Information on opening a licensed Sex Shop.

If you intend opening a Sex Shop in your town, l will be writing the procedure for you to follow and l wish you well.
In the case with Taboo Evesham, the first thing to do is find the premises, contact the letting agent and agree a rent and lease term. The letting agent will always try and get you tied into a long lease, DO NOT AGREE TO THIS instead tell them what you want.
Myself l went for a 3 year lease, with a 15 month pull out clause, if they won't agree, walk away and find somewhere else. In most cases they want your money and will back down.
The Lease, you do not need a fancy lease, written up by  solicitors, in most cases you can do it all using a standard Law Society Lease. About £20.00.
If both parties agree, then go back to the premises and take a lot of photos, showing the outside, inside, and damage, and damp patches, toilets and kitchen area. REMEMBER you will have to put back anything you remove if you close your business.
In the case of Taboo Evesham, all the night storage heaters were damaged, so with the permission of the landlord, they were removed and binned. Always get permission if you intend to remove existing fittings.
Next is to arrange a meeting with the local licensing officer, and get a Sex Shop licence application form. At this meeting, don't go on about this and that, keep to the facts, what you want to do, where you want to do it, and how you intend to do it.
Listen to what he or she says, and work with them.
Ask for three copies of the application form and fill each one in at home.
We are now at the point where things have to be done in order.
The first thing to do is place a window notice at the shop, DO NOT put it low, or at the top, but in a place where a member of the public can read it at head height.
As in photo number one, you can see that its on the door.
When you have placed this in the window, you will start to get the complaints coming in.
Next arrange a public notice to be printed in the local paper, for the following week.
When this is printed you will then start to hear the moans while working outside, in the case of Taboo Evesham, the odd brolly form the club 80 to death brigade was aimed at me on a number of occasions.
Your local licensing officer will normally send you a copy of each complaint as he or she gets them, .
Now you must send off the application forms. The first one to the council with the fee, what ever it is for your area along with this a copy of the local paper with the public notice in and also a copy of the window notice.
The second copy must go to the local police.
The third you keep for your records.
At some stage you will get a letter from the council advising you of the date for your license hearing approx 28 days after.
This is the stage where you must decide if you need a solicitor to go to the meeting with you or whether you can go it alone.
Myself, l decided to use my solicitor, Judith Kenney from Kieran & Co in Worcester due to the amounts of written complaints received by the council from members of the public and also the fact that she had worked with me over the last 10 years with other cases involving Taboo
License Hearing, this can be  one of two thing, a full committee meeting or a sub committee meeting, both will have the same outcome, one is smaller than the other.
At Evesham is was a sub committee, a large room with sitting for members of the public, an area for yourself and your legal team. The front bench made up of three members of the sub committee, the licensing officer and a few others, making minutes of the meeting.
The running order, first thing, the licensing officer will read out your application, advising the members of any objections received. Any objections received that are deemed to be moral, will be thrown out, because someone don't like something, that is not a reason to object.
The next stage is for any objectors to have their chance to speak, you will find that most of the time the objectors will not turn up, as in my case. Most councils will at this point take a dim view, that people can write in and not make the effort to turn up on the day.
At this the chairman will turn to you and ask you to talk if you wish, be prepared, have notes ready, press the button for the microphone and speak clearly, don't ramble on and on, keep to the point, take your time, you are on stage, you have all the time in the world.
Next, they will turn to your solicitor for the summing up of your application, he or she will then tell the sub committee all about you, your past, any convictions that you have pointed out and basically the fact that you are a business like any other business.
The Final, the sub committee will that have a chat amongst themselves, and in my case, turned to me and said my license was granted and wish you luck. Stand up, thank the sub committee and the licensing officer and make your way out the building a happy person.
So there you have it, a standard Procedure for opening a Sex Shop.