The first hundred days after an acquisition

The first hundred days after taking over an online business decide whether the value paid for survives. The main risk is not doing too little; it is changing too much too early.

Days one to thirty: secure

1. AccessConfirm control of domains, hosting, platform, payment providers, advertising and marketplace accounts. Remove access that should no longer exist.
2. SuppliersSpeak to every significant supplier personally, before they hear it elsewhere.
3. Customers and serviceKeep response times unchanged. Service is where a change of ownership becomes visible first.
4. NumbersRebuild the reporting on the buyer's own definitions, so that later comparisons hold.

Days thirty-one to sixty: observe

Run the business as it was. A season is short, and the previous owner's choices usually had reasons that are not written down anywhere. Changing the range, the pricing structure or the advertising accounts in this window destroys the baseline needed to judge anything later.

Days sixty-one to hundred: adjust

By this point there is enough of a baseline to change one thing at a time and measure it. The order that usually works: fix what is broken, then remove what is unnecessary, then add what is new.

Where the handover ends

A support period with a defined end works better than an open arrangement. The last week of it is best spent on the questions that only appear once the previous owner has stopped answering them daily.