In addition to keeping babies and toddlers safe from the germs found on shopping carts, Clean Shoppers are now benefiting breast cancer research.  Babe Ease, LLC, distributor of the Original Clean Shopper shopping cart cover is donating $1.00 from the sale of every wholesale and retail sale of their adorable pink gingham Clean Shoppers to breast cancer research.  The money will go directory to the ESSCO-MGH Breast Cancer Research Fund, a charitable endowment fund Babe Ease owner Missy Cohen-Fyffe’s family established in 1994.

“My father established the ESSCO-MGH Breast Cancer Research Fund in 1994 shortly after my sister was diagnosed and treated for the disease at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston,” said Cohen-Fyffe, who is also president of the fund.  “He initiated the fund with $25,000 with the stipulation that every penny we raise go directly to breast cancer research.  Today, our fund has grown to $3.2 million and we fund incredibly innovative research that is so promising it is now garnering funds and accolades from the National Institutes of Health and other very large charitable organizations.

In addition to receiving national recognition for its cutting-edge research endeavors, the ESSCO-MGH Breast Cancer Research Fund was recently honored as one of The One Hundred most influential cancer care and research organizations associated with the MGH.

“It was an amazing night.  We were honored to be part of such a talented and respected group of individuals and organizations,” said Cohen-Fyffe.

Babe Ease, LLC will present it’s fundraising check to the ESSCO-MGH Breast Cancer Research Fund during the fund’s annual benefit in October.  The event will be held on October 23, 2008 at the Pine Brook Country Club in Weston, MA. 

More information about the ESSCO-MGH Breast Cancer Research Fund and the cutting-edge research it supports can be found by clicking this link.  To make a donation, visit www.cleanshopper.com , click on Useful Information, then click on ESSCO-MGH.  Your donation will go directly to breast cancer research.

A SKU is a “stock-keeping unit” that retail stores use to electronically order, stock and record all of their inventory and sales.   A UPC is the black and white bar code and corresponding 12 digit number found on just about every item you buy in virtually every store you shop.  These are required pieces of information that stores need in order to electronically order, track and maintain their inventory from each vendor.

As a vendor, you will need to obtain these codes and identify each of your products with corresponding UPCs and SKUs.  This will give your company credibility with retailers, and make it possible for stores to place orders with you electronically.  While you don’t have to be EDI* compatible to obtain UPCs and SKUs, you may want to look into EDI as a way to attract larger retailers to your product offerings.  For the purpose of this entry, we’ll just concentrate on the codes and how to obtain them.

To obtain a UPC code and develop a list of SKUs for your products, you will need to obtain a Company Prefix certificate and license from GS1 US, Inc.  (formerly the Uniform Code Council) in Dayton, OH.  Visit www.gs1us.org and follow the necessary steps.

When I first started selling my Clean Shopper shopping cart covers, the Company Prefix Certificate and License cost $750.  Today, you will need to pay $1,500 for the certificate and, depending upon the number of UPC codes you want, an additional $150.  

The GS1 website will walk you through the process or obtaining the certificate and license.  Once you have the company prefix, you can begin creating UPCs for your products.  From there, you can use the last four digits of each UPC to create your SKUs.

For example, our Clean Shopper shopping cart cover in the Flower Power print has the following UPC and SKU numbers respectively:  854366000668   0668

Our Clean Diner high chair cover in the Funny Farm print has the following UPC and SKU numbers:  854366000545   0545

Our Clean Burper burp cloths in the Pink Polka Dot print have the following UPC and SKU numbers:  854366000880   0880

You can recycle numbers after they have been out of commerce for four years, so as you grow, you can also re-use discontinued or obsolete UPCs and SKUs, which will help reduce your expenses.

*Electronic Data Interface is a universal, uniform system for electronically placing orders over the internet.  Most larger companies use this method for placing orders.  Even many small chains use EDI for order processing.  

My signature Clean Shopper shopping cart cover was the first product of its kind. I know this because my patent dates back to 1991, several years before any other similar patent application was submitted.  Technically, this means my patent has the benefit of owning “prior art.”  Prior art allows me to use the term Original with respect to my Clean Shopper shopping cart cover and it also gives me protection against anyone who attempts to produce a product with the same claims as my shopping cart cover patent.  But there are limits to that protection.

