes come next, without forcing any of those changes prematurely.

Days sixty-one through one hundred: change one thing

By day sixty, I know the highest-leverage change available. Not three. One. The discipline is forcing myself to pick the single intervention that produces the most value with the least operating disruption.

The candidates vary. A supplier consolidation that improves margin by two points. A pricing adjustment for the segment of customers we have been undercharging. An equipment upgrade that improves technician productivity. A reporting cadence that surfaces the operating decisions the previous owner made by feel.

Pick one. Execute it cleanly. Document the impact. Move on to the next quarter.

What this approach does not do

It does not maximize the value extracted in year one. By design. The model is built around a ten-year hold, where the year-one work is investing in the operating foundation rather than harvesting it.

The acquirer who tries to extract maximum value in year one usually breaks the trust that the rest of the hold period depends on. I would rather give up year-one upside in exchange for the ten years that follow.