I used to own a small business, that eventually failed, so I might qualify: You look for a product to sell (retail or otherwise) that brings in good profits, ideally for little input. Classic success stories are hot dog stands, classic failures are small bookshops and model shops! Glassed gliders are to me a bad choice of product as any irregularity is easily seen, while foamies are excellent, as the latter kits are relatively easy to make (cheap infrastucture), there is no supplied surface that even a nim-com-poop can critizise. Make a good model through good prototyping, turn it into a simple, sturdy kit and then add a good manual and your in the money, I am sure. Great Planes are typical, as is Daves Aircraft Works. The road to success for glassed gliders, like the Muller range, is so much longer and the investment so much bigger. The gamble is higher, and the prices has to likewise be higher! If it fails it fails terribly, if a foamie kit manufacturer fails, like BASH, we hardly notice! Moulded kits is even more dangerous! So if you find a product, whether aircraft kit or charger, that is simple to make (gives reasonable profits) and that is in high demand due to their good characteristics I would stick to that. If I expanded I'd loose quality control and customer input - I personally would hate that! Maule seems to have gotten those figures right, as did Mr Pitts for a number of years, if we look into full-size aircraft. WACO disappeared, and many other makes of glassed gliders, persumably from too small profit margins - or having earnings elsewhere that overshadowed the joys and despairs of company ownership and production! Even among EPP kit makers there are survivors and dropouts, even if the breakeven point must be far lower EPPs than for moulded kits! Yours, Tord S Eriksson www.tord.nu PS Just inspected my latest DAW kit - awsome! RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