“Protection” and “claims” are two very important words in the world of intellectual property (IP)/patent law.  While I don’t claim to be an expert on patent law, I’ve learned through my business dealings over the years that those simple words carry extraordinary weight.  ’Protection,’ however, is partially only as strong as you are.  Do you have the intestinal fortitude, so to speak, to endure a lengthy and expensive legal battle? If so, rest assured you are protected with your patent.  Unless, of course, the infringing product’s patent claims are decisively different from your own.  In that case, you will have a more difficult time defending your claims in court - especially if they aren’t being infringed. Two products may appear similar,  but may also be constructed entirely different and claim different attributes.  Those claims may hold up in a court of law.

I am often asked by aspiring entrepreneurs with inventions of their own, how I ‘deal’ with the copycat products on the market.  Most questions typically take the form of the following, “Do you sue?” “Do they pay you royalties?” “Do you just forge ahead and hope you beat them in market share?” The answer is simple:  It depends upon the product, and that product’s patent claims or lack thereof.

Every situation is different.  I have made it a company - and personal - priority to sue any person or business  infringing on my patents or trademarks.  I have had to sue six different companies over the years for either patent or trademark infringement; one company for counterfeiting, and three other companies for their bad business dealings. All of these lawsuits have ended favorably for my company.  But I should have prefaced this by saying that I do not take any of these lawsuits lightly.

The process of filing a lawsuit and completing the time-consuming task of ‘discovery’ can take more than a year, and that’s before even going to trial and enduring lengthy litigation. Litigation is unbelievably expensive and unless you are prepared to spend tens of thousands and even  hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect your IP, you probably won’t want to go down that path.  While many lawsuits are settled out of court, sending a “cease and desist” letter really means absolutely nothing unless you are prepared to follow that letter through to litigation.

When I make the decision to issue a cease and desist letter to an infringing company, I am making the decision to commit months of my time and tens of thousands of my hard-earned dollars to defend my IP.

Many companies opt to pursue other options, such as negotiating a licensing deal with the infringing company.  In my personal experience, I have found that infringing companies rarely want to pay innovators, but rather seek to find the fasted ways to cash in on the growing popularity of new ideas.  There are three companies in my industry that come to mind immediately, and I often wonder why buyers continue to purchase goods from them, knowing they leach all of their ideas from smaller, usually woman-owned, businesses.  I suspect it is because their pricing appears better, not having had to spend the upfront money on research and development or IP.

Another option companies often pursue is to forge ahead and grab as much market share as possible before the competition gets too big and fierce.  Some of my competitors (whose products, while similar, don’t technically infringe) have chosen this path.  In all honesty, I wish they would simply make the commitment to sue those who infringe on their claims, but they have opted not to.  This has made the  market tighter than I would like, but it in an interesting way, it has also managed to boost our brand’s image.

Although lawsuits can seem daunting, they can also be extremely useful and quite beneficial when necessary. When deciding to sue or not to sue, please take into consideration the following important factors:

1. Is the infringing product exactly like your product’s construction?
2. Does the infringing product have a patent?  
3. If so, what does the patent claim and how do those claims compare to yours?
4. Do you have a good IP attorney who is also a litigator?  This is important.
5. Can you afford to defend your claims (get estimates from your attorney on costs)?
6. What will you loose if you do not litigate?

Carefully consider these issues and consult with your IP attorney before making any decisions.  You may find that it is simply not in your best interest to sue.  On the other hand, you may find it’s time.

Women work differently from men in many ways.  While this is almost always an advantage for us, we can sometimes fall into the trap of believing things that simply are not true.  For example, sometimes we think we shouldn’t  charge that extra fee for a service because it might aggravate a situation or we shouldn’t complain about a price because we will appear too aggressive. Sometimes, we forget that the bottom line (and I mean the bottom line in a P&L) is more important than the volume of sales; and sometimes we listen to criticism, not in a constructive manner, but from an emotional perspective and feel lessened by the experience.  Women need to be aware of these little traps and avoid them like the plague.  If you are putting your time and experience into a project, charge accordingly.  If you feel you are being asked to pay too much for a project or service, negotiate.  And, when someone offers a critique of your work, product or service always consider the source, and never take that criticism personally.

I began selling my Clean Shopper shopping cart cover when the thought of germs on shopping carts was non-existent. Being a nail-biter, I’ve always been aware of the things I touch, because they inevitably end up in my mouth. Shopping carts always gave me the willies, especially after seeing a guy sneeze into his hands and then (without a thought to wiping his hands on his pants - or anything else for that matter) continue to push his shopping cart.

