Tips from Home

I’m steeling this article from my good friend Lynn The Piggy Bank Painter. Who also used part of an article from CafeMom. This is an important issue that most people don’t even know about. A law has been passed that will really hurt a lot of small business’s Just what this country needs in this time of economic turmoil.

This is an excerpt from an article at CafeMom. Please click this link to read the entire article.

“For those who don’t know, the CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008) is an act designed to protect our children from unsafe toys, aka.. lead at excessive levels.. and thats a noble cause, HOWEVER, this act requires ANY item designed, marketed to, intended for use by, or looks like it could be designed FOR any child under the age of 12 must be tested. Sounds like a good idea, but you have to consider that the cost for these tests (estimates on different websites vary) have ranged from $100.00 to $4000.00. Even if we assume its $100.00, the average crafter cannot afford to have every “batch” of their craft tested. This act is poorly written and doesnt adress the REAL problem… it forces testing on products manufactured in the US, when our products werent the problem to begin with. We should be forcing testing on every product IMPORTED to the US, but a witch hunt on good American companies making good healthy products is not helping. In this economy, do we really need to put more of a burden on our businesses?” Read the entire article here….

What this means to me is I could very likely be out of business in one month. At this moment, I am not sure if my piggy banks would be considered a toy, but I know there is no way I could afford to have each piggy bank I paint tested for lead by a third party. Santa and birthday plates would be a thing of the past…..

There are grass root movements out there to have this act amended to fit us (very) small businesses. Us mompreneurs, crafters and wahms. YOU can sign an online petition at the Handmade Toy Alliance to have this act changed. You can also write to your United States Congress Person and Senator. You can find a sample letter here, along with a link to find your conrgress person and senator.

Please, please, please pass the word around. We desperately need your support…..I can’t imagine a day with out a piggy bank to paint. I’ve worked so hard to get this business where it is today, it just doesn’t seem possible that it could all be gone in one month…and it makes me ill just thinking about it.
(google HR 4040 for more info.)

I hope you will help by making some noise about this and help save many small business!

Jill