Reading a security business listing like an expert

Turn the claims into questions you can settle

Decode a security business listing by matching revenue, contracts, permissions, people and profit to named records.

For buyers 13 pages 10-minute read Updated Oct 2026

Who this guide is for

For buyers considering a security business. Use it to separate a listing's claims from the documents that support them.

What you will take from it

  • Separate guarding, maintenance and installation income before comparing businesses.
  • Check signed current terms, company approval and individual licences as different records.
  • Use the two-page decoder to record findings and the next question.

What is inside

  1. What work earns the turnover?
  2. What does recurring mean here?
  3. Whose approval covers which work?
  4. What happens when the owner leaves?
  5. What is behind the profit?

The tool: security listing decoder

A two-page fillable worksheet for listing claims, possible meanings, document requests, verified findings and next questions.

It comes as its own file as well as a page of the guide.

Two pages from the guide

Page 6 of the guide
Page 6 of 13
Page 10 of the guide
Page 10 of 13

Get the guide

Tell us who you are and the guide opens on this page, with the security listing decoder as its own file.

PDF 13 pages 592 KB

Your details go to Simon Read's team at Security Business Sales. We do not sell them or share them for marketing. Privacy policy.

Simon Read

Prepared by Simon Read

Founder & Managing Director, Reads Advice Partners Ltd

Simon founded Reads M&A Advisory to specialise in trades such as HVAC, electrical, fire safety and facilities management, and has spent many years selling businesses to independent buyers, trade companies and private equity-backed groups across the UK.

Updated Oct 2026. The Autumn Budget is scheduled for Oct 2026, and we review every guide after it.

Start with a free first conversation: 01285 704466. Meet the team.

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