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Acquired Wisdom: What I’m Learning from a PR Agency Merger
Acquiring and integrating a wonderful legal PR agency, with a rich history, into our own similar business of 23 years standing, is proving to be one of the most demanding, revealing and exhilarating experiences of my career. I’m not saying we have (yet) got it all right, but we are learning and on the right path. So, here’s what I’d tell any small business owner thinking about doing the same for the first time.
1. Be brutally honest before you commit
Does the opportunity make strategic sense, not just now, but long-term? Does the client base, culture and team represent a good fit with yours? Do you get along with the target agency’s owners and managers and are your views aligned? Sense check with those (discreet) trusted friends, mentors and senior leadership colleagues who know you well. I don’t just mean know your capabilities, but also your limits. Due diligence covers the numbers but an acquisition is about purpose. Be prepared to walk away if anything doesn’t feel quite right – trust your instinct.
2. Get the right advisers but control the costs
Good lawyers, accountants and consultants are worth it (and I’d readily recommend each of mine). But scope what you actually need by way of external support from day one, because it’s way too easy to overspend. Roll your sleeves up where you can. Learning to decipher your CMS SLAs from your PST exports is exhausting – but my view is every hour you personally invest is money better spent on staff, clients and prospective business opportunities.
3. People are everything, so treat them that way
In professional services, your new colleagues are the acquisition. Respect how they worked before and honour the well-regarded history of their previous agency. Amidst the familiarisation between teams, take time to acknowledge the disruption as IT chaos, process changes and daily interruptions are genuinely painful for everyone. Communication is key (I would say that wouldn’t I!). Talk openly and listen too – be prepared to compromise. Set a positive tone from day one and mean it. Insist on a welcoming, open and positive atmosphere – as my take is that it will genuinely pay dividends across the business – and clients will feel it too. Culture comes from the top, so the Board must walk the walk.
4. The admin will bury you for a while, but plan for it anyway
Omg, the admin! Notwithstanding a faultlessly efficient handover from previous owners, HMRC portals that reject emails; banks that take a week to change a mandate; phone providers demanding hours on calls just to port a number; Companies House submission rejections; IT migration missteps. It seemingly never ends. What’s more, in a small business most determinations land on you (and, if you’re lucky, your unbelievably cooperative and long-suffering office manager and senior colleagues). Decisions on website design, new logos, merch and photos are the fun bit in comparison, trust me! So, if you possibly can, protect a few weeks of breathing room in your ‘normal’ working hours diary. You’ll need it.
5. Stop. Reflect. Then steady yourself for the hard yards
Acknowledge the people who came through for you. Note those who didn’t. Be incredibly grateful that your clients remain supportive – particularly the ones who got the double “Dear” mailout (yup, mea culpa). Be thankful if you and your positively enlarged team get to the other side relatively unscathed. Recognise that your experience will help when advising law firms (in our case), going through their own transitions, albeit on a rather grander scale. The truth is that mergers take time to work through. Success will be when clients, staff and observers drop the legacy references and buy into your new proposition. It could take a year and we’re just two weeks in. But Rome wasn’t built in a day. Meantime, take a breath. Review where you’re at and be thankful. Because once the dust settles, you’ll realise the hard work hasn’t finished. It’s just changed shape.
Good luck. If you ever want to share war stories or just pick (what’s left of) my brains if you are contemplating undertaking something similar, do get in touch!
