Best Practices for Navigating Key-Person Risk in Acquisitions?

May 22, 2025
by a searcher from Tufts University in Malden, MA, USA
I’ve come across multiple deals recently where the SDE looks solid — but only because the owner is still wearing most of the hats: sales, estimating, scheduling, even directly managing crews or projects.
Curious what best practices others have used to evaluate or mitigate this kind of key-person risk.
How do you approach transition planning, team depth, or deciding whether to move forward at all?
For context, I’m focused on commercial and home service businesses, coming from a strategy consulting background (no trades experience). The long-term vision is to build out a clear management layer, breaking apart the owner’s role into sales, operations, and finance.
Always looking to learn from others who’ve been through it — happy to connect if you’re open to sharing experiences.
from University of Missouri in Denver, CO, USA
from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Portland, OR, USA