I tried to do a search but didn't have a lot of luck finding what I was looking for.

I am primarily interested in smaller Main Street deals (<$5m rev). I'd love to hear from those of you who have closed a deal in this size range in regards to how you communicated the change in ownership (if at all) to the employees and customers upon closing.

In a company with <30 employees, how did you handle communicating the management transition to them? Did you tell the employees you were the new owner on day 1? Or did you come in as a new "manager" or "business partner" of some type for an interim period before officially announcing yourself as the new CEO/owner after you had had a chance to build some credibility and a relationship with the employees?

Regarding customers, in the typical "Main Street" business the owner is often the primary point of contact for customers. How did you communicate the change in ownership to customers? If you did not communicate a change, how did you handle it when customers asked who you were.

Any learning lessons, pros/cons, best practices, etc. would be greatly appreciated.