“Two acres near the expressway” is not a brief. It describes a picture in someone's head, not the conditions a site must meet for the business to work. A good brief is short, testable and honest about what is fixed and what can bend.
A one-page structure
- Purpose. What will happen on the site, in one sentence.
- Must-haves. Conditions without which the site fails: land and built-up area, power load, vehicle access, permitted use, possession date.
- Should-haves. Preferences you will trade off: distance from a particular point, frontage, expansion land.
- Tenure. Buy, lease, build-to-suit — and why.
- Budget basis. Total, per unit area, or rent — and what is included.
- Deal-breakers. Things that end the conversation: unresolved title, forest/PLPA land, no sanctioned power.
- Decision process. Who decides, what evidence they need, and by when.
Make each criterion testable
“Good access” becomes “a public road of at least the recorded width our trucks and permissions need.” “Industrial use” becomes “use permitted for our activity in the applicable plan or estate terms, evidenced by document.”
Why this saves time
A testable brief lets you reject most options on paper. Visits are then spent on sites that can genuinely work.