Quality assurance and due diligence are essential for manufacturing or importing businesses. Especially if you sub contract out your goods to be made on your behalf  or are the first importer into the EC.

Many products have specific regulations concerning them - such as toys, pencils, furniture or electrical items. Plus all products are should comply with the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 and the General Product Safety Regulations 2005.

If something goes wrong with your product you need to be able to show you took all reasonable procautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence. Some products also require legally that you compile and keep a technical file on them.

If you have never done this or dealt with importing before you should take advice and seek professional help in order to ensure your business complies.

Mind the Gap Solutions Ltd is Run by a ex Trading Standards professional who has also previously worked for 2 large own label importers.

We run training courses to give you information on how to proceed with quality assurance and what legislation there is out there. For businesses under 1 year old I'm offering a special price on attending one of our 2 day courses (accomodation not included) at £175 (plus vat) instead of the usual price of £235 (plus vat). Please mention the StartUp website to recieve this special price. Courses are currently being held in the East Midlands, but we could move them to other locations depending on demand. The next one planned is in March 2007.  

If you wish to buy in the expertise as required, Mind The Gap Solutions can compile technical files, audit factories or suppliers (worldwide), accompany audits or provide you with ad-hoc guidance when your business requires it.

We can also provide auditing and training for small businesses such as shops etc. Areas covered include pricing, labelling, under age sales etc. It is often useful for someone else to come in for a day and explain to staff what the law is and why they need to comply, rather than them thinking the boss just nags all day! Someone else to playing the bad cop usually does the trick... 

Please visit our website or email us for further information.

Looking forward to working with you.

Rachel

rachel@mindthegapsolutions.com

www.mindthegapsolutions.com