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The plan and the promises
How we work, before and after the sale
After we acquire a business, the first ninety days follow a published plan in three phases: listen and hold steady, understand and write it down, then set a twelve-month plan and begin. Before any sale, we commit to a substantive reply within 24 hours, a process explained stage by stage, and published conditions under which we walk away.
After completion
The ninety-day plan, published in full
The first three months after a sale decide whether a team trusts its new owner. So we publish what we will do in them, and just as importantly, what we won’t.
Three phases, each with a list of things that deliberately do not happen. The detail of each phase is below.
Days 1–30
Listen and hold steady
What happens
- The operator partner starts on day one, introduced by the founder in person.
- Every employee has a one-to-one conversation in the first month.
- The founder and operator partner visit the most important customers together.
- Cash, contracts, accreditations and the people the business can’t do without are mapped.
What doesn't happen
- No redundancies and no changes to pay or terms.
- No change to the premises or customer prices.
- No new reporting for the team beyond one short weekly note.
Days 31–60
Understand and write it down
What happens
- How work really flows, from enquiry to invoice, is mapped with the people who do it.
- The knowledge that lives only in the founder’s head is written down, with the founder.
- The quality and accreditation calendar is confirmed, so every date carries across in the handover.
- The team proposes the first three fixes, and helps choose them.
What doesn't happen
- No new software or systems rolled out.
- No change of key suppliers.
- No headcount changes.
Days 61–90
Set the plan and begin
What happens
- Orvane Group and the operator partner write the twelve-month plan together, drawing on everything the first sixty days have shown, and own it from there.
- The first improvement goes live, with a measure everyone can see.
- A monthly board rhythm begins between Orvane Group and the operator partner, and the team leads see the plan and the part they play in it.
- Investment priorities for the first year are decided and shared with the team.
What doesn't happen
- No restructuring outside the agreed plan.
- No bolt-on acquisitions.
- No extra workload for the team that could get in the way of their day-to-day performance.
Before the sale
The process commitments
Published before we have met you, so you can hold us to them. If we fall short of any of these, tell us, and tell your adviser.
01
A substantive reply within 24 hours
On working days, to every founder, adviser and operator who writes to us. Substantive means it answers what you asked. If the answer is no, the reply says why.
02
The process, stage by stage, explained before each one starts
- First conversation. No NDA, no documents, no obligation. About where you are and what you want.
- Confidentiality and a short information request. You see the full list before you agree to anything.
- An indicative offer, in writing. Price, structure, the balance paid later and on what conditions, and your role afterwards.
- Meet the operator partner. Before diligence, not after. You can say no.
- Due diligence, scoped to the size of the business. The full request list up front, and any later addition explained.
- Legal agreements and completion. Terms that match the offer letter. No new conditions in the final week.
- Day one of the ninety-day plan. The plan you have already read.
03
The conditions under which we walk away
- The numbers only work with debt the business couldn't comfortably carry.
- Making the price work would mean cutting the team the founder built.
- We can't find the right operator partner for the business.
- Diligence finds something material that wasn't disclosed, and we can't agree how to deal with it.
- The founder would need a promise from us that we couldn't be sure of keeping.
Either of us can step back before completion, and we’ll respect that decision if you do. Just go in knowing that the later stages, especially due diligence and the legal work, carry real costs and responsibilities for both sides. That’s why we set out what each stage involves, and what it commits each of us to, before it begins.
Read it, then test it on us.
Everything on this page is a commitment, not a description. The best way to check it is to start a conversation and see whether we keep the first one.