Danielle West, Managing Partner at CAYK Marketing.
Fourteen years ago, when I first stepped into the doors of the childcare center I had purchased, I quickly realized that to succeed, the organization needed a culture and reputation refresh.
As a first-time entrepreneur, I quickly understood how important it was to get employees and parents on board with my vision of creating a more engaging, enriching environment for children. Along the way, I learned what it takes to positively transform an existing business’s culture and reputation.
According to research published in 2023, entrepreneurship through acquisition “is gaining momentum as a viable alternative to starting a company on one’s own.” There are many benefits to acquiring a business rather than launching one yourself, such as gaining access to an existing employee and customer base, but there are drawbacks as well. When you take over an existing organization, you don’t just get the good elements that come with it—you also get the bad.
If you’ve recently purchased an existing business or are considering doing so, you might have to transform the organization’s culture and reputation to make headway. Based on my experience, here are some best practices to follow.
Make Your Purpose Known So People Can Hear Your Heart
After purchasing my business, I quickly arranged meetings with the staff and parents. When you take over an existing company, it is natural for the current employees and customers to have some fears and concerns. After all, a change in ownership is significant and can impact their daily lives. As the organization’s new owner, the first step you should take is to authentically communicate your intentions to the employees and customers. Be forthcoming about your background, purpose and vision for the future.
People need to hear your heart. They need to understand who you are and what your mission is for the business moving forward. But more importantly, they need to understand your why. As the renowned author and speaker Simon Sinek famously stressed in a TEDx Talk, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” Employees and customers need to see you’re not just there to drive profits and call it a day. When they understand why you’re there and why you want to accomplish a particular goal or set of goals, they’ll be more likely to walk hand-in-hand with you on that journey.
Create A Set Of Values And Communicate Them Internally And Externally
Immediately after I purchased my business, I noticed that the organization didn’t focus on providing educational and enrichment opportunities to children; it was a daycare center that babysat kids. Transforming the company into one that prioritized these elements required developing and abiding by a set of core values—and communicating those values internally and externally.
After creating our own set of core values (which the school didn’t have), I intentionally communicated them to our team. It’s essential to nurture an environment where staff not only understand the core values but also own them. Accomplishing this requires consistent internal messaging via the right systems and processes. When employees are regularly exposed to the new language and mindset of the organization, they’ll be more likely to adopt the new values. The exact methods you should use will vary depending on the type of business you run. For instance, I put up posters of our core values in every classroom and created a “core value day” each week where our team members would wear T-shirts that had our values written on them. Additionally, over the years, I introduced a quarterly training program for our entire team to ensure that we were all aligned with the organizational mission.
External messaging is vital as well. You need to present a unified, consistent brand voice and message to your community that reiterates the vision and mission of your organization. For example, after creating the core values, I weaved them into marketing messaging (including a new tagline). With a minimal budget, I then advertised on social media to show the community the organization’s new direction.
Match Your Words With Actions
Words alone, of course, are not enough. You must also accompany them with actions to show employees, customers and the community that you’re serious about steering the company in a new direction. When your words match your actions, people will see that your organization is one of integrity.
Evaluate existing core values, or create your own that align with your why to pinpoint which actions to take. My organization’s core values are “grow, care and serve.” When I took the helm, I made some immediate changes to reflect those core values, such as implementing a quality curriculum, initiating campaigns to teach children (and families) the importance of giving back, hiring a full-time cook for the students and adding new playground equipment. Through those actions, parents could see that my team and I were invested in their children’s future and that our why was real. We meant it. Over time, the steps we took led to a cultural transformation at the preschool and a positive reputation in the community.
Whether you intentionally create it or not, your organization will develop a culture and a reputation. As a business owner, it’s up to you to take ownership of both so that you can positively transform them from within—and put everyone involved in the best position possible to succeed.
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