What are the implication of buying a small Business that has 7 part time employees?

There are a couple of questions you need to ask the business owner:

- what sort of contracts are in place?

- how much are they paid?

- what job do they do and has it been documented with how they do it, what materials they use, the process etc.?

- are the staff flexible with their hours?

- would he be willing to make them all redundant in order to sell the business to you? i.e. would you refuse to take on the business with these employees

- are they good employees?

7 seems an awful lot of part-timers and would suggest that a lot of time could be being wasted with handovers and duplication of work.

If they've been employees for 5 years, there's an unwritten contract. Employment law protects employees on the transfer of an undertaking, which means that they are protected when someone else takes over the business.

Speak to your local CAB. They're very good on this sort of thing.

Good luck!

You are obliged to employ them under the same terms and conditions as the previous owner.

You need a reason to fire them so you will have to carry on employing them.