Making My Side Hustle GPSR-compliant - Part I
AI-Augmented Risk Assessment (Workflow + ChatGPT prompts + Free Bonus)
For a solo maker, GPSR compliance feels overwhelming, but with the help of ChatGPT, and tools like Google Docs and Notion, I managed to tackle the first critical steps: creating a risk assessment and a Technical Product Information Sheet (TPIS) in a weekend.
In this post, I’ll share how I approached the process, the challenges I faced, and how I used AI to complete the risk assessment for my MagSafe Holder Clamps.
Whether you’re a small business owner or just curious about leveraging AI tools for productivity, this is for you.
What is GPSR and Why Does It Matter for My Small Business?
When I started my side hustle designing and selling products online, I wasn’t thinking about compliance.
Like many small business owners, I was busy creating, marketing, and shipping orders—all this on evenings and weekends! I thought sending product instructions was enough.
Then I stumbled across discussions on Reddit and Threads about the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR).
It turns out GPSR is a major EU law designed to ensure consumer safety, and it applies to almost everyone selling products in the EU—even micro-businesses like mine.
GPSR compliance requires you to:
- Perform a risk assessment for all products.
- Create Technical Product Information Sheets (TPIS).
- Add product labels with manufacturer info and safety warnings.
- Update online product descriptions, include batch tracking, and have a recall protocol.
At first, it felt like an impossible task for someone running a one-person business. But after digging deeper and reading posts by @bluebellbuntingwimborne (who’s also navigating this as a small business owner), I realized it’s manageable if you tackle it step by step.
View on Threads
So I decided to give it a go, and I started with a risk assessment for my MagSafe Holder Clamps—it’s the foundation for everything else, and with the help of AI, I got it done in a week (more or less!).
My Motivation: Becoming Compliant as a Maker
At one point, I seriously considered stopping sales to EU customers altogether. GPSR compliance felt overwhelming, and the requirements seemed excessive for a small business like mine.
I’m based in Italy, and the EU accounts for about half of my sales. Giving up on such a big market didn’t sit right with me, but I didn’t want to risk fines or audits for something I didn’t even know I was doing wrong.
Luckily, I came across posts by @bluebellbuntingwimborne on Threads. Eleanor shared insights from her own GPSR journey, which made me realize it’s possible to comply, even as a micro-business. That push gave me the confidence to dive in and tackle the first step: creating a risk assessment for my best-selling product.
I focused on this step first because it lays the groundwork for everything else. Once the risk assessment is done, creating other documents like Technical Product Information Sheets (TPIS) and product labels becomes much easier.
I figured I only needed to learn the workflow once, then I could apply it to my other products and refine it over time.
Having these workflows in place isn't really something that would slow me down. On the opposite, it sets a strong foundation for building my business. By asking myself questions about safety and compliance, the overall quality of my products will inevitably grow as a side effect.
This may seem counterintuitive but it's a verified fact from several businesses.
For example, the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg tells you how creating habits can greatly affect the outcomes of any business, with examples from huge corporations like ALCOA in the US. I want to set good habits and create the right skills to grow - even if my business could change in the future.
Another advantage of being compliant: since many are scared by the new GPSR, it is possible that there will be less competition for some small businesses selling in the EU at least for some time.
How I Created a Risk Assessment for a Home-Made Product (and How You Can Too)
When I started working on my risk assessment, I had no idea what it should look like. There’s no official template or guide, and that alone can be intimidating. But I broke it into manageable steps, used AI tools like ChatGPT to streamline the process, and focused on building a workflow I could replicate for my other products. Here’s how I did it:
Step 1: Start with the Product Description
Your product description is the foundation of your risk assessment. Since I sell online, I already had descriptions from my Etsy listings. I copied the text into ChatGPT so it could help me draft a risk assessment document from it.
I didn’t just ask “Do a risk assessment for this product”. Instead, I used some prompt engineering to obtain a better response and transform my listing text into a Product description I could use in my risk assessment document while giving information to the Ai about my product so it can help me.
Here’s an example of the prompt I used:
"You are an expert consumer product compliance advisor with extensive experience in micro-businesses operating in the EU. Your role is to help draft detailed and professional documentation that aligns with the requirements of the EU's General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR).
Based on this product listing: [Insert listing text here],
please create the following sections:
1. Product Description: Write a technical description, highlighting purpose, design, and functionality.
2. Components and Features: Break down the main components, their materials, and purposes.
3. Customization Options: Explain available variations and how they affect functionality or safety.
4. Usage Guidelines: Provide detailed setup, environmental conditions, and safety precautions."
The output was a good starting point, but I refined it by providing more context about the product and of course with some manual editing.
For example, I added details about hidden components (like embedded magnets and hardware) that weren’t mentioned in the listing.
I also started to add more details, telling the Ai about the composition of each one of the components and their usage. Here’s the prompt I used:
The product listing I gave you does not include a bunch of additional parts assambled.
The clamp can be fit into a desk shelf using an M6 thumb screw and an M6 hex nut that is built into the 3D printed parts.
