Director Consultant in Uganda | Diplomat with the UN | Opportunity for Westerners

[cookingwithlove]

Okay, I met this great woman tonight. She is a diplomat with the UN in Uganda. She does not have an APO/FPO address, but there are many people she knows that do. She said there are a ton of people (westerners) there who would love our stuff, but there is nothing accessible for them. Her parents live in Oregon. She really wants to do this and has a party scheduled at the end of the month. She is not worried about finding hosts in Uganda, but her issue is that she does not live on "American Soil". Can she keep an Oregon address and still do this business there? I wish I would get "easy" recruits, but they all have some hurdle it seems. Is there anyway we can work through this. She is so excited to do it.

 

[Chef Kearns]

I think you should call HO. They will be the ones to know for sure. I would call your Sales Manager, if you know who it is.

 

[Sheila]

She herself would not be able to be a consultant, since she doesn't have a US mailing address. Anyone with an APO/FPO address can order the items, but the military people are restricted from accepting mail for others. So the your lead would have no way of (legally) getting shipments from PC (products and/or supplies) since PC does not do international mail. And unless she paid import taxes, she would not be allowed to sell to the locals, it would be a custom's violation.If she found a way to work around the shipping issues (she was willing to have everything shipped to a stateside address & then pay the international shipping rates to have that person forward the boxes AND pay the import/customs fees on the items) ... none of her local non-military customers would have warranties! Since she would basically be doing cash & carry, she'd have to keep major records on who bought what when & then do all the international shipping again for warranty replacements. I imagine it would be too costly to make it worth her while.

 

[Sheila]

And I'm guessing she'd have to pay some sort of income tax to Uganda too. Not sure what their laws are.

 

[cookingwithlove]

What if she kept her Oregon address as her consultant address and did shows with hosts at APO addresses in Uganda? Would this work? Or am I really in blurry area of ethics?

 

[Sheila]

I think she would be in a blurry area. She'd be falsifying the contract by giving incorrect information.And she'd have road blocks ... how would she get catalogs & order forms from her Oregon address to her Uganda address? She'd have to send all her customers online to shop unless she wanted to pay a fortune in international shipping rates to get the catalogs from Oregon to Uganda.What about her Incentives? She'd probably be paying to have those mailed to her too.If she's not SOFA status, with a military address, she'd probably have to contact the local government to see if she needed some sort of business license and/or pay local taxes for her income.I actually had a UN employee in Europe talking to me about signing a couple of years ago. Her hubby was military, so she did have a military mailing address. But her boss told her NO - that as a UN employee, she could not do that. Not sure if it was his policy or some sort of rule world wide.

 

[Chef Kearns]

This is just speculation. You really need to ask the rule Makers. Let us know what they say!

 

[cookingwithlove]

I did call My Sales Director, but I have not heard back yet. I feel that we are blurring the lines too. She is just so excited and it is infectious!