Clara's Window

OK, so since I've got your attention (updating one's blog every month has a way of drawing the eye...), here's a question for you:

Say you had two businesses. OK three. Four, really. An online magazine. An online retail boutique. A wholesale business. And in the summer, a physical gift shop in a teeny tiny town with a lovely but geographically limited customer base.

(This is purely hypothetical, mind you!)

Say you had an opportunity to locate them all in one large space in a very good commercial location in a larger tourist town. Your physical rent would be increased by almost 300 percent, but you'd have larger square footage for the retail operation, and you could be open longer than you currently are.

It'd be a huge step, and an even greater risk. On a good day, you could consider it the key to your future success. On a bad day, the root of your downfall.

Would you do it?

Any MBAs out there?