Some start up questions

[stijn]

Hello everyone,

I will soon be starting a company which provides free school supplies such as pens, cup holders, post-it notes etc to university students.

I'm in the midst of planning and writing up a letter of intent which sort of outlines the terms and conditions of our partnership (between my company and universities).

I've already written down quite a few "clauses" to be included but I need help in phrasing these clauses so it is more appropriate.

Also I need advices on what clauses to include for use of logo. For example the printed cup holders will have Organized by: Our company logo and Supported by : The university logo. What kind of clauses should I include to get approval for the use of their logo etc.

I'm wondering if there's anyone or any website which provides such services?

Hope you guys can help me out..

Thanks for reading!

Best regards,
Jin

[Bugman]

I've never heard of such a company. Why would you want to do this? Why not give them pocket knives or watches or something useful?

[zkharas]

Like the poster above, Im a little bit confused.
I can't really answer those specific questions, but maybe you should clarify for us:

Are you putting your own company's logos on the pens, etc ?

OR

Are you planning to sell advertising space on the free pens, pads, etc that you give away? I think that would be the only way to generate any revenue if you are giving the merchandise away for free. That would be a decent idea if you could convince companies to pay you to put their logo on free stuff. In fact its quite a brilliant idea considering there are thousands of college students and students would gladly take free stuff like this and you then have a great market for the advertisers. However the only way this works is if you buy a pen for $0.50 and generate ad revenue of $1.00 per pen.

[Bugman]

Like the poster above, Im a little bit confused.
I can't really answer those specific questions, but maybe you should clarify for us:

Are you putting your own company's logos on the pens, etc ?

OR

Are you planning to sell advertising space on the free pens, pads, etc that you give away? I think that would be the only way to generate any revenue if you are giving the merchandise away for free. That would be a decent idea if you could convince companies to pay you to put their logo on free stuff. In fact its quite a brilliant idea considering there are thousands of college students and students would gladly take free stuff like this and you then have a great market for the advertisers. However the only way this works is if you buy a pen for $0.50 and generate ad revenue of $1.00 per pen.

And if college students are anyone's target market. Bars and clubs I suppose.

[2gould]

Sounds like a nonprofit enterprise to me. To the OP, more details would be helpful in answering your question; however, if you are seeking advice regarding drafting contracts etc, I would suggest contacting an attorney. At the very least have an attorney review what you have drafted before you submit the contract to the universities. Good luck!

[ChrisChiSTL]

Hey StiJn.

Maybe this will help:
Washington University Campus Store: Buy Washington University - St. Louis College Apparel, Textbooks & Gifts: efollett.com

It's the website to the college I just graduated from, and I know that they get plenty of business. If you call them and tell them to direct you to the management and just say that you are an entrepreneur (possibly from wash-u ), I'm sure they will answer any question that you have: here is their number. (314) 935-5500

As for the clauses, I'm sorry I can't help you out. I have no idea about that kind of stuff. I wish you luck. Way to be an entrepreneur, let me know how everything goes!

Chris Chi

[stijn]

Woah, thanks for the response guys!

Sorry for being unclear on my posting. My plan is just like what zkharas said, providing pens, post-it notes, cup holders and other practical school supplies that is co-branded with sponsor messages.

For example: Free co branded "Pepsi" branded pens then I also want to possibly include a line like "Organized by: My company logo" Supported by: University logo" to let the students know this initiative is supported by universities as well. In the pens I can embed free coupons etc.

My approach was collaboration with universities instead of distributing them "outside" so the school supplies can be distributed in events such as open house, orientations etc.

I haven't been in talks with them(universities) yet but I wanted to be fully prepared before meeting with them, which is why I wanted a letter of intent or just a write up of terms and conditions in terms of my company partnering with university.

I don't want to present them with something and they goes "Okay, whats the terms and conditions etc" and I goes "um.. I haven't prepared that yet"

As I'm still a student and it's my very first start up, I have rather limited budget. I needed advice and help on writing clauses for the agreement of my company's collaboration with the university.

I'm wondering if there's a most cost efficient way of doing this as I've checked with my local attorney - talking with them is already very costly

I may not even need someone who is certified in legal matters. Just someone who is experience enough to phrase my wording into more appropriate ones.

Thanks again guys!

Kind regards,
Jin

[inle]

hi..
I am into marketing & I hope I can help you your sales to help you kick start..

pls let me know if you need help ya..

as for your contract, the best bet will be to get the lawyers to look & draft it out for you..

[mgandy]

Hi Jin,

The business sounds like an interesting concept but I am a little unclear on how you would make money from this. Sounds to me like your simply passing out promotional items and if this is the case how would you track your results.

Thanks,

Mike