Why Don’t Cities Appreciate Our Home Businesses?
You start a business making gift baskets, and your enterprise does a lot more good than harm in your region. It:
With all of this goodness, and much more that I haven’t mentioned here, why don’t cities bring their home-based business rules up to speed with the way people make money today?
Everyone doesn’t work in a traditional office, and some of us would rather not. I can understand that there must be rules for people who work at home, but it seems that many cities don’t want to know you work there or, if they find out, they immediately want you to stop.
I’ve often said in my classes that we don’t hurt children or animals, and we’re not employing or exploiting minors or illegal residents. Our deliveries don’t clog up the roadways anymore than orders that arrive to people receiving items from home shopping shows.
So what’s the problem? Can we be allowed to make gift baskets that foster good business and goodwill between people without the threat of cease-and-desist letters?
I discuss this situation in depth in the book, How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business, which includes methods to persuade city officials to let you conduct business from the comfort of your home.
What’s going on in your city? Is your business embraced, or do you have to keep your location under wraps?
Are Wines and Alcohol in Your Gift Basket?
There were lots of discussions about problems that cause legal headaches during yesterday’s Q&A portion of my Philadelphia Gift Show gift basket seminar.
One retailer told us about her dismay when adding a bottle of alcohol to a gift basket that was brought to her by the customer. While she didn’t buy it, she was still part of a lawsuit due to its consumption.
This is a subject discussed in the past at Ask The Gift Basket Expert and one that will always be part of the industry because of our desire to satisfy customers while attempting to keep our businesses out of the court system.
I’ve often been asked by new designers about the parameters of adding wines and alcohol to gift baskets. While it’s widely known that buying and adding it if you don’t have a liquor license is prohibited, I hear other questions such as, “Can the customer bring the wine to me?”
This ongoing dilemma and similar concerns are the reason why I spoke with small business attorney, Robin Gronsky, on the CD Legal Tips to Keep Your Company out of Court.
It’s wise to know your city’s and state’s laws about liquor, and only you can research this by calling the proper officials.
What wine and alcohol questions do you have about adding either to your gift baskets?
When I Receive An Attorney’s Letter, I…
In the book, How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business, there’s a mock letter in chapter three from an attorney that states you are using the same name for your business as another firm that has trademarked the name.
The letter continues by demanding that you stop using the name and shred everything in your possession with that name, and it’s all to be done within a certain period of time.
That’s just one type of letter that can end an otherwise great day, and designers worldwide can tell you about other types of attorney demands that they’ve received in the past.
This problem is one of the reasons I spoke with attorney at law, Robin Gronsky, and recorded the conversation on the CD Legal Tips to Keep Your Company Out of Court. Robin continues to be a source of assistance to me as I operate my business.
What if you’ve not retained legal counsel to handle such letters? When you receive an attorney’s letter, it’s a situation that’s best not addressed on your own.
You may hope that the problem goes away or think you cannot afford legal advice, and you could be right. But are you willing to sacrifice all of your hard work?
In the late 1990s, I can recall traveling to New York City for months as I navigated my way through Manhattan courtrooms. It’s not fun.
Legal counsel did not accompany me to each appointment, but the counsel I retained was extremely effective, and best of all it didn’t cost me anything outside of money for postage. I was very lucky.
If you open your mail and read a letter sent by an attorney, how will you proceed?
Baby Baskets - New Laws, New Liabilities
I couldn’t get Elaine McCool’s thoughtful comment to this baby baskets article I wrote earlier in the month off my mind.
Elaine is concerned, and rightfully so, about the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) that goes into effect in February. You can read more about it on the Toy Industry Association Web site.
For clarification, here is the focus of the CPSIA, quoted directly from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Web site:
“Beginning February 10, 2009, children’s products cannot be sold if they contain more than 600 parts per million (ppm) total lead. Certain children’s products manufactured on or after February 10, 2009 cannot be sold if they contain more than 0.1% of certain specific phthalates or if they fail to meet new mandatory standards for toys.”
The bottom line, as I interpret it, is that the children’s products you purchase to create infant, baby, and children’s gift baskets, must pass rigorous testing for lead before placing it on store shelves for consumer purchase and including it within your baskets.
All of the mass produced, low quality, untested products shipped into the United States and sold by big box stores - the same products attributed to lost jobs and a sour economy - are now affecting us in a new, sinister way.
If you’re unsure about the quality of the targeted products in your inventory, contact the manufacturer to learn if it can be sold or if it must be discarded.
This is a huge problem that affects your investment money; however, it may become a legal problem for you if it’s added to a gift basket.
Suppliers that sell these items to us and retailers that sell baby products to the public are no doubt reeling, and some may go out of business. I’m hoping none of you are headed for closure.
There may be one bright spot in this matter - organic goods. Organics are made under specific guidelines, and even though it’s still necessary to make sure manufacturers and suppliers are within the law, organic infant and children’s goods may be out of harm’s way.
See the Organic Wholesale Supplies site for companies that will fill the void while the shakeout continues.
Thank you, Elaine, for voicing your concerns. Does anyone else have an opinion about baby goods and the new law?
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