Should I take on a business partner?
Short answer
Only if they bring something you can't (money, skill, customer base) and you have a written agreement covering divorce, death, and disagreement.
The honest question
What does this person bring that you can't buy? If the answer is 'company', hire a friend to grab lunch with. If the answer is real money or a skill set you'd take years to build, talk further.
Get it in writing
Operating agreement with a buy-sell clause. What happens if one of you wants out. What happens if one of you dies. What happens if you disagree on a major decision. Done by an attorney, not a template.
Ask your version of this question
This is one business owner-tested take. Your shop size, trade, and team change the answer. Ask the exact version inside Ask a Shop Owner and get a response grounded in how owners like you actually handled it.
Now run it against your numbers.
This answer is written for shops in general. Inside Ask a Shop Owner it becomes your answer: your revenue, your crew, your market, your history. Ask "Should I take on a business partner" and get the version that accounts for what you already told us.
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