So, I designed the Clean Shopper shopping cart cover to protect babies and toddlers (and, okay, me) from the germs found on shopping carts. When I first started using my own Clean Shopper shopping cart cover (when my son was a baby), I could barely get through a grocery store without being attacked by other mothers who wanted to know where they could buy one.

Initially, when I attempted to get my shopping cart cover product on store shelves, I was practically laughed out of the buyer’s office. I ended up selling Clean Shopper shopping cart covers out of my car to demanding mothers who refused to let me go until they had a Clean Shopper of their own. As demand grew for my product (primarily through word-of-mouth), I began to market the Clean Shopper more aggressively and I launched a website. At that time (1999), some parents thought the price tag for a Clean Shopper ($29.95) was high, but said they would rather be safe than sorry.

Then research began emerging about the widespread occurrence of e-coli and other dangerous bacteria that could be found on public surfaces. And, a researcher, Dr. Charles Gerba, PhD, at the University of Arizona swabbed 800 public surfaces and found disease-causing germs in tons of places - most notably (to me) was the fact that the 7th most germ-ridden public place was a shopping cart. Next came Inside Edition’s ultraviolet light shopping cart scanner, also proving e-coli (among other things) was living on the handlebar areas of shopping carts. Sales of my Clean Shopper shopping cart cover took off and I launched our Clean Diner high chair cover to rave reviews.

Fast forward to 2008 and hundreds of similar shopping cart covers are now on the market, some costing as much as $165! Just about every mom inventor start up on the internet sells “their” version of our shopping cart cover. The demand for stylish germ-fighting products is actually growing like crazy. We are even launching our own “high-end” versions to satisfy the growing demand.

When SARS hit two years ago, we fielded calls regarding our Clean Shopper shopping cart covers, and how well they stood up to this new disease. No joke. Then a writer contacted me for information about my Clean Shopper shopping cart cover for a new book. It turns out she was partnering with Dr. Gerba from the University of Arizona to pen a book entitled, The Germ Freak’s Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu. The book is hysterically funny, and informational…and of course, it mentions my Clean Shopper shopping cart cover in the chapter entitled, Attention Shoppers, There’s a Special on E-coli in Aisle 3.

These days everyone is concerned about staying healthy. Maybe it’s because so many people are without healthcare or maybe they just can’t afford time off from work to take care of a sick child or nurse their own bodies back to health. Maybe they get sick too much and just hate the feeling. Regardless of the fear, the demand now widely exists for products that promote germ-free living.

Before you can start selling your service or product, you need to understand the legal and financial implications of your endeavor.  Additionally, you’ll need to be prepared for needs you didn’t realize you had, and that sadly includes, dealing with sleaze-balls who will inevitably turn up throughout the course of your business.  In my shopping cart cover business alone I’ve had to deal with at least six unsavory characters, and each one was worse than the last.

So, like it or not, a good, reputable business attorney is essential to your company.  Do not, under any circumstance, think you can forgo this very important relationship.  In addition to guiding and advising you on many legal issues, she will be the one to draft your business contracts and to review those that are presented to you. Expect to pay anywhere from $125/hour to $350/hour depending up on the level of expertise you are seeking. This means you will want to be very prepared for any conversation you have with your attorney before you get on the phone, email or meet in person.  You will be charged by the minute, so don’t waste minutes trying to remember what you meant to ask.

On equal footing is your accountant.  This person, once again, is going to be vital to your business.  Prices for CPAs are more reasonable ranging in fees from  $40/hour to $175/hour depending upon the service they provide for you.   I actually work with two CPAs.  Together with my business attorneys, they represent my most trusted consultants.  I cannot tell you how valuable these professionals are to the success of my business.  I made the mistake early on, in my shopping cart cover business, of not establishing a relationship with a good business attorney and it cost me dearly.

You may notice that I have qualified my attorneys with the term “business.”  That’s because I also have a patent/intellectual property (IP) attorney and an attorney for my trademarks, though most IP attorneys also handle trademarks.  Patent law is very complex and most business attorneys are not also IP attorneys.  Your business attorney may be able to recommend a good IP attorney but as a whole, business attorneys do not practice IP law.  In my shopping cart cover business, a patent attorney is essential as is a trademark attorney.  Although it may seem as if you will be spending a ton of money on legal fees, you will actually only be paying your attorneys for the services you need, and in the long term, the benefits of having qualified legal advice far outweigh the costs.

