First 100 days after closing

This is educational. It is not management advice tailored to a company.

The week before close, know who signs the checks, who holds the licenses, and which employees have been told. In a small New England company the bookkeeper and the lead tech are the transition.

Days 1 to 14. Meet every employee. Do not announce a new software stack. Confirm payroll tax accounts and insurance binders are in the buyer's name. If a liquor or professional license is personal to the seller, the regulator's timeline is the timeline.

Days 15 to 45. Sit with the largest customers. Read the lease and any personal guaranty the seller gave. Shadow the owner through one full cycle of the work, including the unglamorous part (collections, the dumpster contract, the winter layoff).

Days 46 to 100. Put the owner on the schedule you agreed in the purchase agreement, then reduce it. Rewrite the processes that lived in one person's head. SCORE and SBDC counselors, found through SBA local assistance, are a free place to pressure-test that plan. They are not transaction advisors.