A General post

[steve 1]

brett stay clear he makes money from you day 1 in rent your paying more rent working harder advertising for him spending 10 grand. i understand your concern that he may do it with someone else but anybody can open up at anytime thats just competition your established where you are just build on that mate

[daviddeer]

I have always given people a question to ask themselves when looking at any situation which is:
Does that sound right to you?
Looking at the deal from the proponents viewpoint.
1. I find a cheap vacant shop and rent it to you with my name over the door being able to sell the property when I like and get my money back (plus property value increase) when I need some cash
2. You pay me rent (which covers my mortgage), rates and insurance. maintenance, service charges
3. You find all the customers, pay for advertising, carry all the bad debts, deal with the customers, pay the accountant, inland revenue, customs and excise
4. You do all the work
5. You pay me £10,000
6. You give me a percentage of your sales
7. My commitment is; sell you my goods, let you use my name, allow you to rent space in my property until I sell it.

So. Does that sound right to you?

[GoonerGary]

That's it david. He's swallowed up the competition and you would need a lawyer to pick apart the contract. How about he gives you a £10,000 contract to do the work he sources?

[Andrew]

So your personalised business and what you currently do are not at risk? Does he get a cut of anything on this? Have I read it wrong (did skim over it)? So potentially, you would be taking a big step into embroidery with limited costs. I am sure you could get away with a lot less than 10k outlay on clothing. Is his name decent enough to help you get through the door for some potential contracts?

For you to have got excited and you other half not writing off the idea straightaway you obviously saw something more in this.

[logobear]

I don't see any real offer that you could not replicate from any trade embroiderer.
You do not place any value on his name.
You already have your own ESTABLISHED retail business.
You want to minimise your risk.
Go talk to ALL localish embroiderers and see what deal you can get from them. They should give you a rack full of samples and a margin, then it is up to you.
If it doesn't work, out goes the rack, and you put your stuff back there instead.
simples

[purpledragon]

Again thanks guys for all the input please understand i havnt included the full details of the offer mainly because it would be a post far too long but it was there in a nutshell. I dont want to villify the guy to be honest he has come to me with the offer i suppose he couldve just done it with someone fresh without giving me the chance. my side of the business wouldnt be at risk persay , the main issues as i see it would be
1. i would lose my name above the shop
2. id have to move shop and pay him rent which would be a couple hundred quid a month more.
3. id have to fill it with stock embroidered by him but paid for by me
4 id have to get the sales ( well thats normal anyway)
5. his name isnt that famous or i dont think so anyway there are firms locally who after a bit of research seem to have the school trade pretty much sorted so id have to lure them away and come to me.

To my mind theres nothing he has offered that i probably couldnt find on this forum im sure theres plenty of embroiderers on here which would give me trade prices (inbox me any quotes lol) so after much consideration over this and when i break it down i cant honestly see a good reason to take this guys offer it may be a huge mistake or it could be the wisest move . One things for certain its made me look at my own business which to be honest is struggling (im sure we all are in some way) its a shame really i have a huge shop and is well under used i think i need to consider where i can go from this point .
The Dragons not quite ready to move caves yet but im wondering if he could use some company !!!!!

again thanks for the advice its nice to bounce off others something i dont really have here in the non internet world

[pisquee]

One things for certain its made me look at my own business which to be honest is struggling (im sure we all are in some way) its a shame really i have a huge shop and is well under used i think i need to consider where i can go from this point .

Turn the tables on him, and say he can move stock his embroidered goods in your existing store. You then have a few ways of making money out of him - rental for space in your store, commission on items sold etc.

[phoenixalpha]

It sounds like this guy is trying to muscle you in to become his biatch. You do all the work, you put up all the money, you take all the risk. He gets all the profit.

He sounds like he's saying join me and work for me, or I'll put you out of business by having someone come in and do the same stuff but with my semi recognised name above the door.

Sounds like a hiding to nothing. If he is in a win win situation, someone is in a lose lose situation and I'm afraid that person is you by the sounds of it. He's trying to muscle you out when he has no need to as you seem to do differing stuff from him (ie embroidery for local schools etc).

Personally if it was me, I'd walk away and tell him politely where to stick his offer. Then I'd start noseying about for local school embroidery contracts - if they are so lucrative, why not try and squeek a few quid out of it. Do a few for local schools at no profit, just as a promotional thing and then try and reel them in. Outsource the work originally if you can, and then if it takes off step up to embroidering your own stuff. I understand that the profit margins on embroidery are quite good but the initial outlay on equipment makes it prohibitive unless you have lotsa cash to splash.

[Stitch Up]

........... and along comes Tesco, moves into the school uniform market and sell at a loss to get mums & dads through the door. Whose left exposed?

I'd kick him out the net time he comes into your shop

[RogerC]

Apart from all the foregoing comments I would be thinking how long to recoup the £10k outlay and then the ongoing rent. The guy offering you the 'deal' looks to be the winner in this 'offer'. Also being in his premises would put you at a disadvantage because 'if' he decides in future to increase his prices to you (reducing your margins or forcing you to increase your prices) and you don't agree he holds all the cards.......increased prices to you...increases the rent etc etc. In a nutshell it looks like a very one sided deal.

If he is so sure of his product maybe you could offer to promote/sell his goods from your existing place and see how it works out. A 6 to 12 month trial would soon tell if it is viable.