What should I check before buying a pottery studio?

A pottery studio looks simple from the front counter: wheels, shelves, a few kilns and a room of people making things. Behind it sits a mix of income streams and equipment that you need to understand before you commit. A buyer who treats it like any other class business can miss what keeps the place running. These checks focus on what is different about clay.

How the studio earns

Ask for revenue split by stream: memberships, wheel and hand-building classes, firing services for outside makers, open-studio time, birthday and group events, and any retail. Each behaves differently. Memberships can be steady, while classes depend on term starts. Ask which streams are growing and which rely on a few regulars. Your accountant can help you read the statements side by side.

Who teaches and who stays

Find out whether the owner teaches, and how much of the schedule falls to them. Meet the instructors if the seller allows it. Ask whether they are employees or contractors, how they are paid and whether any of them would leave with the owner. A studio that depends on one person’s teaching is a different purchase from one with a bench of trained instructors, much like the questions in what to check before buying a dance studio.

Stock, kilns and equipment

List what is included: clay on hand, glazes, tools, wheels, shelving, and the kilns. Ask who owns each kiln, how old it is, how it has been maintained and what the last repairs involved. If anything is leased or financed, find out whether that agreement can pass to you. Put the list in the purchase agreement so there is no confusion on closing day.

Members, records and the lease

Ask how members and class registrations are tracked, whether the booking system and member list come with the sale, and whether people hold prepaid passes or unfired work. Read the lease with your lawyer before you rely on the location. The BDC due diligence guide gives a useful general order of work.