Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi there, I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, so apologies if not!

I’m in need of some advice as I’ve been offered a profit share in a business and don’t know where to start when it comes to negotiating rates and what would be considered fair.

Here is some background:

The company is building an online application (already well progressed) for businesses.

I will provide the following expertise:

• Providing User Experience Testing and Feedback to help the engineers polish the tool
• Developing ‘Unique Selling Points’ for marketing messages and other promotional / informative content
• Help to write/develop knowledge guides, FAQs and supporting documentation and content for the tool

I will not be providing coding, engineering, infrastructure or other services. My main focus will be on user experience, testing and creating supporting guides.

The business owner has offered me a profit share and has said ‘Name your terms’, he will then review my offer and I imagine we will negotiate from there.

I will produce a request for information from the business owner and will ask for the following:

- Projected turnover and profit, year by year
- Price point for the product
- Evidence of his other business successes
- When will this product be launching?
- How soon does he expect to turn a profit?
- Will I get shares in the business or just a profit share?

I have three main questions:

1. What other information should I be asking for to help me make a choice?

2. On what should I base my request for profit share?

3. What is a good starting point in terms of negotiations?

I should stress that I know this may be risky, but I also want to be realistic in terms of what I could earn, and clearly if the product does well, I would want to do well too.

Any advice would be *very* much appreciated!