The First 100 Days After You Buy
What happens after the wire hits is what separates dealmakers from operators.
🧠 Lead Story: Closing Isn’t the Goal — Control Is
The business isn’t really yours when the wire clears.
It becomes yours when:
The assets are fully transferred
The employees trust you
The customers stay and keep paying
The vendors keep shipping
And the systems still work on Monday
That doesn’t happen by accident.
That’s called post-close execution — and it’s where most first-time owners either stabilize… or spiral.
Real Lessons from Real Deals
Recently, we supported multiple buyers with clean diligence and smooth closings — yet still faced challenges that only operator readiness can solve.
In one deal, a customer continued making payments to the seller’s old ACH account post-close.
The buyer didn’t catch it in time — and now they’re chasing a seller who’s in no rush to return the funds.
In another deal, the seller had quietly overridden the payroll system for years.
Employees received extra PTO each December, but nothing was documented. No handbook. No policy. Just a verbal tradition.
Post-close, an employee flagged her balance as “wrong,” and tensions rose quickly.
With help from his advisors, the buyer issued a clear internal memo, formalized the PTO policy, and rolled forward time fairly.
Crisis avoided. Morale preserved. And the buyer looked like a pro — not a panicked rookie with a legal pad.
In a third deal, a seller contracted for post-close transition support still held all admin control over the company’s IT infrastructure months after closing.
They refused to hand over full access.
The buyer had to escalate through legal channels to enforce handover of basic operational systems like email, accounting, and CRM.
None of these were missed in diligence.
They weren’t oversights.
They were reminders:
Diligence gets you to closing.
But systems, support, and operator readiness carry you through what comes next.
The 0-to-1 Gap
If you’ve never built something from scratch — never gone “0 to 1” — post-close can feel like being handed the keys to a moving train… with no map and no brakes.
That doesn’t mean don’t buy.
It means don’t do it alone.
Get a coach
Join a vetted operator peer group
Find a mentor who’s already scaled and stabilized
Bring in smart money that adds more than capital
Build an advisory board before you need it
Bring experience into the room — before you’re the only one in it.
When we started building SMB Law Group, we hired a business coach on day one.
He told us:
“Do X, Y, and Z.”
We listened.
But the why behind those things? That didn’t land until two years in.
And once it did — once the systems clicked, the strategy locked, and the team aligned —
Execution got 10x sharper.
That kind of clarity only comes from experience.
From learning what matters the hard way.
From building.
So if you’re skipping the early-stage grind by buying instead of building...
Make sure someone on your team has already walked that path.
Because buyers don’t just need capital.
They need calibration — from people who’ve been through the fog, and made it out with systems, strategy, and sanity intact.
If you don’t have that support yet — go get it.
Before you’re two months in… fixing a system you didn’t know was broken.
📈 Acquisition Insight: Your First 14 Days as the Owner
If you're two weeks post-close and still waiting for things to "settle," you're already behind.
By Day 14, you should be able to say — confidently — that:
✅ Employees know who you are, understand what’s changing (and what’s not), and feel like someone is in charge. You’ve sent a Day 1 email, held at least one live call, and made space for their questions.
✅ Top customers have been personally contacted. They’ve heard your name. They know continuity is the plan. They feel like they’re in steady hands.
✅ All vendor relationships are mapped, logins are secured, and ACHs are tied to the right accounts. No more payments hitting the seller’s inbox or going unpaid because of access issues.
✅ Your financial controls are live. You’ve defined who can move money, approve payments, run payroll, and sign contracts. No ambiguity. No overlaps. No holes.
✅ You’ve started tracking what matters. Whether it’s churn risk, vendor friction, or employee morale, you’ve built a system to flag red alerts before they become fires.
This isn’t about perfection.
It’s about control.
If you’re still reacting to issues by the end of Week 2, you're operating on hope.
If you’re preventing them — you’re starting to think like a real owner.
🔧 Behind the Scenes at SMB: Real Post-Close Support
We’re not just deal counsel — we help clients protect their investment after the deal is done.
Here’s how we do it:
✅ Post-Closing Toolkit (Client-Only)
Included with every M&A engagement, this resource helps buyers:
Review and update customer and supplier agreements
Clean up entity structure
Identify and resolve loose ends in contracts, compliance, and documentation
Ensure employee classifications, offer letters, and contractor terms are legally sound
✅ Free Fractional General Counsel (FGC) Support
Our clients receive free post-close legal access to ensure they’ve got someone in their corner watching their back!
This isn’t fluff.
It’s what closes the loop between acquisition and operational control.
🧾 Client Close Highlight: Scalepath
Real deal. Real buyer. Real traction.
A few weeks ago, one of our clients closed a highly strategic acquisition — one that many of you in this community will recognize:
🎉 Congrats to Rand Larsen, who just acquired Scalepath, a vetted peer group for small business owners.
Rand originally built a cohort of 40+ acquisition entrepreneurs who’d already closed deals. Then he acquired a majority of Michael Girdley’s SMB community and merged the two.
Scalepath now supports 90+ business owners post-close — and the insights being shared inside are the kind you’ll never find in a broker memo.
If you’re under LOI, Rand will introduce you to someone who has closed in your industry. That means real due diligence insight from someone who’s lived it.
📩 Reach out directly: Rand@joinscalepath.com
Client mentioned with permission.
🔎 Market Spotlight: Why We’re Watching Dealonomy
If you haven’t seen Dealonomy yet, take a look.
It’s a new platform for discovering quality, vetted SMB deals — founded by our friend Clint Fiore, formerly of Bison Business, one of the top M&A shops in the country.
Clint and his team are building what feels like the “easy button” for business buyers:
Clean, SBA-lendable deals
Motivated sellers with realistic expectations
Professional advisors on both sides
An all-in-one system for NDA → offer → due diligence → close
We’ve reviewed the backend, and it’s real:
🔹 20+ deals already live
🔹 Most deals in the $500K–$1.5M SDE range
🔹 Real documentation and process
🔹 More added every week
And SMB Law Group is now proud to be a preferred legal partner on the platform — helping buyers navigate the LOI and legal process with confidence.
The best part? It’s free to join.
But serious buyers can grab a 30-day trial of the Premium Plan, which gets you early access to every new deal and other high-leverage perks.
If you’re tired of sifting through junk on BizBuySell, and want a clearer, faster path to good businesses with serious sellers…
📎 Go check out Dealonomy
📦 Need a Buyer-Friendly LOI Template?
We’ve built our LOI template on 3 years and $1 billion of closed deals.
✅ Proven language
✅ Buyer-friendly terms
✅ Ready to customize
Bonus:
Use our template and we’ll finalize your LOI for free.
Just email info@smblaw.group to get started.
⚠️ Disclaimer
This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. Certain examples are anonymized and modified for educational purposes only and do not represent specific client communications or missed diligence findings.