First of all, I believe Lonnie Scruggs, was a great man who, while he did charge for his knowledge, made a whole lot of people a whole lot of money. I would never try to take that away from him.

Second, through no fault of Lonnie's, times have changed. The federal government of the 50s and the 60s and even the 70s is no longer small business friendly. They know they cannot be cost effective in regulating and taxing small business so they want it gone. Accordingly, they are more and more aggressive in regulating small businesses and building in costs of regulation that make it difficult, if not impossible, for small business to afford the cost of regulation.

Third, I know no one likes change - especially when it requires either spending money they hadn't planned for, or worse, quitting a business they depend on for their livelihood. The problem with the type of magical thinking that appears both in this forum and many other places is it is dangerous. It is akin to teenagers thinking, " I can't get pregnant (or she can't get pregnant) if we only do it just this once without protection".

So, in a series of posts to this thread, I am going to try to outline the dangers for all to see, to at least warn those that read it what they are up against. This will take some time so it won't all show up today or tomorrow, but I will continue to post until all of it is laid out.

Fourth. I do own a national consulting company that helps people with all of this. I am not posting to troll for business. Most of you, I believe, would not be able to justify most of our costs, and I have little or no expectation that all of you will want to engage us. We do quite well working with retailers and community owners who have the volume to afford our services. I will, however, give general ideas of costs when it seem appropriate and try to quantify how much volume it takes to justify compliance.

I hope all of this will help.