Material business in place before November (5)
I believe the answer is:
linen
'material' is the definition.
(I know that linen is a type of material)
'business in place before november' is the wordplay.
'business' becomes 'line' (as in someone's line of work).
'in place before' says to put letters next to each other (some letters go before others).
'november' becomes 'N' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'line'+'n'='LINEN'
(Other definitions for linen that I've seen before include "Flax yarn" , "Sheets, pillowcases etc" , "underwear" , "Spun fibres of flax" , "Type of cloth" .)