u/CocoBiz203

Because of outrageous lease prices, two other businesses and myself plan to share a retail space. A hand made natural skin care brand, a plant shop and my bookstore. The other two are decently established and are having good turn outs to events so I feel like this is the safest place to launch my little book and stationery store. I have one major hold up and that’s the fact that they share a Square POS system. We want the purchase process to be streamlined for customers. But if they’re buying something from all of us and we’re using the skin care brands POS system, how’s that tracked? Who pays the taxes? We’ve got a meeting planned next week but getting outside opinions will help me feel a little more prepared going into the meeting.

I was talking to a local business owner whose current building is for sale. She’s trying to lease a larger building but, as a small biz herself, is nervous about taking on that responsibility as the rent is almost double what she pays now. She asked if I would be interested in basically renting a space inside her building with one other small business. In total it would be a plant shop, an apothecary and my bookstore, I’m unsure of sq ft. On one hand, it would be a safer launch spot for my business as they are fairly established already but on the other hand, I know businesses and relationships can go wonky quick. Im looking for advice for or against jumping off into this as I’ve never ran a business before.