Business partnerships are as easy as a marriage. Nuff said.

Wow. Don't need another one of that.

Sound management, key people you can trust, a business plan that is profitable and proven, financing available to cover cash needs while getting the second location going, and energy and desire on your part? Go for it!

I run a construction business and have only 3 very loyal employees. I can really grow it and clients with some business background with higher degrees from top universities have ask me if I need help growing my business. My answer was and is always no. Learned that from my dad who was in the jewelry business here in LA. He designed and made them one piece at a time by hand only. He's learn that bag of trick from the old country. I worked for him on and off since I was able to walk. He never wanted a partner. That was always more headaches more work to deal with and more employees. I, on the other hand, could really use another skill crafts person in our company so I can really take a load off two days out of the week. That person seem to be very difficult to find.

I love to see your store and the custom products you create someday. I missed making jewelries but don't miss the clients.

I got a two years on you, so my question for you is, are you willing to bust your ass and work double load to get this place off the ground for the next 2-5 years (maybe more)? What about your family? How do they feel about you working more hours? If it wasn't for my family and kids, I would have gone after commercial work, that means never sleep and never go home.

^^^ Good advice.

Remember what it was like when you opened your first location?

Can you afford to go without a paycheque or lend the company money?

It's better than opening a location. It was in business last week. People know where it is

Things in the jewelry trade have really changed in the last 10 years. I nearly quit 12 years ago and went into the car business and I'm glad I didn't. Instead I got more vested in it. I got cad/cam and took more trade clients in order to help make the money I felt I was missing. I bought an existing store from a couple mom n pop who wanted to retire. They also did one peice at a time and it worked for them in that location so I thought I could do better and I have. These days you can't hand carve everything. You need cad to compete. Or at least have a good cad company to take care of that. But I like the panache of doing it all in house. I do that. I use a cnc mill as well as a growing machine to make my designs into reality. My designs and no one else involved. But I needed help to get things done as I dowork for other stores as their cad designer and it was only me and another girl there who did all the paperwork, sales, errands, jewelry repairs, and books. She was spread thin and I was spread thin so I got another custom jeweler that I knew and was available so that I could design pieces and give them to her to finish. She's good and She frees up my time as well as my other girls time. It's a good fit. Now I can do more custom and repairs than I was doing which was quite a bit. But I did look at my fathers past as well.
My dad made mistakes. And his dad mad a few as well.
My dads mistakes were not all his fault. His first store, my grandpas store was in a small oil town did very well while oil was good in 1980 or so then when the oil prices went down the town dried up and he was struggling. He bought a little studio in a vacation town that did almost nothing off the main drag and that stained a little from him. Then he bought an existing store in a mall that sucked. That drained him of time and was hard to run and the original little town store supported that. So he had two low producing stores and too many employees. My sales are low because of the way things have changed in the last 5 years. I do way more custom now as my pricing is good. My turnaround quick. Have good rep for that. I'd like more sales and that new store dies that because of that location. My store that I have the tools could easily be a support store for a sales store.
So to reiterate, the new store was up n running last week. It's not exactly like starting a new business the same way my store was more about changing a business than starting one. Had I opened a brand new location Id be dead.
I wasn't looking for this opportunity, it was placed into my lap. But it does make sense. I'm still not sure I can make it work but I think its a good move. Wether I use a partner or not that's a hard one. I don't want to but if made to decide to or not I think I might. If terms were right.
My family, they don't care I don't think. My wife is supportive with what I think.
My concerns are about affording inventory for the store, partnership, and how quickly I could get a second hand buy and sell license. And operating capital.
I'm a little concerned about filling all hours with someone there too.