Buying an established business can be more advantageous than building one from scratch. Beyond inheriting customers, systems, and cash flow, you gain a luxury most startups never get: time and space to raise the ceiling by modernizing how the business runs and grows. It’s a different path to ownership, known as Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA).
This shift is already underway. As millions of business owners near retirement, more than a third of Gen Z and Millennials are planning to buy companies from them, gaining access to an estimated 12 million privately held businesses worth roughly $10 trillion.
It’s an opportunity to take part in one of the largest transfers of business ownership in U.S. history—while becoming self-made without betting on unproven ideas and years of uncertainty.
But success doesn’t just depend on finding and buying the right business. It rests on how you navigate the pressure to fix everything right away—because moving too fast can disrupt the foundation a company is built on. If you’re close to signing a deal, or you just got handed the keys to a new business, this guide lays out a path to modernizing without breaking what already works, losing customers, or overwhelming the team.
Start with stabilization, not transformation
Your first move isn’t to overhaul; it’s to observe.
Before you improve anything, learn how the business actually runs day to day. Watch what happens during the morning rush, how calls get handled when the schedule is full, and what the team does when something goes sideways.
Start by listening to the people closest to the work. Shadow those leading daily execution. Ask every employee where the friction exists, what slows them down, and what makes their job harder than it needs to be. You’re looking for patterns: recurring bottlenecks, the workarounds everyone relies on, and the “we’ve always done it this way” steps that no one’s had time to question.
Then, look at the business through the customer’s eyes. What do customers value most here—speed, reliability, familiar faces, quality, care? Find out by calling or emailing a handful of regulars, reading recent reviews like a detective, and paying attention to what people praise without being asked.
Somewhere in all of this is the secret sauce—the one or two things the company does unusually well that competitors can’t easily copy. It might be consistency, reliable service, or strong customer relationships that make people choose this business time and again.
Build stability and visibility in the financial infrastructure
Once you know what you’re protecting, focus on the part that controls everything else: cash flow.
Start by cleaning up the books so you can look at the numbers with peace of mind. You want a clear view of what the business reliably brings in, what it consistently spends, and what’s left over—without any guesswork.
Next, organize your bank accounts and payment flows. When everything runs through one account, it’s harder to tell what’s really available. Separate money by purpose—payroll, taxes, operating expenses, and even growth—so everyday decisions don’t accidentally put something important at risk.
Then, set a steady vendor-payroll-tax rhythm. Pick consistent days to pay vendors, run payroll, and set aside taxes. Doing this on a schedule means you’re not lying in bed on a Sunday night doing the “Who gets paid first?” math.
Now it’s time to review the obligations you took over. This could be leases, loans, equipment financing, vendor contracts, or subscriptions. This way, you’ll know what you’re locked into and how much room you actually have to start upgrading the business right away.
Finally, create a weekly review cadence: cash on hand, what’s due next, what’s expected to come in, and anything else that needs attention. Tools like Relay can make that check-in feel lighter, with one dashboard for the full picture, customizable notification preferences, and even up to 20 free checking accounts1 to separate funds by purpose.
1Relay is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Certain conditions must be satisfied for pass-through deposit insurance coverage to apply.
Operational improvements that create immediate wins
With cash flow organized, you can turn to the parts of the business that customers never see but always feel—the routines that decide whether days run smoothly or spiral.
Start by documenting how work moves. Map the steps, from inquiry to product or service delivery to payment. Flag the points where work passes from one person to the next. That’s where details often get missed.
Next, streamline the workflow by simplifying the steps. Look for places where the same information gets entered twice, the same task gets repeated, or the same job gets double- or triple-checked when one pass is enough.
Then, add light automation where it can save the most time—for example, chasing down invoices. Make it easy for customers to pay as soon as work is done, and stop vendor bills from floating around in your emails. Relay’s Payment Requests and Bill Pay tools can support that flow in one place, and you can turn on notifications so nothing goes unnoticed.
Vendor spend is the next place to look, because it impacts not only your margins but also your bandwidth. Pull a list of suppliers, what you buy from each, and how often. Then, circle the duplicates and the charges that no one can explain. Consolidate where it makes sense.
After that’s cleaned up, standardize where schedules are managed, how a job gets marked complete, and what triggers invoicing so cash doesn’t trail behind work. And to keep you out of the weeds, make ownership unmistakable—clarify each role and responsibility across the team, making it visible to everyone.
Modernizing customer experience and growth
Once operations are steadier, move on to what customers actually experience, starting with your website. Update the trust signals and the buying path: create an “About” section that introduces you, a team profile that keeps familiar faces visible, and product or service pages that clearly state what you do, who it’s for, and how you differ. Make sure the site is mobile-friendly, accessible, and easy to move through.
Then, make sure that the same story holds wherever customers look you up, such as Google and local directories. The details should match those on your website: hours, services, location, and how to get in touch. It’s a quick pass, but it reinforces credibility and keeps customers from calling to double-check basics.
From there, treat branding as continuity, not reinvention. The logo, colors, language, and visuals should feel the same across your site, listings, and any other customer touchpoints. If a refresh is needed, anchor it in what customers already recognize—keeping it familiar while signaling that the business is elevating.
Support that work by establishing simple marketing rhythms. Short, recurring emails, a consistent presence on social media channels, and basic local search optimization upkeep ensure the company shows up when customers are searching.
Culture, team dynamics, and change management
Modernization only sticks when people and systems move together.
Before introducing new tools or processes, take time to build trust while staying present, curious, and open. Make space to learn about the team as people—not just as operators—and honor the ways they’ve kept the heart of the business whole throughout the years.
When you’re ready to start modernizing, take the time to explain why it’s happening. Connect it to relief that resonates: fewer manual steps, seamless handoffs, and more time for the parts of the work they enjoy and that matter most. Invite the team into the process as well. The people closest to the work should help shape what gets prioritized and how improvements take form.
Pace matters just as much as intent. Too much change at once can overwhelm teams and create fatigue, even when the intention is rooted in stewardship. Move in stages, give each improvement time to settle, and let the team’s experience and feedback guide the next adjustment.
The payoff is one of the most rewarding parts of the ETA path. After you understand what was built before you, protect what already works, and leave your own mark by modernizing the business with care, you create a foundation that preserves the legacy and gives it room to keep thriving for many decades to come.
1Relay is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Certain conditions must be satisfied for pass-through deposit insurance coverage to apply.
