How to make sure your acquisition doesn't turn into a full-time job

Happy Thursday!

When you close on a business, the direction your life takes as an owner comes down to one thing more than almost anything else:

Whether or not there’s a capable person running the day-to-day operation without you.

Get this right and you’re an owner, focused on growth, strategy, and your next move.

Get it wrong and you’re an operator buried in daily fires, fielding every problem, and wondering why you left your W2 for something that feels harder.

A strong general manager is what separates those two outcomes.

The ideal scenario is buying a business that already has one.

But what do you do when the business you want doesn't?

Here are the three ways to make it work. 👇

Community Spotlight

Alex bought a $6M last mile delivery SaaS platform after using the training videos and weekly calls as his guide.

He used the training as his compass and learned from others’ shared experiences to close a multi-million dollar deal.

👉 Want training and weekly calls that serve as your compass through the process of acquiring a business? Book a call with our team here.

Option 1: Keep the seller in a GM role

If the current owner is running daily operations, they’re already doing the GM job, they just don’t have the title.

In some cases, the right move is to structure a deal where they stay on in that capacity for a defined period, typically two to five years, in exchange for retaining a small equity stake in the business.

This keeps continuity intact, gives you time to find and train a permanent replacement, and incentivizes the seller to make the transition work.

It’s not the cleanest setup, but it can be a very practical bridge, especially in businesses where the owner’s relationships and institutional knowledge are central to how things operate.

Option 2: Promote from within

Before you look outside the business, look inside it.

In a lot of small businesses, there’s already someone who functions like a GM without the formal role - a senior employee who the team looks to, who understands how everything works, and who has earned the trust of the people around them.

If that person exists, promoting them is often the fastest and least disruptive path.

They already know the business, they already have credibility with the team, and they don’t need six months of onboarding before they can be effective.

The key is being honest about whether they can actually handle the expanded responsibility.

(Inside Acquisition Ace, members learn how to evaluate management structure before making an offer, and how to solve for gaps before they become problems post-close. To see how my community could help you secure your first business acquisition, book a call with our team here.)

Option 3: Hire externally

When neither of the first two options is viable, you go to the market.

This isn’t a bad strategy. Plenty of buyers do it successfully.

But it carries the most risk of the three, and it requires the most lead time.

Finding the right person, vetting them properly, getting them integrated into an existing team, and making sure they can actually operate independently takes time you may not have in the middle of an acquisition.

If you go this route, start the search as early in the process as possible (ideally before you close, not after).

And be honest with yourself about the timeline, as a great external hire takes longer to find than most buyers expect.

The Acquisition Ace community is full of people who’ve figured out how to structure management, protect their time, and build businesses that don’t require them to show up every day to function.

If that’s the kind of guidance you’re looking for, it might be worth a conversation.

👉 Book a call with my team here to see if it's a good fit.