While it can be tempting to jump straight into browsing listings, if you are looking to set yourself up for success to secure a strong opportunity, January is one of the most useful months to take a step back and prepare. It’s one of the few times a year that offers a reprieve from noise and pressure giving you space to get clear on what you want and what you can realistically pursue.
Rather than chasing every opportunity that looks promising, focus on becoming buyer ready. That way, when the right business comes to market later in 2026, you’re not scrambling to catch up, you’re positioned to act with confidence and stand out as a serious buyer.
A buyer-ready approach starts with three essentials:
1. Define your criteria
Before you review listings, it helps to be clear on what you’re looking for. Consider:
- The industries you will consider (and the ones you won’t)
- The role you want to play post-purchase
- The type of business model you understand and can operate
- The scale you’re realistically capable of running
- The lifestyle requirements you’re not willing to compromise on
Clear criteria doesn’t limit your options. It helps you recognise the right opportunity faster and avoid wasting time on the wrong ones.
2. Understand your financial position
You don’t need everything finalised in January, but you do need clarity. Make sure you understand:
- What you can contribute in cash
- What you can borrow, and under what terms
- What size of business you can afford, including working capital
- Whether investor support or vendor finance is realistic for you
- What conditions you will need in an offer
Knowing your financial position early gives you confidence when it’s time to act and makes negotiations cleaner later.
3. Build a clear plan
With your criteria and funding aligned, you can create a structured approach to the year ahead: what types of opportunities you want to focus on, how you’ll assess them, and who you’ll involve in your decision-making process.
This early preparation pays off later in the year, when the right businesses come to market and competition starts to rise. The best opportunities don’t always stay available for long, and the buyers who secure them are usually the ones who were ready before they appeared.
Evaluate with clarity
One of the biggest advantages of getting prepared early is the ability to assess opportunities with clarity. When buyers wait until they’ve found a business they like, decision-making can become clouded. It can become harder to step back, ask the right questions, and stay objective when you’re already picturing yourself running the business.
A buyer-ready approach helps you evaluate each opportunity consistently, using the same lens every time. It also protects you from getting distracted by surface-level factors that don’t necessarily reflect a business’s long-term value.
When you review a business, it’s worth focusing on the fundamentals:
- How stable and sustainable the earnings are
- Whether revenue is recurring or reliant on key customers
- How dependent the business is on the current owner
- What systems, staff, and processes are in place
- How the lease terms and location impact future risk
- What opportunities for growth are realistic, and what are simply “nice ideas”
This is where preparation becomes a real advantage. Buyers who have a consistent framework are able to move through opportunities faster, and with more confidence. This also puts buyers in a stronger position to ask informed questions early, which makes the process smoother for everyone involved.
It also means that when a standout opportunity appears, a business that genuinely matches your criteria and your budget, you can move decisively without needing weeks to get organised. You already understand your position. You already know what you’re looking at. And you’re already prepared to take the next step.
Strong businesses move quickly
As the year progresses, more buyers begin actively searching. That’s when competition tends to rise, and when strong businesses often attract interest more quickly.
This is where preparation becomes a practical advantage.
Buyers who have already defined their criteria and clarified their funding position can engage decisively, ask informed questions, and move through the process efficiently. They can make clean offers with clear conditions and realistic timelines, which is exactly what sellers want to see.
If you can use the early part of 2026 to get clear and get organised, you’ll be in a much stronger position when the right opportunity appears, not just to compete, but to secure the right business with confidence.
When you’re organised early, you don’t just improve your chances of buying a business. You improve your chances of buying the right business.
At LINK, we work with buyers at every stage, from those still refining their goals, to those ready to act when the right opportunity appears. If you’re serious about acquiring a business in 2026, we’re here to help you make informed decisions and move forward with clarity and confidence.