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How to get started selling soap or cosmetic products?
You have bought your ingredients and you have had some fun making some soap. Your friends like it and you have given some as gifts. Then someone says to you “I love your soap. Would you make me some? I’ll pay you for it.” Suddenly you are thinking ‘I love what I do. I could make this a business.’ However, there are few things you need to consider before you can do that.
What you need to do before you can start selling soap or cosmetic products?
Register with HMRC
As soon as you start to earn money you need to register with the HMRC. You will need to track your incomings and outgoings, fill an annual Self Assessment and pay any tax due. It’s a lot easier than it sounds and it doesn’t matter how big/small you are. If you are earning money you are a business and it’s not just a hobby anymore. To find out more about registering with HMRC go to www.gov.uk/new-business-register-for-tax
Get your soap/product safety assessed
When you go to a shop or supermarket you assume that everything you buy will be safe to use. The same should be said of anything sold anywhere be it in a market or over the internet. That is why it is important to get your soap/product safety assessed so that it complies with the current standards and no one can get hurt using something that is chemically wrong for them. Current EU legislation requires all cosmetic products supplied in the UK or countries in the EU, whether for consumer or for professional use, to comply with European Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009, which came into force on 11 July 2013. To find out more go to www.gov.uk/guidance/product-safety-for-manufacturers#cosmetic-products-safety-regulations Note: There will always be need of legislation and Britain will still have a set of standards that Cosmetics will have to adhere to in the future even if it’s not the same as EU legislation. If you want to sell to the rest of Europe you will still need to get your product safety assessed. Check out our website for all the latest information on Safety Assessments. Once assessed you will need to keep a record of the batches you have made with the full ingredients and their origin. Batch numbers should be on the label of any product to ensure it can be easily traceable. You also need to label you products correctly to comply with INCI legislation with a full set of INCI names for ingredients.
Brand Design
You want a design that everyone will remember you for, be it a snappy name or colourful logo that is going to stand out from crowd. How you package your product can really make a difference to how it looks. For more information contact www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk
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