The First Day
The seller and I decided on a unique approach to the transition meeting. First because we closed on June 30th, we decided not to tell the employees until July 5th after the holiday weekend. Due to the timing of when some employees typically come to work, we decided on a 1 pm transition meeting. The seller wanted to give his speech without me being there, and I agreed. I showed up 15 minutes into the meeting.
When I walked in, all eyes were on me and everyone was basically in shock. The seller/founder of the company had started it over 25 years ago, and all but one of the employees had been working for him for over 10 years. The selling of the company was a total surprise to each of them, as we had kept it quiet. My speech outline is below, and I pretty much stuck to it while not reading it verbatim.
New Owner Speech Outline
Why I bought this business
Because of you all
I looked at >100 business
None of them felt right until this one
I am a very hands on kind of person and love creating stuff
Background
Did not come from money
1st job at 6 picking fruit/veggies, I then worked in roofing, landscaping, construction, food service, retail, and lastly at
JHUAPL where I started as associate staff and work my way up to management to find a job outside
Loved the management job as I led a small crew of 5 staff growing it to 8 included a machinist, mech designer, electrical fabricator, and a few engineers
Moved up to the next level and help grow the group from 30 to over 60 staff
My leadership style
Don't like micro-management
Delegate responsibility
Reward going above and beyond
Remove road blocks
The better you all do the better the company does
Don't bring me your problems, but bring me your problems with a suggested solution
Learn from you all
Implement systems that improve efficiency and enable you all to do the things you do best
I like to have some fun along the way
What are my plans
Hire you all into the new company at the same rate, and benefits
For at least the first 90 days I am making no big changes while I try to fully understand the business
Along those lines I will not be making any pay increase decisions in that same time frame
That said I will be trying to help you all by assessing a cost of living increase once I have a firm handle on the business and if it can support the increases that we all are feeling at the store/pump
Grow the company by bringing in more work and then more employees
For the first 2 weeks
First I need to rehire all of you because of the process Lou and I chose to use for the sale of the business
Individually take you to lunch
Get to know you
Get your perspective on the business
The roadblocks
After
Shadow Lou for as long as it takes to understand the business top to bottom and see where my skills and understanding can improve things
Lou will be here in a mentoring role, but all decisions he was making must go through me, but don't worry Lou will be helping me to make these decisions
What is at stake
For me, literally everything I own
For all of you, your livelihood
I am excited for this opportunity and hope you come to trust me as much as you trust Lou, but all I ask is that you give me a chance.
Questions?
Reading stories about some crazy questions asked at these meetings, I did not know what to expect. There were no questions, so it turned out to be a brief meeting.
I then began setting up a desk and started to learn how the company actually functioned. It was surreal being super excited while all of my employees were upset. Doing my best to not show too much optimism while they came to terms with the transition. Most of the employees later discussed the betrayal they felt when learning of this news.
Over the next couple of weeks, I did my best to explain that this was the necessary process, and it was tough on all involved. I further explained that the seller had little choice in the matter. If he had told them he was going to sell the company, they would have become nervous, some would leave, which in turn would hurt the company. Thus making it harder to sell, and a negative spiral would ensue.
I thought the company had only been for sale for a month before I initiated an LOI, but as it turns out, the company had been for sale for a year and a month. This was startling news to me, as I immediately thought did I buy somehow buy a lemon. But the price for the first year with a different broker was at 5x SDE. I bought it for 3x SDE. If the seller had told the employees, he would have had a really hard time keeping the company at its current level.
The rest of my first day consisted of getting my email, printer, and other IT stuff setup. I am excited to report that all the employees have stayed on.