Once we get a positive reply from an owner, we put together a one-pager for our searcher client before their first meeting. It’s a simple overview of the business what it does, how it makes money, a little about the industry and anything we’d like to understand better. Alongside that, we prepare a few questions for the conversation. That question list is the part we’ve been thinking about lately. For one of our clients, recurring revenue is a big priority. So we want to understand what that actually looks like in the business. Are customers on ongoing contracts, coming back for repeat work, or buying one-off projects? And roughly how much revenue comes from each? We also try to include a few questions about size and performance: roughly where revenue and earnings stand, how they’ve changed, and whether a few customers account for most of the business. Ideally, our client comes away with enough information to know whether another conversation makes sense. But we also want to leave room for the owner to talk, rather than turn the first meeting into a financial questionnaire. What do you include in your prep for these meetings? Are there two or three questions you always want answered on the first call, and others you’ve learned to leave until later?