Your First 100 Days After Buying a Business: A Week-by-Week Plan

The day after closing, you own the business. What you don’t own yet is how it works. That knowledge lives in the seller’s head, in an office manager’s habits and in an inbox nobody has opened since the LOI. The first 100 days are about moving it into the business, onto paper and out of any one person’s memory, without breaking what you just paid for.

Below is a week-by-week order of work for a new owner, and the places a trained virtual assistant can take the administrative load, so you can spend your hours on people, customers and cash.

Before You Close: Set Up Day One

The work of the first week starts during diligence. Three things are worth settling before the keys change hands:

• An access list. Every bank account, software login, vendor portal, phone line, utility and subscription the business depends on, and whose name each one is in.
• An announcement plan. Who hears first, who hears next, and what you will say about what changes and what doesn’t. Employees first, then key customers, then vendors is a sensible default.
• Who answers the phone. If the answer is “my cell,” fix that now.

Where an assistant fits: there are two ways in.

• The seller already works with a VRA assistant. The engagement can transfer to you at closing, so the person who has been documenting the business and administering its back office stays on with you. Who pays, and from when, is set by you and the seller in your deal.
• Starting fresh. Take the two-minute delegation quiz while you are still in diligence, interview matched candidates and select your assistant before close. Once you select your assistant, they can start within 24 hours of selection, so the phones can be covered from your first week.

Week 1 (Days 1–7): Keep the Doors Open

Your job this week is continuity. Meet every employee. Call your largest customers, with the seller introducing you if possible. Make sure you can actually operate the business: bank access, payroll, the scheduling or job software, the books. Start a simple weekly cash report. Resist the urge to change anything.

Where an assistant fits:

• Answering and returning customer calls during your business hours
• Confirming the appointments and jobs already on the calendar
• Keeping the access list current: what has moved into your name, what is still pending, and who to call about it
• Booking your introduction calls with customers and vendors

Week 2 (Days 8–14): Map the Work

Now find out what actually happens, week to week. Shadow the seller and the people who hold the operation together. Write down every recurring task, who does it, on what schedule, and what goes wrong when it’s late. The org chart will not tell you this.

Where an assistant fits: if the buyer and seller agree, your assistant can join the handover calls and take notes, then turn those notes into a working inventory of tasks, owners and deadlines. VRA assistants are trained in administrative documentation and SOP work as part of the program, so the first procedure drafts can start here. VRA’s first check-in with you lands at day 14.

Weeks 3–4 (Days 15–30): Catch What Was Dropped

An ownership change leaves loose ends. Pull the receivables aging, the list of open quotes and estimates, and anything up for renewal in the next 90 days. Have one-on-one conversations with the employees you can least afford to lose.

Where an assistant fits:

• Calling on the past-due invoices you inherited
• Following up on open quotes and unsold estimates
• Vendor coordination, ordering and job documentation
• Review requests and responses, so customers hear from the business during the change

VRA checks in again at day 30.

Weeks 5–8 (Days 31–60): Write It Down While the Seller Is Still Reachable

The seller’s availability is a perishable asset, and it starts losing value at closing. Book focused sessions on the exceptions, because the routine work is easy to see and the exceptions are not: the customer who gets special pricing, the supplier who has to be called rather than emailed, the kind of job that needs a second visit. Prepare your questions in advance and record the answers in writing.

Start a simple weekly scorecard: cash, sales, jobs completed, receivables. Five numbers you look at every week beat a dashboard you don’t.

Where an assistant fits:

• Writing standard operating procedures for intake, scheduling, billing, collections and vendor ordering, as they learn the work
• Keeping those procedures updated as you change how things are done, so they don’t go stale in a folder
• Setting up or cleaning up the CRM and customer database so it reflects who your customers actually are

VRA’s 60-day check-in falls in this stretch.

