So, Ive worked for this sportscomplex that has a bouncezone (which is like a big moon bounce) and they offer birthday parties all the time. Well the owner found out about me making custom cakes and said they would market on their website for me..however, they said they would only cover cost of supplies for my cakes which im thinkin no way im giving up my time for absolutely no profit. Im thinking to charge just a base pay (since i guess their talking personal size cakes... I appretiate them wanting to market my name but I feel like their trying to promote THIER business more then trying to help me out, what would you do? just a base pay for each personal cake, or charge by slice or what would you do. I want the marketing opportunity but I dont want to be ripped off.... What do I do ?

Selling cakes to people you don't know could be cause for concern. If you are not a legal baker in your state, they could come after you if someone gets sick. I'd run from this offer....and actually I have. Someone offered me the same deal and I said that there was no way I could do that.

No. If you sell your cakes to him, then sell them for what you'd sell it to anyone else. He can mark it up or not. If you decide to do it, then you can look at it as free advertising, but how profitable will that be to you, if you're advertising to people who will be having their parties there? They MIGHT call you later, but who knows?

I'd tell him that you want to try it out for three months or so, selling the cakes to him full price and with a link to your site, then see how many people come to your site from his. If it does turn out to be a lot of traffic adn referrals then you can negotiate with him to reduce the price if you think the advertising is worth it. Make sure to ask people how they heard about you, too.

Yes they are trying to help out their business, as any retailer would, remember it is business not personal. They may have turned to you because you worked for them, but they did not do it out of concern for you. No matter what deal they strike, keep in mind their business is their principle concern.

Frankly it is hard to say what I would do because their is insufficient information. From what I gathered they are essentially proposing a trade (your time for their advertising). There is no way to determine whether this is a good deal. First I am not sure I understand the deal, so they offer parties, but does that mean if you want a party there you have to get the cake from them? Or do they only offer the option to get it from them? How popular is this place? How many parties do they get? If they do not require the party to buy the cake but only offer the option, how many people get the cake from them? Put another way how much time a month would you likely be trading for any advertising opportunity? How much traffic does their website get? How do they plan to advertise your business? Assuming no trade and that they sold advertising, how much would it cost to advertise on their site? Without knowing the answers to these questions it is impossible to say whether or not this is a good or bad trade.

Still it does not seem like a particularly good trade, the more popular this place is the more cakes you will be doing for them, so you will have less time for any new business you would get from the advertising. The less popular the place the fewer cakes you are doing, but the value of the advertising is also less and you can still end up trading a lot of time without seeing much value in terms of the advertising. If they will not buy from you wholesale, some of which you could negotiate in terms of advertising I would walk away.