First, regarding creating the global platform for selling internationally..  it was mentioned that fulfillment houses could be set up internationally for distributing products.  I was always under the impression that there needed to be a domestic importer of record for this to be possible.  Is a US business able to setup non-US fulfillment houses?  If so, how / where are taxes paid? 

Second, I have tried using affilliate marketing for my products (via Share-a-sale), and it has been very unsuccessful.  Did you seek out specific affiliates that had a captive audience consisting of your target demographic?  I had an outside affilliate management company attempt to recruit and manage this process, and it was still very unsuccessful.  Any tips you could share?

Lastly, how do retail sales fit into your automated business model?  Most of our sales are generated online, but we do still have a fair amount of small independent pet stores that carry our products.  By and large, supporting the retail sales are much more work per dollar gained, but I have always been under the impression that leveraging a retailer base is a more scalable model that could result in significantly higher revenues.  Currently, the small retailers have not resulted in significant sales, but the thinking is that they are establishing market validation that can be used when approaching big box retailers that are definitely more capable of driving volume.

Perhaps you answer these questions in future episodes (to which I’ll soon tune in..), but if not, you’re feedback would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks for the great podcast!  Looking forward to hearing more..