My home office has been a staple in our home since before the birth of our children, and today, I also have three employees that work from my home-based business.  My house isn’t huge, by McMansion standards, but we’ve designed the office space to be relatively non-intrusive to our home life.  Even so, there are exactly 15 walking steps from the edge of my desk to the doorway of my younger son’s bedroom and if I’m really feeling peppy (or hungry), I can be in the kitchen in less than eight seconds.  Given this scenario, how is it possible to effectively separate my work from my home life?  Although it’s not always easy, I can offer these 10 tips:

1.     Use your office door – know when to open it and when to keep it closed

2.     Install separate phone lines and/or a separate phone system that is exclusively for your business

3.     Create a comfortable, livable work space so that everything in the office is within reach – you won’t need to leave for anything.

4.     Embrace discipline, set a routine for your “work day” and stick with it.

5.     Never work from the bedroom and that includes not discussing business with your partner or spouse while in bed.

6.     Family rules – in more ways than one. 

a.     Just like you established a routine and a set of rules for your work day, you need to establish a set of rules for your family to live with so everyone’s needs are met.

b.      When the door is shut, don’t go in.  When you are in the office and your door is shut, family members must enter quietly.  If you are on the phone, they must sit patiently and quietly until you can excuse yourself, put your client or customer on hold and address the issue.  If the children are old enough, they can leave you notes so you can respond to their requests after completing your call.

c.      Understand that children get sick, appliances break, cars need fixing and family members and friends need help.  Computers also crash.  While you can’t plan for these things, you can plan how you will react to them.  You work from home so you can be available to your family.  If you need to be with them during the day, you simply plan to pick up the lost time at night, after they’ve gone to bed.  If the computer crashes, hopefully you’ve done the steps necessary to prepare you for this and can pick up the phone and arrange for immediate  help.  The trick is to set some guidelines and be prepared for the inevitable.

7.     Don’t hire your friends.  Don’t even think about it.

8.     Do not work on Saturday, Sunday, or any family holiday

9.     Don’t give out or, in any way, publish your home phone number.  I don’t give out my home phone number nor do I give out my cell phone number.  Very few colleagues of mine have my cell phone or home phone.

10.  Get out of the house!

a.      Join your trade association

b.      Network with other entrepreneurs/women in business

c.      Attend meetings out of the office

For two months in 2005 (Oct and November) Babe Ease ran a “ Nastiest and Grimiest Germ Challenge” to learn more about consumers opinions regarding germs and public places.  Reading through hundreds of entries we learned the following:

The number one nastiest and grimiest place on earth is a restroom (and not just the ones found at gas stations, parks and truck stops), at least according to 94% of our respondents, followed closely by shopping carts which 82% of our respondents felt were almost as bad.  (Read The Germ Freaks Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu by Allison Janse and Charles Gerba, Ph.D.  The book’s two most popular chapters – The Ten Commandments of Surviving a Public Restroom and Attention Shoppers; There’s a Special on E.Coli in Aisle 3 – offer insights into how to stay healthy while visiting these germ-ridden establishments)

We found that the responses were all quite similar even though respondents represented a good cross section of the country.

After analyzing the information we collected (and gagging over many of the stories), we suggest that before you even think of ordering food at a restaurant, you use the restroom or at least take a quick peak.  If it’s gross, leave immediately.

It’s important to note that even though the majority of our respondents indicated public restrooms were the nastiest, what we actually learned from reading their personal stories was that most of those public restrooms were actually located in restaurants.  That means, the restaurant staff that handles your menus, cooks your food and serves it to you is using the same disgusting restroom facilities that made you want to gag and run.

After reading our respondents “personal stories” I also learned that the majority of people we come into contact with daily, simply do not wash their hands.  This means wait staff, store clerks, executives and everyone in between are shaking your hands or handling the same door knobs that you handle and, in so doing, are spreading all of their germs.  What ever they touch has the residue of thousands of touches before them.

Some of the public restroom stories we read were simply too gross to share but suffice it to say, you are better off peeing in the woods with the animals then contaminating yourself in one of those places.  Additionally, we found that restroom changing tables, even those in well-respected food establishments, were absolutely horrifying.

When respondents indicated that movie theaters were the most germy places they encountered, further reading led us to believe it wasn’t the movie theatre, per se, but the restroom inside the movie theatre.  Since all personnel use the restrooms, the germs are brought directly to the concession stand.  And when you pop that popcorn into your mouth, your using the same hands to eat with that you used to open the restroom door and turn the faucet knobs!

