Buying a specialty retail shop in South Florida

• A clear reason to come in that a big online seller can't copy: expert advice, fitting, a carefully chosen selection, repairs or events.
• Brands the shop is authorized to carry in its area, under vendor agreements that can pass to a buyer.
• Inventory that sells at full price, with few markdowns and little old stock.
• A good location at a rent sales can support, with enough time and renewal options left on the lease.
• A customer list and loyalty program the shop is allowed to keep using after a sale.
• An online store or social following that adds sales without depending on the owner's personal profile.
• Staff who know the products and the regulars by name.

• Inventory value. Count it at closing and value it at cost, discounting or leaving out anything more than a season or two old. Find out what's on consignment and belongs to someone else.
• Gift cards and store credit. Customers will expect you to honor what's outstanding, so agree with the seller on who bears that cost.
• The lease. Rent as a share of sales, years left, renewal options, any planned redevelopment, and whether the landlord will agree to transfer the lease to you.
• Vendor terms. Confirm key brands will keep selling to a new owner, and ask about open orders already placed for next season.
• The seasons. Look at sales month by month for several years, including a slow summer and any hurricane closures.
• The seller's unpaid taxes. Buying more than half of a business, its assets or its inventory can make you liable for the seller's unpaid state taxes, up to the price or the value, whichever is greater (section 213.758). Get a certificate of compliance from the Department of Revenue before closing, and ask your attorney about holding back part of the price.

• Which brands or categories bring in the most profit, and which are fading?
• How do you decide what to buy each season, and who helps you?
• What share of sales comes from regulars, tourists and online?
• How did the shop do last summer compared with the winter?
• Which vendors would need to approve a new owner, and have you asked them?
• Why do customers tell you they shop here instead of online?
• How many hours a week do you spend on the floor, and who runs things when you're away?

South Florida covers Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties: Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter, and the Florida Keys down to Key West. It's the state's largest metro area and its most international. PortMiami, Port Everglades and Miami International Airport tie the region to Latin America and the Caribbean, which supports a deep base of wholesalers, freight forwarders and logistics firms, many of them near the airport. Tourism and cruises, finance and wealth management, health care, real estate and construction carry much of the rest. Palm Beach County adds wealthy seasonal residents and, out west near Lake Okeechobee, sugarcane and vegetable farms. In the Keys, nearly everything turns on visitors, fishing and boating.

Companies that serve homes, condo buildings and other businesses do well here: the building trades, property services, insurance agencies, medical and dental practices, and professional firms.

Costs run high: commercial rent, wages and, above all, property and windstorm insurance. Price the insurance before you make an offer, not after. Miami-Dade and Broward make up the Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, with stricter rules for roofs, windows and structures. That raises building costs, and it also gives steady work to the contractors who know those rules well.

Much of the workforce and many customers speak Spanish as well as English, and a company that works well in both languages has an edge. The winter season matters more in Palm Beach County and the Keys than in Miami. In the Keys, the cost of housing makes hiring and keeping staff one of the hardest parts of running a company. Ask any seller there how they find workers and where those workers live.