Any help would be great...

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I mean no ill or harm but your statement is completely incorrect, Anyone who alters any item is considered a manufacturer by the Law. If you so much as sew a button on a bib, put a heat transfer lable inside a t-shirt, string a bead onto the zipper of a purse YOU ARE A MANUFACTURER in the context of the CPSIA LAW.

http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/smbus/manufacturers.html#q1

Do not play with this, 5 years plus up to $100,000.00 fine. Don't know too many Small Shop Owners that can afford that.

Be VERY Careful and Prudent this is nothing to play around with!!:mad: :mad: :mad:

putting together a written business plan will help you tremendously. You can buy inexpensive software at Best Buy or Office Depot, Staples, etc.... they pretty much all carry something that should run about $29 or so. It will walk you step by step and allow you to fill in the blanks so to speak. Doing this exercise forces you to think about areas of your business you may be forgetting. And when you do some market research you may find a niche or two that you did not think of.

Then you have something to review every month/ 6months/ year, whenever to make sure you are on track and not spinning your wheels doing something that isnt part of your business model.

Have a sample book of fonts, but don't give the customer too many options. Make it simple for yourself, the choices you have the more confused the customer gets. You always want things to be perfect when you start, but sounds like you are pretty organized so just go with it, you will learn as you go. Everything from fixing the machine to dealing with the customers extravagent requests. Good Luck, I'm sure you'll do fine.

Katie,

I wish you the best in your venture!

I feel that I need to bring in some information that will be critical in you venture that you will need to know fully. This is the CPSIA Law of 2008 and requirements imposed. You will be required to label your items as being in compliance and may discover that you will also need to have items tested by a Third Party Laboratory to verify compliance. This is not a joke and can actually land you in prison if not in compliance.

Here are some important links: These are only the tip of the iceberg.

http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/cpsia.HTML (Main CPSA Site)

http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/sect102.html#summary (Third party test requirements)

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/general-t-shirt-selling-discussion/t69913.html (Huge Information Forum began December 2008 Many sites and Great Info READREAD!!!)

This is not to scare you just give you the info.:confused:

What types of items will you sell? If you give us an idea we might be able to suggest some good vendors of boutique type products.

A meeting or two with your local SBA (Small Business Association)
http://www.sba.gov/ will probably be helpful. They will stress the importance of writing a business plan and make suggests depending on your local area.

The CPSA laws & guidlines apply to MANUFACTURING only. If you are not sewing the garments yourself, you do not need to comply. If you are classified as "industrial processing" the compliance becomes the burden of the manufacturer (according to my attorney)

However, it IS adviseable NOT to seel kids garments which don't meet these spec's.

For resizing, check out Embird.com. The program is very reasonable and the works great and is easy to use. I have a PR600 and use Embird as one of my programs. Discountembroideryblanks.com have a variety of blanks for what you want to do. They are great to work with as well. Hope this helps. I do some embroidery but have not set up as a business as of yet. I found this site while looking for information on how to setup a business.

Embird also has an organizer as a "plugin".