Weeks 9–12 (Days 61–90): Test the Procedures and Step Back

A procedure is only proven when someone other than the person who wrote it can follow it. Step away from the daily admin for a day, then a few days, and see what breaks. Each gap you find is a missing step, not a failure. This is also the time to choose one improvement worth making, such as pricing, collections or scheduling, and make only that one.

Where an assistant fits: working from the written procedures, logging anything they didn’t cover, and updating the document so the next person doesn’t hit the same gap. Scheduling, invoicing and follow-up are administered from the procedures, not from your memory. VRA checks in at day 90.

Days 91–100: Lock It In

Take stock. What still routes through you that shouldn’t? Which procedures are written, tested and current? Is the admin load a part-time job or a full-time one? If you are weighing an assistant against a payroll hire, we set the two side by side. If you are planning a second acquisition, what you have built is the starting playbook for it.

Where an assistant fits: organizing the procedures into one index, flagging the ones that need review, and listing what’s still undocumented so the next quarter has a clear to-do list.

What Happens to Owner Dependence at Closing?

You bought a business that depended on its owner. If every call, invoice and question now routes to you, you didn’t remove that dependence. You inherited it. The goal by day 100 is not that you work less. It is that the business no longer needs you for the administrative work, so your time goes to the decisions only an owner can make. The longer version of that work is here: how to make your business run without you.

What Does It Cost?

• Full-time: $1,500 a month, 40 hours a week. An assistant who works for your business and no one else.
• Part-time: $800 a month, 20 hours a week. Your own named assistant, with your hours reserved; a part-time assistant may hold one other part-time placement.

No setup or onboarding fees, and no payroll taxes, benefits or equipment. Every assistant completes a mandatory 4-week, instructor-led training program before touching client work; only 0.89% of our latest applicant cohort passed. We commit to 90% proficiency in your systems within 5 business days of starting with you. If the fit is wrong, you can swap in a different assistant at any point, at no extra cost: no trial window, no fine print. VRA also carries a $1 million Errors & Omissions insurance policy. Full pricing → How that compares: virtual assistant cost by model.

“He’s helped me make sure things that have been falling through the cracks no longer fall through the cracks, and keeping me honest on everything that I have going on.”

Austin Galvez, CPA · Ratio Fortis, 30-day check-in · Watch the check-in

Questions New Owners Ask

Should I bring in an assistant before or after closing?

Either works. You can take the two-minute Needs Assessment during diligence and select an assistant before close; once you select them, they can start within 24 hours of selection. Starting after close is fine too; the first two weeks of this plan are written for exactly that.

The seller already has a VRA assistant. Can I keep them?

Yes. The engagement can transfer to you at closing, so the same assistant continues with you as the new owner. VRA’s only commitment is a 3-month minimum. It starts with the seller and carries over to you at closing, and terms can be adjusted to fit your deal. Who pays, and from when, is set by you and the seller in your deal, for example in the purchase agreement or transition plan. The procedures the assistant has documented belong to the business, so they come with it either way.

Will an assistant replace the staff I inherited?

No. An assistant administers the back office; they don’t supervise anyone and they aren’t a manager. The idea is to take the administrative load off the people you need doing the actual work of the business, and to fill the gap if the seller’s admin person has already left.

I don’t know yet what I need. Is that a problem?

No. That is the normal situation after a close, and it is what the two-minute Needs Assessment is for: a short breakdown of where your hours are going before anyone talks about hours or scope.

Will they know the software the business uses?

They work in whatever you already use. VRA assistants are trained on transferable fundamentals rather than one vendor’s product, and we commit to 90% proficiency in your systems within 5 business days of starting with you.

What if the assistant isn’t the right fit?

You can swap in a different assistant at any point, at no extra cost: no trial window, no fine print. VRA checks in at 14, 30, 60 and 90 days, which lines up with the first quarter of ownership.

These answers are general guidance, not legal, tax or financial advice. Your attorney, CPA and lender know the specifics of your deal.