new business help!

[lucyshandbag]

i am currently considering going into partnership to open a beauty and holistic salon. however, now there is a third party interested and i'm not sure that it would be worth while spliting the profits 3 ways, but then on the other hand, that would mean 3 people to help raise the money to open the business. does anybody have any experience in this or any ideas on it. what should i do?

thnks

[joko]

looking at it simply, the more people you have the bigger the premises you can afford, and therefore the more treatments you can offer.

you also have cover if you are away and the stress the divided into 3 rather than 2

one problem i can see is location - this is big business now and new salons appear all over the place - there are three in my street alone, so the more money, the more choosy you can be and you also have the business skills and back up of 2 others in case you run into problems.

just make sure EVERYTHING is on paper and agreed to, as being partners with friends can be more problematic that with strangers - liberties are taken

[WendyS]

I can understand you wanting to work for yourself but you will need to do the sums very carefully, especially if you don't have a great deal of business experience. With the economy currently in downturn and people having less disposable income, opening a new business in the "luxury" sector right now could be a very risky thing, as when people have to make cutbacks, luxury items, (beauty, cosmetics, etc) are some of the first things they cut from their budgets. If your business is new, it will probably take a long time to get established and if you don't have adequate financial reserves you will soon be in dififculty, especially if you have taken out a long lease, because if business starts to fail, you will still have to meet the lease costs and other overheads. Sorry to sound pessimistic but with the current state of the economy it may not be a case of splitting the profit 2 or 3 ways, but having 2 or 3 people to bail the business out. I wish you well, but wonder whether you could delay starting this venture until the economy is on a more sound footing and in the meantime, try soliciting business on a free-lance / part time basis to get a feel for how much business is currently out there.