Completion is not the finish line; it is the handover of momentum. Here is what a good first hundred days contains, and why none of it should be a surprise.
The best thing about a well-run first hundred days is that it is boring, in the right way. Every workstream was agreed before completion, so day one is execution, not discovery. If a buyer cannot show you their plan before you sign, that tells you something.
A proper 100-day plan is not a template. Every material finding from diligence, a stretched finance function, a pricing review overdue, a key person to tie in, becomes a workstream with an owner and a date. It is agreed with you before signing, which means you have already shaped it and nothing in it is news.
The near-universal first workstream: stand up monthly management accounts the whole board can trust. Usually a part-time or full-time finance hire, supported by our finance operator, producing a monthly pack that ties to the bank. It sounds dry; it changes everything. Decisions that used to be argued from memory get settled by a page of numbers.
A monthly board meeting with a standing agenda: the numbers, the pipeline, the plan, the problems. An honest written update goes to the investors behind the deal, and at day one hundred a review against the plan is written up: the first proof of whether everyone does what they said they would.
Two or three visible improvements in the first months: a pricing correction that was overdue, a hire the business needed but could not justify alone, the first properly tracked marketing spend. Chosen to build confidence inside the team, not to show off outside it.
No rebrand. No restructure. No parachuted executives. No change for the sake of being seen to change. The first year belongs to bedding in the plan, proving the growth thesis and strengthening the foundations, because everything bigger, the bolt-ons, the expansion, the eventual sale, is built on them.
Tatu partners with the owners of UK service businesses making £500k to £3m a year in profit: money out today, a meaningful stake kept, and a bigger sale built together. See how it works, try the free valuation estimate, or write to nico@tatu-capital.com.