Some more legal stuff – Data Protection

If you are to be a business on the internet that sells a product, depending on what sort of information about your customer you collect, you may need to have a data protection license and then again you may not.

Your customers or at least some of them will be wary about what information they want to offer you, some may not want to offer a telephone number, others will be insistant that you do not email them under any circumstances – not always easy is your website automatically sends them an email to tell them that their order has been dispatched.

The real issues are that many people simply do not want spam, they are concerned that you may use their information for other purposes. Now, whilst for basic information offered such as name, address and telephone number does not require a Data Protection License it is best to phone the Data protection people up and ask. A license is £35 and not a great deal of money. Adding the fact that you have a Data Protection Licence in your information pages on your website may go a long way to reassure some customers that you are a legal and safe site.

The telephone number to contact the Data protection people is 01625 545745 You can telephone and ask for an information pack, this way you will know if you need the license or not but for £35 it is quite a worthy bit of paper i think because there is no doubt, you will get very suspicious customers.

Women Who Work The Net

I have been a bit busy and have nothing planned to add today so i will talk about some women i know who work on the WWW. All mothers so all have worked very hard to build a business whilst looking after children – a full time job on its own.

Well, there is Callie at Holistic Feathers www.holisticfeathers.co.uk Oh and Callie at www.moonpoppyenterprises.com The latter being a very useful URL to know because when you have had your website built, there is no one better than Callie for proof reading – her service is excellent. Did you know that your site could miss search engine position if your site is full of spelling errors? A site i was looking at recently had one of their meta tags spelt incorrectly, now its lucky i spotted that error because there was no way in a million years was that site ever going to be found for that meta tag and of course meta tags ( as i will discuss at some stage in this blog) are what get your website into search engines and found by those who want to find you.

I must get in touch with Callie to have my site checked because i am the worlds worst spellar.

So, back to callie’s Holistic Feathers site – well, callie is a therapist in the Wimbledon area of London, anyone requiring an holistic therapy needs to visit Callie, her website offers all the information that you require as well as a small range of products to promote good health.

Another website i like a lot is www.knotjustjigs.co.uk This site was set up a few years ago by a work at home mum called Ketty. Starting off small, the range of products at Knot Just Jigs has grown and grown, a thriving business in less than 2 years and a visit to this website will show you just how far a business can come in such a short time. Looking that that website you would think it was owned by a huge company, but no, it is all the hard work of one women and the service you will get from Knot Just Jigs is far superior to the service you would get from a large company. We love Knot just jigs.

Another remarkable business also less than two years old is www.chelltune.co.uk again, all a women’s hard work right down to the website design and again, the service you will get from Chelltune is superior.

And another one www.missymoomooandsam.co.uk This little business has a sister business and is less than 6 months old as an independent site on the net. Gail at Missy Moo Moo started her enterprise on Ebay but soon got to the stage where her business needed something a little more grand. Missy Moo Moo’s products are beautiful and the images don’t always do them justice and if you are wanting a unique design then visit www.isobellloyd.co.uk for designer women’s bags.

I could go on all day and i will mention many more websites showing fantastic businesses run by women but for now, if you are a women wanting to start your own business, look at the sites mentioned here for inspiration and remember, make note of MoonPoppy Enterprises because you never know when you will need your own website checking.

Some Legal Stuff You Might Need To Know

I am shocked at the amount of websites on the net who don’t display an address – would you send money to a company who don’t display an address? Of course there is nothing to say that that business is actually at that address but in order to satisfy the department of trade and industry, an address is required, even if it is a home address.

Most people probably don’t even think to check if there is an address on a website but if you think about the millions and millions of websites on the Internet, so many are trading illegally in some way. Ebay is a trading standards nightmare and so owning a trustworthy website is important if you want to make the business work.

There are some hand made products that may require a license, products like hand made soap or any toiletry that involves you adding together two or more ingredients may need a licence, these are not hard to get and are well worth it.

Any product that requires weighing or measuring needs trading standards scales and measures, expensive bits of equipment but crucial in order to stay within the law.

Trading standards may be scary people but they are also very good people to learn from.

If you intend having a website built by a designer, don’t rely on them advising you on the legal stuff you need on your site, there are lots of cheap web people about who simply aren’t offering the full service. The distance selling rules need to be stated on your website, again Trading Standards can help with these details and i know it is a million pages long but the DTI website is well worth looking at.

Insurance: This is a huge expense for a new business, there are specialist insurance policies for work at home people, the AA does a decent one and taking insurance is something that you need to think hard about. Many business’ don’t have any insurance, it is down to you to decide what sort of risks your products might pose and how much stock you have and what the consequences to your business would be if something damaged your stock. Just a consideration.

You may find that some insurers will not insure you if you ship to the USA or Canada from the UK, you may also want to consider adding some disclaimers to your website.

So, nothing major but just a few things to look at and consider before you start your business. 

What Sort Of Business?

One of the biggest hurdles when considering starting an online business is what sort of business. There are many many tallented women making money from making their own products so any sort of craft can generate a great deal of revenue.  Most people love hand crafted goods and so hand made soap,  jewellery, cards, knitted items, baby items, children’s clothes and actually anything hand crafted will do well on the internet if marketed correctly.

A lovely little site i know www.tuggle.co.uk is a wonderful place to start selling your own products, this can be as far as you want your business to go or it can be as well as an online store. Many women are doing well on ebay but it isn’t a place that suits everyone.

There is no saying what business is going to do best on the internet, there are so many facets that make up a good business. My own business was started from a passion and is based on something that i know quite a lot about.

Look at what you are good at? There seems to be room for almost every skill on the internet, it doesn’t have to involve sales, services are also sought after on the net.

There are the ready made business’, I saw a website a few days ago where an Avon distributor had set up her own site and was selling other bits and bats on there. Usbourne books seems to be popular, quite hard work but lots of business’ incorporate some sort of book club into their site as a side line.

Information can often make money, i prefer to give it away for free but there are many selling e books and making some income.

There is something for everyone, it just needs a bit of consideration beforehand and a little bit of legal know how which i will come to later on.

Why the Net?

Why are more and more women wanting to set up on-line business? Well because they can! But also because it is an avenue that allows mothers with young children the ability to work and stay at home with their children at the same time.

This won’t apply to all women but many of us abandoned our career to have our children, after a year or two the skills that we once had to feel confident within the workplace starts to deteriorate. I know many women who went onto have more and more children just so that they didn’t have to go back to work.

More and more women are now forced to go back to work after the birth of their babies and juggle work and family life, there is no wonder more and more women are taking advantage of setting up their own business on the internet. Some women will know exactly what they need to do to make that business work, others won’t have a clue – if this is you, then hopefully you will find this blog just the bit of information that you need.