Legal advice for new venture

[xhale2007]

Hi Guys,

I would like to start a new venture to compliment my online store.

I would like to start running parties at peoples houses, of an adult nature. Similar to a leading company does.

Being a bloke, its not going to be me doing the parties, but i would like to pay a percentage of total sales to the seller.

I want it to work like this...

I will create catalogues containing all my stock and prices. Supply a starter kit which includes products and catalogues, plus a guide on how to run a party and things like order forms. (No upfront fee, but the cost taken out of first few sales as a percentage, so the seller still gets money from it)

The person who then buys the starter kit then finds people to host a party at their own home with friends.

The person then collects payments. Goes to a website I will create, and orders all the items ordered. I then send the items to them and they then take them to the party host.

I will then pay them a percentage of sales at the end of each month.

What things do i need to consider legally for this?

Thanks for your time

Dan

 

[xhale2007]

Just to add, the sellers would have to be self employed.

So they basically can just use my party trading name to sell stuff.

 

[xhale2007]

Anyone able to shed any light on what i need to adhere to, if anything extra to just running an online store?

 

[afphang]

As you are considering both an online e-commerce business as well as a sales and distribution business model, you will need to consider the following:

1. Proper e-commerce compliance with the Distance Selling REgulations whereby you will require proper e-commerce website terms and conditions in addition to the privacy policy terms and data protection terms that are needed for websites.

2. You will need to have a sales agreement/distribution agreement with the commissions set out for the third party sales agent properly set up before you start the business.

These are the two key legal issues that you will need to deal with immediately.

If you need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01865 339360 as we are a small niche commercial law firm that assists a number of online businesses and SMEs generally. We generally give a free 1-hour consultation and then a written proposal which is either fixed price or a monthly retainer.

Hope this helps.

Francesca Lee
Partner
Cresco Legal Solicitors
Prama House
267 Banbury Road
Oxford
01865 339360

 

[VeryMark]

The other point of course is to make sure that your trading name is checked out and protected from a trade mark perspective and that its use is covered in your agreement with sellers.

If you need further advice on this, let me know - all initial advice is free.