What happens after the acquisition?

In our latest newsletter post, Trust Multiplier, we’re shifting focus from dealmaking to what happens after the acquisition with the help of Josh Schultz. Josh is a CEO/COO who has led companies up to $200M in revenue. This is the exact framework he’s used to build trust with teams, reduce inefficiencies, and turn employees into believers in the vision. This is a great how-to for actually leading a team. Trust is the foundation of every small business, yet it’s often relegated by first-time operators behind the spreadsheets and elaborate growth-plans. But to accomplish great growth plans and implement your company vision, you must have trust and buy-in from your team. Without trust, no amount of systems, spreadsheets, or SOPs can save you. Your team doesn't trust you as much as you think they do. And it's killing your goals, your daily operations, and maybe even your health. Trust and respect are the bedrock for any team or company to perform at a high level. They're what enable everyone to work together without watching their backs, getting offended, fighting over the next move, or playing politics. All energy gets focused on executing the mission. When problems explode into crises before they reach you, when your team performs worse without you around, when nobody disagrees in meetings but everyone gripes in the parking lot, you have a trust problem. But hopefully after reading this, you’re well equipped to deal with your existing trust problem, or head-off any trust problem before you arrive at the blow-up. Josh learned this the hard way after taking over a struggling distribution company and going full dictator-mode. "People just want to be told what to do," he thought. They made easily avoidable mistakes, lost trust, had massive turnover, and nearly lost the facility. But through the process of going dictator-mode, he discovered something counterintuitive: The more trust you build, the fewer systems you need. The less trust you have, the more SOPs, audits, and micromanagement your team requires. When he changed my approach with the next company (doing nothing but adding a daily huddle and weekly meeting focused on trust— more on what this means below) they 3x'd revenue and 6x'd cash flow in one year. Same team. Same market, but with an entirely different leadership approach. Here's the framework Josh uses, and what he continues to use today. Check out the rest of the article at: https://smbootcamp.beehiiv.com/