The Legalities of Selling Diet Aids Online

Are you chomping at the bit to start up your home based business? Have you decided to go into the weight loss field and perhaps you are thinking of selling diet aids online? If this is you, consider that losing weight is not only a slow, frustrating and time consuming process, but in some cases it is also dangerous for the dieter’s health and you need to be careful in observing the legalities of selling diet aids online. Read on to learn about some home based business legalities you must observe when going into the diet aid business, but which are frequently – and also surprisingly – quite frequently forgotten.

First and foremost, remember to educate yourself about the laws of the state, city, county, and municipality in which you are operating. Some substances are illegal in the United States, while others are restricted in certain areas of the country. Failure to obey these laws leads to fines, closure of your business, and in some cases being banned from working in this line of business again! If things go really bad, you might even have to answer lawsuits by your consumers. Small time business owners who forgot or failed to incorporate their businesses may lose their homes and virtually all other assets.

Knowing the legalities of selling diet aids online will protect you from serious mistakes and such losses. It is a good idea to enlist the help of your insurance company to find out what your coverage is for commercial activities. The odds are good that your homeowner policy will not cover you during business hours, and if someone gets sick because of a dietary supplement you sold, it most certainly will not pick up the tab for this kind of problem. The odds are good that you need general liability insurance to protect you as a business entity.

Depending on your local laws, you may need to have your business licensed. The Food and Drug Administration keeps a close eye on dietary supplements, their marketing, and also diet aids that fall into this category. More often than not you need a permit to store these items, have your premises inspected, or may need to answer questions with respect to restricted items. Since these rules vary from area to area, checking with local officials is a must. It is interesting to note that there are – in some locales – prohibitions against selling these kinds of substances from a private residence.

Finally, unless you yourself have used these diet aids, be very careful when describing their effectiveness, how they work, and what consumers might expect. Sure, you cannot possibly try out each and every product you sell, but especially with diet aids it is crucial that all of your marketing is completely ethical and above board, or you will find yourself getting a very bad reputation in the online marketing community. Once this happens, there is very little you can do to turn around this kind of negative publicity. Moreover, if consumers find out that you might have bolstered the facts a bit, the word will spread like wildfire on the online dieting forums.