The thumbscrew has a small thrust pad, which is 3D printed, and held in position thanks to an M3 x 35 fallen screw, a plain washer, two M3 hex nuts and 4 small 3D printed parts that lock everything together in place.
You cannot disassemble those small parts without breaking the product. There are also 2 built-in magnets in the phone holder (which you can remove, if you push them through a hole using a 6 mm diameter, long object).
The phone holder has a detachable front cover made of laser-cut wood, which also has two embedded magnets, which you can't remove unless you break the cover itself.
The additional small part is a "lock" which you need to place on the back of the phone holder to secure it into the clamp.
The front covers are made of a sandwich.
They are composed of a 2 mm plywood core, and two external layers of wood veneer, which is glue before laser cutting using PVA, water-soluble adhesive.
After cutting, the covers are hand sanded multiple times, and then waxed with beeswax and polished.
Please include these in the description of the components.
You might say I could’ve just written everything myself - and you’re right - but doing it this way - giving more details to the Ai - helps create context, so it can help you when creating the actual risk assessment.
After the final manual edits, I just added some photos with descriptive captions for clarity.
Step 2: Define the Purpose, Intended Use, and Intended Consumer
Next, I needed to clearly state what the product is designed for, how it should be used, and who it’s meant for.
This step is critical because it sets boundaries for how the product is intended to function, which can help identify risks later.
Here’s the prompt I used to get started:
Based on the product description, components, and features provided, draft the following sections:
1. Purpose and Intended Use: Clearly define the primary purpose of the product, its key features, and any limitations (e.g., not suitable for children or outdoor use).
2. Intended Consumer: Identify the target audience and who the product is *not* intended for (e.g., children, users with incompatible devices). Use a formal tone to ensure regulatory clarity.
Again, this required some back and forth to refine the AI-generated output, but it was much faster than starting from scratch.
Step 3: Create a Detailed List of Components and Materials
A risk assessment needs a detailed breakdown of the product’s components, the materials used, and any relevant safety considerations.
To organize this, I divided my product into three categories:
- In-House Manufactured Components: (e.g., 3D-printed parts and laser-cut wooden covers).
- Sourced Components: (e.g., magnets, screws, and fasteners).
- Packaging Materials: (e.g., shipping boxes and tape).
Here’s an example from my in-house components:
**3D-Printed Parts (PLA)**
- Material: Food-grade PLA filament.
- Components: Phone holder, desk clamp, security lock, etc.
- Safety Considerations:
- Biodegradable, non-toxic during normal use.
- Compliant with REGULATION (EC) No 1272/2008 and Directive 2011/65/EU.
- Avoid prolonged exposure to high temperatures (>50°C).
And an example from sourced components:
*Magnets (N42 Neodymium)**
- Made in the EU
- Coating: Nickel
- Safety Considerations:
- Small parts pose a choking hazard
- Electrically conductive parts (children might try to inset them in power outlets and suffer from an electric shock)
- Some people have an allergic reaction when they come into contact with nickel.
- Nickel allergies could develop from perpetual contact with Nickel
- Strong magnetic field warning required
- Keep away from electronic medical devices
- RoHS and REACH compliant
I used ChatGPT to structure the initial list, but I added details by reviewing Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) from my suppliers. Since they are PDF documents, I uploaded them to ChatGPT and asked it to extract the main risks for consumers’ health and relevant certifications related to material safety.
I did a lot of editing in this case, as many of the risks are not applicable to a consumer product. For instance, the dust from machining magnets is flammable, but I don’t expect any customer to start pulverizing the magnets and light a candle afterward.
For items purchased on Amazon Marketplace, I contacted suppliers to request missing safety information.
I found that Amazon had this small section on each listing:

Not sure how long it has been there, but when I click it, there’s the contact for each manufacturer and their EU-responsible person.

So I sent the following email to the contact person of each of the products I bought on Amazon, for which I couldn’t find the MSDS on the manufacturer’s website.
Hello,
I purchased from Amazon Marketplace [Product I purchased]. ASIN [ASIN code for the product].
Could you please provide any safety related information about the product? I intend to use them to manufacture consumer products, so I need to include this in my Risk Assessment as per EU GPSR (EC 988/2023)
I appreciate your help.
Have a great day,
A total of 10 emails. Not that bad, with just copy-paste and some changes for each. You can find the ASIN codes in the details section for each product.
Step 4: Explain your Manufacturing Process and Tools
The next step in my risk assessment was documenting the manufacturing processes behind each component. This is essential for spotting risks and ensuring product quality. Also, you can reference back to this in the next section to highlight how you are mitigating some risks.
I created a table to organize this step, breaking it down into four columns:
- Process: The method used, like FDM (3D printing), laser cutting, hand sanding, or manual assembly.
- Components: The parts affected by the process.
- Materials: What’s used during the process (e.g., PLA filament, wood veneer, adhesives).
- Comments: Any extra details, such as safety considerations or quality control steps (e.g., deburring edges or embedding magnets securely).
