Using Barcodes to Boost Your Biz

Question: I launched a hot sauce business two years ago using direct sales by mail order and online. Now we're growing and to get our product carried by other distributors we need a bar code. But I don't know a twit about where to get such a thing, or how to use it or how it works. Please help!

Answer: Ah, yes, the ubiquitous bar code - also known as a Universal Product Code (UPC) or "automatic identification device." If your small business produces a product of almost any kind, you'll probably need to understand and make use of these handy little devices. Barcodes have multiple uses for small business beyond simply attaching them to product packaging. For example, they're also big time and money savers for tracking parts, inventory, coupons, invoices or documents. These uses are known as "electronic data interchange" or EDI. Here are some places than can help make you a bar code expert.

• The Universal Product Code (or bar code, as we know it) provides individual identification for each product warehoused, sold, delivered and billed through retail and wholesale channels. The 12-digit, all-numeric bar code identifies each individual product as well as the company that makes it. Here's the tricky part: You must become a "member" of the Lawrenceville, NJ-based Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC) in order to obtain your very own numbers. It's a two-step process. UPC membership gets you a unique number, but you must then go to a commercial bar code vendor to produce the bar code symbols themselves. The UCC Web site (www.uc-council.org) explains it all. To find the answers you need, click on FAQs at the top of the page, and then on UCC Member Organization FAQs. Step by step instructions are included, and you can apply for membership online or by phone. Cost is based on the number of products you have and your annual sales. For help with electronic data interchange (EDI), visit the Standards & Technology section of the Web site. To find bar code vendors, search the UCC's Solution Providers Directory under "Education and Support." Visit the UCC Web site at uc-council.org. You can also call UCC customer service, based in Dayton, OH, at (937) 435-3870 or e-mail info@uc-council.org.
  

• AIM Inc., based in Pittsburgh, PA, is the trade association for the automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) industry. Members are manufacturers or service providers of technologies such as radio frequency identification, bar codes and card technologies such as magnetic stripe, smart card and optical card. This organization's free Web site can help you learn about how to use bar codes and how they can build your business. The AIM site has a good search feature that can help you find bar code resources, locate equipment and service providers near you and answer your specific questions about how the technology works for your particular industry. Visit the site at www.aimglobal.org. Call (412) 963-8588 or e-mail info@aimglobal.org.
  
  
• System ID Warehouse, a top source of bar code products and services since 1986, has a super-helpful Web site for bar code beginners in small business, including a "Learning Center" that can quickly bring you up to speed on bar code basics. There's also a discussion forum and a Q&A section. System ID has a huge inventory of bar code hardware and software, including complete kits, scanners, printers, software and more. Visit the Web site at www.systemid.com. Get what you need online or call (888) 648-4452. To reach a technical sales rep call (972) 516-1100.
  
  
• A few other leading bar code solutions vendors include: Zebra Technologies (www.zebra.com), based in Vernon Hills, IL, call (800) 423-0422; Camcode (www.camcod.com) is part of the Horizons Product Identification Group, based in Cleveland, OH. Call (800) 627-3917; Worth Data (www.barcodehq.com), based in Santa Cruz, CA, call (800) 345-4220; and Barcoding Inc. (www.barcoding.com), in Baltimore, MD, call (888) 860-7226.