I think it's also important to consider how long you'd have to sustain it. Is it possible to reduce the frequency of your daily visits in X months (after being present long enough to understand the business, and get a good system for managing it well)?

Previously, my partners and I acquired an ecommerce business with warehouse operations approx 1.5-2hrs away. It was grueling. I would've never committed to it if I had to do that commute alone, but luckily we had a team of 3 that made that daily commute together.

When we made the decision to complete the acquisition, we set a goal to shutdown the manual operations of the warehouse within 6-12 months, by moving all operations to a third party logistics provider + moving all associates to full remote work.

We ended up completing the transition in 6 months. That first morning of waking up and not having to drive 90 minutes at 6am was glorious.

For a manufacturing business, how involved is the current owner, and how feasible is it that there is someone you could empower to manage operations when you're not present?

I bet those 90 min drives with the 3 of you built memories for a lifetime! Great thoughts here - really appreciate your thoughts and considerations of how to forecast out your schedule of being onsite.