Here’s an example:
Process | Components | Materials | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
FDM (3D Printing) | Phone holder, desk clamp | PLA filament | Hex nuts are embedded during printing and securely trapped inside the parts. |
Hand Sanding | Front cover | Composite plywood | Covers are sanded and deburred to remove sharp edges, ensuring a smooth finish. |
I used ChatGPT to draft the table structure and fill in the details based on my actual processes.
This helped me think critically about each step, making it easier to identify potential risks and mitigation actions in the next stage.
Step 5: Identify Risks and Mitigation Measures

I’ve never worked in product compliance, and I'm not a legal expert, but I've performed risk assessments before as an Engineer. I’ve also attended many industrial safety courses which are mandatory in Italy.
The approach to workplace safety in Italy is basically: you need to think of all possible risks and put in place all possible measures so that no one would be able to hurt themselves, not even if they tried really hard.
Now, this is excessive, but it gives you an idea of what EU legislation considers “safe”. The key aspect of GPSR is we have to make sure the products we are selling are safe for consumers. That’s the whole point of the risk assessment.
With all the product details in place, I moved on to identifying potential risks. I asked ChatGPT to analyze the product’s components and materials to help brainstorm hazards, like:
- Small parts that could pose a choking hazard.
- Allergies to any substances.
- Fire hazards.
Then, I uploaded the MSDS PDF files I had and asked it to extract the risks for consumer health and add them to the list.
This is the prompt I used:
I've written the following list of components for this product: [Insert Long list of components and hazards, including the information extracted from MSDS manually or with GPT]
Would you help me write the Risk Management table? I want to make a table that describes all possible risks for consumer health, along with the actions taken to minimize them.
The table should contain three columns: Hazard, Likelihood and Control Measures.
Each row of the table must correspond with a single hazard, which must be described in the Hazards column. In the Likelihood column, plase enter the values High, Medium or Low, according to how likely is the user of this product to be exposed to such hazard. In the column Control measures, describe a short list of possible mitigating actions that reduce the risk of such hazard, considering the designs of the product and how it's made, and possible warnings or instructions I could give to the customers.
I obtained a table like this one:
Hazard | Likelihood | Control Actions |
---|---|---|
Flammability due to wood and PLA, and deformation due to low glass transition temperature of PLA (~60°C) |
Medium | - Instructions and TPIS include warnings to avoid prolonged exposure to high temperatures (>50°C) and open flames. - Users are advised to keep the product in ambient conditions. |
Risk of fire due to pinching, twisting or short-circuiting of the external Apple MagSafe charger or its cable |
Low | - Apple’s MagSafe charger are designed as mass production consumer devices and it is reasonable to assume that thorough measures have been taken by Apple to ensure their chargers are safe to use. Therefore this risk is considered low. The product has been designed so that the cable of the MagSafe charger is securely routed on the back part of the holder. |
Risk of small parts being ingested (e.g., hex nuts, screws, magnets) |
High | - Packaging includes the warning: “WARNING: This product contains small parts that may constitute a choking hazard. Keep away from children and pets.” - The product’s packaging is labeled as not a toy. - Small parts, such as magnets and hex nuts, are securely trapped inside l arger components to prevent easy removal. |
I needed to do some back and forth prompting to tune it, as some of the hazards it included were not applicable. For example, it included a “risk of failure from holding heavy parts as a structural component” which probably got from the information of the fasteners and magnets. I needed to edit that.
It also mentioned at some point that I’d do chemical tests to make sure there weren’t any harmful substances or that their limits were within safe limits. Of course, I am not able to do that since I’m making these in my spare time and those tests are expensive. The way I mitigate such risk is by using non-harmful substances as indicated by the MSDS from the suppliers.
Step 5: Review and Finalize
After drafting all the sections, I reviewed everything to ensure consistency and accuracy.
This is where I added photos of the product, labeled with captions to clarify components and safety measures, and removed overly complex control actions.
The important thing is to make sure it reflects the actual product and the actual mitigation actions you have in place.
Key Takeaways
Creating a risk assessment might seem overwhelming, but breaking it into these five steps makes it manageable:
- Start with your product description and refine it for formal documentation.
- Define the product’s purpose, intended use, and target audience.
- Detail all components and materials, highlighting relevant safety considerations.
- Describe your manufacturing processes and tools.
- Identify potential risks and link them to mitigation measures.
- Review and refine the document, adding visuals for clarity.
You don't have to do it all in one go. Plus, once you know the process, it's easier to replicate it for other products.
If you’re a small business owner like me, I hope this workflow helps you get started.
In my next post, I’ll dive into how I used the risk assessment to create a Technical Product Information Sheet (TPIS).
Bonus: Something for you to copy
This is the first draft of the risk assessment for my MagSafe holders.
I created it on a weekend and tuned it for a few hours during this week. Of course there's a lot of room for improvement, but I wanted to share it as an example.
As described above, I used ChatGPT to do the bulk of the work and refined it iteratively.