Advice to International Sales Distributors

My son's www.rcsailcars.com business has developed over a hundred
distributors who believe that drop-ship is the future; as do we. It is the
most logical way to start cutting out the middlemen and go directly from
manufacturer to end user.

Fine.

But, with innovation come problems that must be hurdled. The first one to
raise it's ugly head has to do with international commerce. My son's site is
spread across the world and suddenly people that never even imagined a
remote controlled sailboat with wheels, is now shown a most exciting and
innovative sport/hobby that they want to own. So they go to eBay or our
site, or wherever, and begin the process to buy one.

The sailing has not been smooth! We have cried real tears and mopped real
sweat from our foreheads as we are learning to navigate these new rivers.
The first was money, but that has been solved through Paypal. The next was
freight, and that was solved through the US Postal Service (Highly
recommended!!!). The last hurdle will be illustrated in a copy of my note to
our dealers and distributors:

This note is not just for RCWindjammer(tm) transactions, but for any
international business.

We have shipped the RCWindjammer(tm) to South Africa, New Zealand, the UK,
Germany, Switzerland and Israel. Please let your customers know that their
country customs people will be charging all kinds of taxes and paperwork
fees to import anything from the US.

There is nothing more distressing than to see a great product held or
destroyed by customs because the buyer did not have enough money to pay the
Value Added, or Import Duties, or paperwork transaction fees.

Our shipping has been two to four day United States Postal, and the package
invariably arrives at the country of destination, and then languishes
through the mire of bureaucratic bungling anywhere from 5 days to 5 weeks to
the utter dismay of our/your customers.

The RCWindjammer(tm) is a large package that weighs only 10 pounds and thus
the only affordable way to ship is by US Postage Air. To ship with a
tracking number it would cost four to five times the shipping cost because
then the charges are for comparable weight to volume ratios. So insurance is
one option, but if insured, the recipient must be home to sign for it and
many times this is a real challenge. So please let your customers know that
international shipping must be handled with precision, care and caution.

Again, my offer to help any startup business at no cost, no fee, no hidden
goodies. I wrote the Intensive Entrepreneurial Training manual for the
California Colleges and the Small Business Development Centers and is
available at: http://home.att.net/~empresario/Index.htm

Lyle, CEO of RCSailcars, is now working on a half sized model that will be
packaged in a much smaller box and sell for maybe half the cost of today's
full sized RCWindjammer(tm). Let us know if you would be interested in
learning more about this new model to be on the market in three or four
months.

Again, this message is being sent blind copy to our dealers and wholesalers
around the world. Please forgive me if you receive it more than once since
some companies are on more than one database.

Wayne
Dir. Ops.
www.rcsailcars.com