Bit of advice for an amateur

[phanatical]

Hello all,

I'm a Sydney-based composer and marketing consultant, and I'm looking at starting a studio in Sydney (Australia) that would cater to the composition and classical music community here. I'm currently a partner, and Sales and Marketing Manager for a music and entertainment group, and the studio concept is borne from our tertiary training as composers, and a desire to grow our composition and performance services. Specifically, we're looking to professionally record original music, and send mastered CD's all over the world - commissioned original compositions for weddings and so on. Such a facility will also stead our composers in a much better position to create original music for television and radio, ideally composing soundtracks for film.

The idea of a recording and mastering facility (2 studios) with attached music tuition rooms is an attractive one to me, and I am willing to consider a budget of approximately $350000 to $400000 including the fitout of a location. In $US, that's approximately US$320-360000.

But my skills lie firmly outside the realms of audio engineering (I can USE a mixing desk, but my former classmates are FAR more proficient in their use, and we'd have a professional Production girl on staff). So I'd welcome any thoughts and questions that could guide me towards a better understanding of what I'm actually getting myself into here. Considering our needs, what sort of equipment will the facility require (and what sort of budget am I looking at), how much of my budget I should spend on fit out, and any other sort of pertinent questions.