Kerri Smith came up with a new design for a maternity support pillow and decided to sell it online. Then came the unpleasant surprise: 15 states require “law tags” on pillows and each charges its own fee, ranging from $5 to $720 a year. First year cost of complying with those state laws in order to start taking orders from anywhere in the country: $4,660. And that’s before more states join the 15 that currently exact fees. [Becket Adams, The Blaze/WTAM] As for a pillow intended for the actual baby, don’t even ask.
2 Comments
Hello Walter – thank you for posting about my pillow tag predicament! It’s been quite a ride since The Blaze ran my story yesterday. I’m almost to my fundraising goal! Then I’ll be aiming higher to hopefully get a bit more money just to help with the manufacturing costs. (I didn’t want to include that in the campaign – just raising money for pillow tag registration fees seemed like enough of a hurdle to jump.) But thank you for helping to spread the word! I have been overwhelmed and humbled at how many people have gotten behind me and made contributions. Hopefully this will bring greater awareness to the excessive red tape that so many more entrepreneurs are dealing with. Let’s go!!!
Kerri Smith
Wait – let me correct that figure. It’s $3,660 for the first year in annual fees. I’m choosing to pay an additional $1k to a company that will manage all of my fee payments for me. Every year after the first, the average amount for the tags will cost around $2500 per year. (Per year, just to be allowed to sell a pillow in a state that requires a law tag. Insane.)