How to approach a business owner about buying their company

Many of the businesses worth buying are not advertised. The owner has not decided to sell, has not hired an adviser, and will only talk if the right person asks in the right way. That makes the first approach one of the most important things you do as a buyer, and one of the easiest to get wrong.

This guide covers what to prepare, what to say, how to follow up and how to keep track. If you have not yet built your list of businesses worth a conversation, start with our guide to finding off-market acquisition targets.

What should you have in place before you contact anyone?

An approach is only as good as the thinking behind it. Before any letter goes out, you should be able to answer four questions.

Why this business? You need a clear reason that comes from what you want to buy and why (your acquisition thesis). "They are in our sector" is not enough. "Their housing association contracts in West Yorkshire would fill the gap in our coverage" is. Our guide to writing an acquisition thesis helps.

Who owns it? Write to the person who owns the business, not the person who runs the website inbox. Companies House is free to search. For any UK company you can see:

• Officers: the current directors, with their month and year of birth and a service address.
• People with significant control: anyone with more than 25% of the shares or voting rights, or who can appoint or remove a majority of the directors.
• Filing history: accounts, confirmation statements and changes of director.

Look for the person who is both a director and a significant shareholder. If two people each own half, write to both, separately. If a holding company sits above the trading business, follow the chain up to the people who own it.

What is the context? Read what is public: the accounts, the website, recent news, changes of director. You are looking for anything that makes your letter specific, and anything that makes now a bad time (a recent bereavement, a fresh investment, a public dispute).

Who has approved it? If you have a board, co-owners or a funder, agree the list and the wording with them first. An approach made in your company's name commits your reputation.

A note on timing signals. Dealsuite's survey of UK and Irish M&A advisers (106 firms working with businesses of £1m to £200m revenue) found that age and lack of succession were the most common reason for selling, accounting for 41% of the transactions reported. That makes succession a common reason to talk, but it does not mean any particular owner of a certain age wants to sell. Never assume it, and never say it in a letter.

What should the first approach say?

Keep it to one page. The owner should be able to read it in under a minute and understand four things:

1. Who you are. Your name, your business, and one line on what you do.
2. Why them. Something specific that shows you have done your homework.
3. What you are asking for. A private conversation. Not a sale, not an offer.
4. How to reply. A direct phone number and email, both yours.

What to leave out:

• No price or multiple. You do not know enough yet, and any number becomes an anchor or an insult.
• No implied offer. Do not suggest terms, timescales or promises about staff that you cannot yet stand behind.
• No pressure. No deadlines and nothing "time-limited". Owners who sell well choose their own timing.
• No jargon. Avoid "synergies", "platform" and "bolt-on". Write the way you would talk.

A personal letter, signed by you and marked private and confidential, tends to stand out more than an email. Many buyers send a letter first and follow up by phone or email.

What does a good approach look like?

Illustrative and fictional. The names, businesses and details are made up.

Dear Mrs Patel,

I run Harland Fire & Security, a fire alarm and sprinkler maintenance business based in Leeds.

I have followed Riverside Fire Systems for some time. You have built a strong name with housing associations across West Yorkshire, and your engineers are known for doing the job properly.

We are looking to grow, and I believe our two businesses could work well together. I would value a private conversation about your plans for the future, whenever they might be. There is no expectation beyond a coffee and a chat.

If you are open to that, my direct line and email are below. I have written only to you, and I will not contact anyone else at Riverside.

Yours sincerely,

David Hale, Managing Director, Harland Fire & Security [direct line] · [email]

Notice what it does not say: nothing about buying, price or timescale.

How should you follow up, and what should you record?

Most owners will not reply to the first letter. Silence is not a no. They may be busy, unsure, or waiting to see if you are serious.

A measured sequence might be a letter, then a short call two or three weeks later ("I wrote to you recently and wanted to make sure it reached you"), then a short note a few weeks after that. If there is still no reply, send a final, polite note saying you will not chase again but the door stays open. Weekly calls feel like pressure and do more harm than good.

When you do speak, keep the first call short. Ask about the business and what they want for the future, not about the numbers. Your aim is a meeting, nothing more.

Keep a simple record for every business you approach:

Records hold personal information about real people, so keep them secure and only as long as you need them. If you plan to approach owners at scale, particularly by email, check the UK GDPR and the direct marketing rules first. The Information Commissioner's Office publishes guidance, and it is worth a short conversation with your solicitor.

How do you protect confidentiality?

Owners worry above all that staff, customers or competitors will find out they are talking to a buyer. You cannot promise that nobody will ever find out, but you can take sensible steps:

• Contact only the owner until they agree otherwise. Never approach staff, customers or suppliers without permission.
• Limit who knows on your side to the people who need to.
• Sign a non-disclosure agreement before any figures are shared. Expect it to include a clause stopping you hiring their staff or approaching their customers if talks end.
• Do not ask for an agreement before the first meeting. It turns a friendly conversation into a legal process.

How does a conversation become a real opportunity?

A friendly coffee is not a deal. Before you spend money on lawyers and accountants, you need to know whether the business fits your criteria, whether the owner's expectations on price, timing and their own role are realistic, and whether the numbers broadly support the story. Our guide to qualifying an acquisition target covers the questions to ask.

Expect to approach far more businesses than you will ever buy. As one example from Michael Ferguson's prior roles, a UK buy-and-build investor mapped 83 businesses across four European markets to complete two acquisitions over 14 months. Most owners are not ready, not right, or not interested at any given moment. The answer is not to write to more businesses at random. It is to be clearer about what you want.

Want this done for you?

Running approaches well takes time, a well-researched list and patience. Acquisitiv Target 45 researches 100 businesses that fit your criteria, agrees the list with you, approaches the owners in confidence and makes five introductions to owners open to a confidential conversation about a sale. It does not promise a completed deal, but it gets you to the right conversations.