Good idea or terrible idea? ...etsy - Page 3

[bcblondie]

Help. I've hit a snag.

The insurance broker called back. She said she called 2 places. The one place said no immediately. The safety of the product concerned them. The second place said maybe, if I could provide them with some proof of it's safety, (and also projected sales, etc.) But seriously. How can I prove it? I'm not a doctor. I doubt no doctor will research this for me... It's a common sense thing. There are chemicals and bleach in regular tampons... There's NOTHIGN but maybe the tiniest bit of detergent residue left in cloth tampons... Couldn't be worse than bleach! What's worse than bleach?!

Ugh. What do I do? 

[majikfaerie]

:hug

that might be why no one else is doing it. I've no idea how you'd move forward from there.

I do think you could sell the cloth pads though.

[bcblondie]

Oops. I'm only FINALLY seeing your reply now.

I AM tempted to sell the pads. Too risky I think, to sell tampons without insurance. But do you think I could sell teh pads without insurance?

I've honestly been so shocked with how well my pads work. Mainly how well teh fleece liner works as a moisture barrier. But I guess I also thought the "moisture" would wick around the wings and leak but it doesn't. I'm so impressed with myself. lol.

There's definitely a lot more competition out there, for cloth pads. And I have a disadvantage becuase my shipping would be more expensive than others. :(

[rebirth]

I personally do business w/out insurance as an LLC (limited liability corp).... This seemed to me the best option b/c A. we don't own much of anything worth anything..... and B. the cost of insurance is cost-prohibitive, and C- insurance makes it sooo much more likely to be sued.

[bcblondie]

That's true. People are less likely to sue if you have nothing to give tehm. Although if you do make a regular paycheck they could garnish your wages....

[Tjej]

I didn't read your whole thread, but wanted to comment on the shipping costs - I don't know what the border is like south of Winnipeg, but if there is a post office just across in the US you can walk your product across and not have to pay taxes on it, then ship with the USPS.  It is much cheaper to ship in the US than it is in Canada (even within Canada).  I would suppose that if there wasn't a post office there, you could possibly arrange for a pick up with UPS or something.

Tjej

[bcblondie]

Thank you. But it's a bit of a drive. About 2 hours to the border I think. Never been...

[bluedaisy]

Do you have any stores near you that might be interested in carrying your products?  Or any local farmers markets?  Those might be some other options to look into instead of selling online.

If you can register as a LLC, that might be the best way to get around the insurance issues.

It's a great idea - I use mama cloth but I miss using tampons, and would love a cloth option!

[lilyka]

I would think tampons wold be tricky from a liability stand point.  First of all regular tampons are dangerous and come with warnings about TSS.  Then there is the whole reusable + cloth factor.  All kinds of things can get trapped in the fabric.  Things like pads and diapers, that is not a concern since they are external.  but with tampons its a different story since they are internal.  And without lab testing you just do not know how much bacteria they are harboring.  You really could be opening yourself up to a lawsuit.  

[bcblondie]

Yeah... you're probably right. I could always just sell pads...

[EnchantedMamma]

I would set up a website around mama cloth or another term that DOES have some competition. The fact that 'reusable tampons' has little competition means that few people are searching for it.

I don't think you're going to get found, unless you use SEO to bring in people who are looking for something similar. Someone who is looking for cloth pads would probably be open to cloth tampons.

Just my $.02. Cloth/reusable tampons is pretty 'fringe', and I would hedge my bets by using other search terms to draw in qualified prospects. If you don't wind up selling cloth tampons, you might set up an article about them and how to make them and see how much interest there is.

Good luck!