Handover and the first 30 days
Use this alongside your purchase agreement. Where the agreement sets a date or a process, such as for the handover period or completion accounts, follow the agreement.
- Time needed
- About 30 minutes
- Last updated
- Author
- Loupe editorial
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- Not yet reviewed
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Before completion
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Week one
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Change passwords and remove the seller's access at the point the handover plan allows.
Weeks two to four
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At day 30
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Take legal advice early, because claims usually have to follow the notice terms in the agreement.
General information only, not legal, tax or financial advice. Adapt the checklist to the business in front of you and take professional advice where it matters.
Guides
The first 100 days after you buy
How to use the first 100 days after completion: keep customers, staff and cash steady, learn the business before you change it, and start fixing the risks you found in diligence.
8 minutes to readOwner dependence and how to test it
In many small businesses the owner is the salesperson, the expert and the person every decision waits for. This guide explains why that lowers value and sets out practical tests you can run, from reading the listing to the last weeks of diligence.
9 minutes to readWorking capital, inventory and what the price includes
Why the headline price is rarely the amount that changes hands, and how working capital pegs, inventory at cost and cash-free, debt-free terms decide what you actually pay for.
10 minutes to read
Red flags to look for
The owner does the selling or holds key relationships
When the owner wins the work and keeps the important relationships, part of the revenue may leave with them. Test how much of that revenue would stay without them before you agree a price.
Severity: price it inOperations and peopleUndocumented processes
When the way a business runs lives in one or two people's heads, the handover gets harder and early mistakes get more likely. It is usually fixable if you find it before you sign.
Severity: fixableOperations and peopleKey staff not tied in
If the people who hold the business together have no written terms, no notice periods and no reason to stay, a sale is the moment they are most likely to leave. Find out who matters and what keeps them.
Severity: fixableOperations and peopleDomains or accounts held in personal names
The domain, social profiles, app store, advertising or payment accounts belong to the owner or a freelancer rather than the business. They may not pass to you unless the deal says so.
Severity: fixableOnline and platformsContracts that end on a change of control
Some customer, supplier and licence contracts let the other side walk away or renegotiate when the business is sold. Find them early and make consent part of the deal.
Severity: fixableCustomers and revenue
Other checklists
Diligence document request list
The documents to ask for once terms are agreed in principle, grouped by area so the seller can fill a data room in order and you can see what is still missing.
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The checks that matter most when a business lives online: live account access, traffic, platforms, ownership of digital assets, code and the revenue behind the dashboards.
About 120 minutes