Sequence the sale so the proceeds are documented and available when the funds must be committed, but do not liquidate everything before the purchase terms are settled. Conditional escrow can bridge the two.
Commit the money once the terms are fixed
Hypothetical example: a Grand Bay-Westfield contractor auctions his fleet in the spring, then spends four months negotiating the U.S. purchase while the proceeds sit in his savings account. He has ended his Canadian income, and the money is not at risk because he can still spend it on anything.
Reversing that order is safer: settle the purchase and operating agreements, fix the closing conditions, then run the auction against a known closing date. Where the seller wants certainty, an escrow whose release conditions are outside the buyer's control can hold funds in a way consistent with the at-risk requirement, while a deposit the buyer may reclaim at will is not. Build in time for the marginality evidence too, since a season's contracted work is more persuasive assembled early than requested during adjudication.