 Am I a germ-freak?  Yes. In fact, I come from a family of germ freaks.  My mother, sisters and I often have identical “public toilet” nightmares so we think the whole germ-freak thing is genetic (which could explain a number of things…).  But I have to confess I’ve stepped up my concerns and my germ-cleansing tactics after conducting this challenge.

According to Reader’s Digest (February 2008), there’s a new strain of the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria roaming about.   And believe me, you don’t want to catch this nasty little bugger!

I hyked over to the MayoClinic.com website for a quick rundown of the symptoms and here’s what I found:

Staph infections, including MRSA, generally start as small red bumps that resemble pimples, boils or spider bites. These can quickly turn into deep, painful abscesses that require surgical draining. Sometimes the bacteria remain confined to the skin. But they can also burrow deep into the body, causing potentially life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, the bloodstream, heart valves and lungs.

So, how do you avoid this particular strain of bacteria?  Apparently, much the same way you would avoid all others:  you thoroughly wash your hands.

According to the Reader’s Digest article, “There are no preventive treatments or vaccines specific to this strain, but good hygiene, such as hand-washing can reduce transmission.”

It’s very important to pay attention to the public places you frequent so you can better equip yourself to fight disease-causing germs where they lurk.  Public restrooms are nuisance#1 and even the most ardent germ fighter can loose the battle.  Make certain you use clean paper towels to open and close doors and turn faucet knobs.  At the very least, use your sleeve, but don’t wash your hands and then touch everything you see!

We conducted our own research on the grimiest public places (you can read about it in our Grimiest Germ Survey Results article) and found that shopping carts are among the most disgusting public surfaces.  Naturally, we recommend using our Clean Shopper shopping cart cover to protect you and your baby when shopping, but you can always use antibacterial wipes as well.

The only concern I have with the antibacterial wipes as opposed to shopping cart covers is the residue that antibacterial cleansers leave behind.  It’s not a problem for adults, but for babies who constantly suck and teeth on the shopping cart handlebar and metal sides, it may not be the healthiest substance to ingest.

Whether or not you use a shopping cart cover to protect you and your baby from the virus-causing germs that lurk on shopping carts, always remember to wash your hands!

When I first started touting the benefits of my Clean Shopper shopping cart cover, retailers thought I was nuts.  Moms on the other hand, caught on immediately. None of them wanted their precious babies exposed to E.coli and other disease-causing viruses that lurk on shopping carts.

Today there are so many shopping cart cover companies on the market it makes your head spin.  Why have shopping cart covers become so popular?  Because, if made correctly and of quality construction, shopping cart covers are easy to use, machine washable, dryer safe and can be conveniently stored for future use.  In a nutshell, the few seconds it takes to put on a Clean Shopper shopping cart cover are well worth the savings of not having to visit the doctor with a sick baby.  Plus, there’s nothing like shopping with a happy, occupied baby whose sippy cup doesn’t fall on the grimy grocery store floor!

With all of the shopping cart covers on the market today, how do you choose the right shopping cart cover for you and your baby?  It’s easy:

1. Pick a shopping cart cover that does what you want it to do, mainly cover the entire seating area of the shopping cart, including all sides, corners, handlebars and anything a little one can touch. 
2. Pick a shopping cart cover that can also be used on restaurant high chairs (you’ll want to once you start thinking about what is actually left behind on a high chair after a baby uses it). 
3. Make sure the entire shopping cart cover is machine washable and dryer safe and doesn’t require you to line dry or remove parts before washing.
4. Make sure the shopping cart cover comes with a storage case.  You will want to wash and store in your car so it’s convenient for your next use
5. Make sure you are buying from a reputable company.  If the website you visit does not provide contact information, physical mailing address  (no P.Os!) or a human, you may want to consider going elsewhere.  Make sure the company lists their return policy so you can be confident that if you are not satisfied with your shopping cart cover, you can return it without any hassles.
6. Now consider such things as functionality and style.  Do you want a shopping cart cover with a juvenile print to entertain baby, or a modern print to reflect on your tastes?  What about a print you can’t find anywhere else?  Do you want pockets and toy loops? 
7. Finally, consider your price range.  Do you want to spend $30 or $300?   Yes, I have seen them for $300!  Sometimes less is more.  In my opinion, why spend $150 on something you can by for $35?  That way, you can put the extra savings into buying those adorable little outfits you keep seeing!