Start with your operating role.
Write down whether you want to operate the business yourself, work with a management team or hold a minority position. Describe your experience and the time you can contribute. If that remains uncertain, make it an explicit question rather than assuming the business can run itself.
Separate requirements from preferences.
Choose a short list of essentials: sector, broad location, acquisition structure and a realistic capital range. Then identify preferences you could relax. A long list of rigid filters can exclude useful conversations before you understand the trade-offs.
Account for the whole capital commitment.
Keep purchase consideration separate from transaction costs, operating cash and investment after completion. State whether funds are available, financing is required or the approach is still being explored. This is a planning exercise, not evidence that funding is verified.
Ask what evidence would change your view.
Describe the questions that would influence your decision: customer concentration, dependence on the owner, contract continuity, asset condition or the basis of earnings. A useful brief gives an assessor a starting point; it does not substitute for reviewing an actual business.
Make the brief your own.
Use sector guides to identify relevant questions, then describe your requirements in your own words. Your budget expresses your available capital; it does not establish the market value of a business.
Prepared for the ORDENNE concept · 7 November 2026. Educational information, not advice on an available business.
Create your acquisition brief