I am about to embark on my first role as a sales agent for a  maternity clothing company based in asia whom are new to the UK market. I have researched my market and  know alot of people/ companies  to approach ,  and i have  ordered and sold the clothing line that i will represent in the past and the feedback has been really good from customers so i have confidence in the quality and style of the products. 

Now a couple of questions:

 In my experience of ordering products (clothing) the vast majority of companies have either made me pay for samples which i can there after keep /  or have sent me brochures only and offer a return policy if i dont like their items once i have ordered. What is other peoples experience's ? Obviously i wanna sell as much as possible but i can't travel the UK to promote the goods ( i work part-time and run a  Ebay store at the moe), but i can send the samples / brochures out and talk to clients about the clothes etc. Would this be sufficient?

Minimum orders, are they a good or bad thing? So many companies offer differing minimum orders from not having one to the most i've seen was £2000.  From research i think the average seams to be A larger first order then you can re-order as and when you need extra items . I think there are alot of smaller retailers which are detered by minimum orders and is it best to take any order you can get when you are a start-up company?

Lastly do many sales reps become distributors too? The company really needs a UK distributor because all items are in Asia and people i think are put off by importing goods sometimes especially when the major competitiors all have stock within the UK and customers dont have to wait long for deliveries ,   i am willing to be a ditributor  but wanna be paid for this . I will be receiving 15% commision for my sales but if i distributed the goods too how much more is this worth?

can anyone advise ?

Thanks liz.