An acquisition is the easy part. The first 12 months will decide whether the asset you bought becomes the cashflow business you imagined, or a money pit you can't get out of. We help you actually run it.
You did the diligence. You signed the papers. You wired the money. Now the previous owner has handed you the keys and a thumb drive of files, the WhatsApp group has gone quiet, and on Monday morning you walk in as the principal of a business that has been running on someone else's instincts for fifteen years.
You don't have a playbook. The numbers don't quite tie. The two senior people who actually know how it works are watching to see whether you're going to be worth working for. The supplier on the other end of the phone is testing whether the new owner can be pushed around. Cash is leaving the account faster than you expected. And there's no one to call who isn't trying to sell you something.
This is the part nobody warned you about — and it's the part that decides whether your acquisition becomes the asset you imagined or the headache you regret.
This is exactly what we do. We sit next to you in those first months and help you operate. Not advise. Not strategise. Operate.
If you're holding the keys to a business and you're not yet sure how to drive it, you're in the right place.
You bought a small business outright — possibly your first. You might have negotiated a brilliant deal. Now you have to run it, and that's a different muscle entirely.
You had a windfall — a successful exit, a crypto cycle, a property flip, an inheritance — and you've decided cashflow-producing operating businesses are the smarter long-term home for the money. You need someone to help you buy well, hold well, and not get fleeced.
A parent, partner, or family member is stepping back and the business has landed in your lap. You want to honour what was built without becoming a prisoner to it. You need a hand on the wheel while you find your feet.
Each engagement is shaped to your business, but most cover most of the following. We do the work alongside you — we don't write a 60-page report and disappear.
Top-to-bottom read on the business as it actually runs — not as the seller described it. Where the cash is bleeding, where the dependencies sit, what's load-bearing.
Clean monthly accounts, real cashflow visibility, working capital under control, and a board pack that tells you the truth every month. The hygiene most acquired SMEs lack.
Who's worth keeping, who's quietly looking, who's load-bearing and underpaid, who's overpaid and coasting. Plus the difficult conversations you need to have early — and how to have them without setting the place on fire.
The relationships the previous owner kept in his head. We make them yours — through new contracts, renegotiated terms, and a structured handover. Before the seller's protection runs out.
Right entity, right shareholding, the board you need (if any), the policies that protect you, and the BB-BEE position you're either keeping or rebuilding.
The weekly and monthly rhythm that keeps the business legible to you — leadership huddles, sales cadence, ops review, financial close. The scaffolding that turns a chaotic SME into a managed one.
Where the next year is going. Realistic targets. The two or three projects that will move the business — and the noise we're going to ignore. Owned by you, supported by us.
If you don't want to be in the chair every day, we help you find, install, and onboard a GM — and stay in the background as advisory chair.
Most clients start with the Stabilisation Sprint and move into a retainer. We're flexible — but we don't do half-engagements that pretend to be full ones.
An intensive engagement to get the new business under control. We embed, run the diagnostic, fix the urgent things, and hand you a 90-day plan you can actually execute.
Hands on the wheel with you. Weekly working sessions, a monthly board pack we own with you, and a senior partner you can phone when something breaks. Fractional COO with a turnaround background.
Once the business is running, we step back into a quarterly chair role — strategic oversight, governance discipline, and a sounding board for the big calls. Lighter touch, longer relationship.
If you've bought the business as an investment and never intend to sit in the chair, we'll help you find and install a GM, design the right governance structure around them, and stay involved in the background to keep them honest.
Most consultants who look like us trained at one of the big firms and have spent their careers writing strategy decks for people who already had operating teams. They're great at the slides. They can be terrible in the chair.
We're the other thing. Between us we've built a multi-entity group from startup to R86 million in turnover, run businesses across five sectors and three continents, sat in operating roles when there was nobody else to do the work, and turned around organisations that other people had given up on.
If you've just bought your first business, you don't need a strategy consultant. You need someone who's stood where you're standing, has the scars, and is willing to sit next to you and help you operate.
If you don't see your question, the diagnostic call is free. We'll answer it then.
Forty-five minutes. No pitch. We'll listen to what you've bought, what's broken, and what's keeping you up at night — and give you an honest read on whether we can help. Free.
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