Small business regulation and how it can benefit your bottom dollar.

This example of small business regulation in action may help you understand how effective policy can benefit your business.

When I moved to Colorado to start a folk punk hippie herbalism fermentation company, the idea of regulation made my blood boil. BOIL. Imagine the three witches in Macbeth stirring a cauldron of eye of newt and I was the stinky smelly stubborn steam. So I screamed and I scrambled and then I succumbed. Because small business regulation is heavy sigh necessary (in a capitalist society, which is where we live).

But what the heck is it? Dictionary.com defines regulation as “an authoritative rule dealing with details or procedure. Vom. If you read my blog on policy, then equate regulation to the government’s policy binder AKA a navy blue 3 hole punch conglomerate of footnotes.

Imagine a pyramid. Policy is the bottom of the pyramid, compliance is the middle of the pyramid, and regulation is the top. It’s like the food pyramid we all grew up with but instead of bread at the bottom there’s a lot of boring words.

How you are regulated will depend on the type of business you have. For my food/beverage company, I was regulated by the Health Department for my county and also the FDA. I had to create and adhere to policies that reflected the standards of the authority/government. By doing so, I learned that regulation is actually pretty important.

If I had been left unregulated, I’d have served customers three-month-old kimchi out of buckets. If you’re unfamiliar with kimchi, you’re probably like “WHOAH that’s gross” or “how did she own a business.” Well guess what? Kimchi is a fermented food that can be prepared in food safe buckets and that is AOK with the FDA. Three months is a long time to ferment though, and I learned through required acidity testing due to government regulations that I could turn over a batch of kimchi in less than a month, saving me time, energy, and money.

With this knowledge, I created policies that included acidity testing and once a batch of kimchi hit the desired level, I harvested it, packaged it, sold it, then started a new one. I was able to turn over three harvests per month versus one harvest every three months. This is one example of how effective policies can save you time and make you money.

Learning your industry’s regulations and how they may benefit you can be crucial to your business. Yes, of course you need to do it to stay legal and open, but notice how staying legal also benefitted my bottom dollar. If you’d rather spend your time pursuing your passion than checking into the authoritative rulings dealing with procedure for your company, reach out and this business owner turned legal nerd will be happy to help.

FUN FACT: Traditionally kimchi is prepared by burying napa cabbage and spices in a crock underground for several months. I can guarantee the stuff you buy at the store or at your local farmer's market has never touched the ground, but it's interesting to know the history.