What should you do in the first 90 days after buying a business?

What should happen in the first week?

• Tell employees together, then talk to key people one by one. Say what is not changing: pay, schedules, their jobs. Say who to ask when they have questions.
• Call top customers and suppliers with the seller. A joint call or visit transfers trust faster than a letter.
• Take control of money. You become the bank signatory. Change passwords on bank, payroll, merchant and software accounts. Set who can approve payments, and up to what amount.
• Run the first payroll without errors. A missed or wrong paycheck in week one costs more trust than anything else you can do.
• Confirm insurance is bound in your entity's name, and that the lender is named where required.

How should the handoff from the seller work?

Write the transition plan before closing and attach it to the seller's consulting agreement. It should list three things:

1. Relationships to transfer: top customers, key suppliers, the landlord, the bank, licensing bodies and any inspectors.
2. Knowledge to transfer: how jobs are priced and estimated, purchasing, seasonal patterns, and the problems that recur.
3. Tasks the seller does today: each one gets a new owner and a date.

A simple sequence works. First, the seller does the work while you watch. Then you do it while the seller watches. Then the seller is on call only. Set dates for each phase.

Keep the seller's incentives in mind. A seller note on full standby pays nothing while the SBA loan is outstanding, so it gives the seller little reason to help. A paid consulting agreement for real work does. A seller who kept equity in a partial sale must, under SBA rules, personally guarantee the loan for at least 2 years, which keeps them invested in the result.

How do you take control of cash?

• Build a 13-week cash forecast and update it every week. Put payroll, rent, the loan payment and large supplier bills on it by date.
• Close the books monthly on a fixed day, on an accrual basis, with a balance sheet, not just a profit and loss statement.
• Track a short list of numbers weekly: sales, gross margin, cash, receivables by age, backlog or bookings.
• Separate the seller's receivables if the seller kept them, and pass on their payments promptly as agreed.
• Calendar the lender's requirements: reporting dates, annual financial statements and any covenants in the loan agreement.

What should you leave alone at first?

Most of it. Prices, staffing, suppliers, software and the brand all have reasons you don't yet know. Changing them in month one risks the customers and employees you just paid for.

Act quickly only on safety, legal compliance, cash control and clear fraud. Keep a written list of everything you want to change. By day 90, much of that list will look different.

Worked example: how much room your loan payment leaves

Illustrative figures, using the SBA maximum variable rate of 10% for loans over $350,000 as of September 2026 (prime of 7% plus 3%). Check current prime.

• SBA loan: $1,485,000, amortized over 10 years at 10%.
• Monthly payment: about $19,624. Annual debt service: about $235,493.
• Cash flow available for debt service, as underwritten: $300,000.
• Coverage: $300,000 ÷ $235,493 = about 1.27x, just above the 1.25x minimum for an Initial Acquisition.
• If cash flow falls 15% in the transition, to $255,000: coverage is $255,000 ÷ $235,493 = about 1.08x. You still pay, with little room.
• Break-even: cash flow can fall about 21.5% before it no longer covers the payment ($235,493 ÷ $300,000 = 78.5%).

This is why the first 90 days are about keeping customers and staff. A modest dip in the transition takes most of your cushion.

What should be true by day 90?

• Two or three monthly closes done on time, with a balance sheet that reconciles to the bank.
• A one-on-one meeting held with every employee.
• Every top customer met in person or by phone, with the seller where useful.
• The seller's daily tasks reassigned, with the seller on call only.
• A written list of risks and a short list of improvements, ranked.
• A plan for the next 12 months, including when you will review it.

Where these numbers come from: The 24-month seller limit, the 1.25x coverage test, the 10-year business amortization and the partial-sale guarantee are from SBA SOP 50 10 8 and 8.1, summarized by Beancount's SOP 50 10 8.1 guide, Cantrell Firm and Starfield & Smith on partial changes of ownership. The rate is from NerdWallet's SBA rate summary. SOP 50 10 8.1 applies to loans numbered on or after October 1, 2026; lender practice under it is still settling and these are secondary summaries, so confirm current terms with your SBA lender.

Related questions

Should I change the business's name or brand?

Not in the first 90 days. Customers bought from the old name. Change it later, if ever, with a plan.

When should I raise prices?

After you understand margins by product or service and have met the customers who would feel it. A price change in month one tells customers the new owner is there to extract.

What if a key employee quits in the first month?

Have a plan before closing: who covers the role, and what you would offer to keep them. See how to keep employees after you buy.

What comes next

The asset most likely to walk out in the first 90 days is your staff: how do you keep employees after you buy a business? The buyers who end up with the most valuable companies use these 90 days to build reporting they will reuse for every later acquisition.

Related articles

• How do you keep employees after you buy a business?
• How long should the seller stay after the sale?
• What should you build in year one if you plan to buy more businesses?
• What has to be done before closing day?
• How do you build a holding company for acquisitions?

Meraki Dealmakers is a service of Meraki Partners, LLC, an advisory firm. It is not a broker-dealer, investment adviser, business broker, law firm or accounting firm. This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.