The successor's first-100-days plan

A 100-day transition plan tells the successor, week by week, who to meet, what to watch, which decisions are coming and what not to change too quickly. Prepared by the seller before the sale, it reassures the buyer, protects the team and clients, and helps you negotiate a shorter stay after closing.

Why the first 100 days matter so much

The day after closing, everyone is watching the new owner. Employees wonder if their jobs are at stake. Major clients wonder if the service will change. Suppliers wonder who will pay, and on what terms. This is the window in which a business can lose, in a few weeks, part of what the buyer just paid for.

Buyers know this. If they see no plan for that period, they compensate: they ask you to stay longer, or they tie part of the price to the following months' results. A transition plan written in advance shows them the handover has already been thought through, and that your role after the sale will be short and well defined.

What a good transition plan contains

The 100-day plan is one of the sections of the Transition Document. It fits on a few pages and covers five areas.

The people to meet, in order

A prioritized list: managers and key employees first, then the ten largest clients, main suppliers, the bank, the outside accountant. For each one, who makes the introduction and what that person needs to hear.

The decisions coming up

What lands in the next 100 days: a contract renewal, a planned equipment purchase, a peak season, a wage negotiation, a lease deadline. The successor shouldn't discover them the day before.

The indicators to watch

The numbers that show whether things are on track: order backlog, delivery times, receivables, margin per contract. With the thresholds that should trigger an alert. If you have a dashboard, the plan simply says where to find it and how to read it.

What not to change right away

Prices for major clients, the people who hold key relationships, critical suppliers. It's not a ban: it's a word of caution, backed by your experience.

Your own role

How long you stay, how many hours a week, on which specific files, and the date you stop making decisions. That last point is essential: as long as you decide, the team will keep coming to you.

A week-by-week template

Here's a structure to adapt. The exact weeks depend on your business.

Period	Successor's priority	Seller's role
Weeks 1-2	Meet the management team and each key employee	Introduce, then step out of meetings
Weeks 3-4	Visit the five largest clients with the person who holds each relationship	Come along only if the client asks
Weeks 5-6	Meet the main suppliers and the bank	Confirm agreements, hand over access
Weeks 7-10	Track indicators, walk through each process with its owner	Answer questions, stop deciding
Weeks 11-14	The successor's first decisions, 100-day review	Regular presence ends, available if needed

The seller's role shrinks every week. That's the point.

A storm day in Mauricie

An invented case, but a typical one: a regional trucking company in Trois-Rivières, seven million dollars in revenue, 40 drivers and staff. The founder is 66. On storm days, he's still the one rebuilding the routes at 5 a.m., from memory.

Without a transition plan, the successor shows up on a Monday. The founder stays "available". The dispatchers keep calling him. A major industrial client, worried, asks to meet the former owner. Six months later, the buyer still doesn't know who's in charge.

With a plan, day one is written in advance: an all-hands meeting where the founder introduces the successor and announces the date he'll stop dispatching. Storm-day dispatching follows a procedure documented a year earlier, applied by the lead dispatcher. The five major clients are visited in week three, by the successor and the sales manager. The founder keeps a single file: a service contract renewal, which he wraps up in week eight. By day 100, he comes in half a day a month.

Checklist: start your transition plan this week

1. List the 20 people the successor needs to meet first, in order.
2. For each one, note who will make the introduction, if not you.
3. List the decisions and deadlines coming up in the next six months.
4. Pick five indicators the successor should check every week.
5. Write down three things you wouldn't change in the first year, and why. For example: the price a loyal client gets, and the story behind it.
6. Set the date you'd stop making decisions, and write down who decides instead, file by file.

If the list in step 1 is mostly people who only talk to you, that's a sign there's still delegation work to do before the sale. See handing client relationships to your team and capturing the owner's know-how.

Three mistakes that make the first 100 days harder

• Staying "available" with no end date. The team will keep coming to you, and the successor never earns their authority.
• Introducing the successor by email. Key clients and employees need to see you hand over in person, at least once.
• Hiding the problems. A late client, a tired machine, a tense employee: if the plan doesn't name them, the successor finds them alone, at the worst moment.

How it connects to the sale

The 100-day plan isn't only useful after closing. During negotiation, it supports your position on how long you stay and how much of the price depends on future results. It belongs in the data room, next to the rest of the Transition Document. It's part of step 6: the Transition Document, and our overall approach is described on owner independence.

Do it with a pro

Alone, the 100-day plan usually gets written at the last minute, when the buyer asks for it. With us and our regional partner, it's built from your processes, your dependency matrix and interviews with the team, and it's ready before your first meeting with a buyer.

Owner independence