Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Ok, here it goes.

Basically I'm in a partnership with a small manufacturer of a product.  I do the selling as sole retailer, they do the producing, pretty simple.  They give me a wholesale price, I then take it and ship it (I pay for shipping).

Right now, my job is to invest in the marketing and selling of the product.  I'm making the website and doing work on the copy, getting ready to advertise and write articles in directories to get our product noticed and doing the logo.

The partner is right now responsible for getting the product ready, paying for the initial packaging, the labeling, and paying for the printed "manual" that will go inside the package.

My situation is that once I am able to sell a certain amount of units of product they will give me a percentage of the ownership of the product.  The company will then form and then real business ensues.  But we are both independent entities at the moment.

This is an odd situation I think so I have some questions for those more experienced in this kind of work:

1.  Once I do sell the required units how much of an ownership stake should I expect to ask for considering I was the one doing the marketing and selling?

2.  Do i really need to be making a logo for these guys and if I am and am the only one paying for it to get done, should I have ultimate say on how it is done?  And if I am the one making the logo without getting paid for it, do I own that logo?

3.  Considering that we are independent entities, I bought the website and will take ownership of the copy on the website, even though I sell their product, I do own it right?  And should my partners really be telling me how to market it?

 

I'm interested to see your answers.

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