Design A Toy
Anything that involves children can be great business. Given that it is almost impossible to keep up with kids fads and trends unless you have kids yourself a great gift option is personalised clothing or toys. My preference is toys as being a typical single guy I usually get the sizes wrong if I pick clothes.
As with many of our ideas there are a number of successful businesses which specialise in making or distributing personalised children's toys, the key to your success will be differentiation.
Your primary market will be children or those who are shopping for children but there are other markets available for this kind of enterprise. Examples include people buying for their sweethearts, and corporate gifts.
There are numerous ways in which you can handle the distribution, but remember
that you need to be able to take specific orders, and verify them before producing
something unique that you may not be able to re-sell if you get it wrong. Some
ideas include: -
Start a shop
Web based distribution
Advertise in the local newspaper
Give Bears away to local charities or community events
Starting a shop is a relatively expensive business model, but in this instance it may be possible to take some space in an existing retail environment, for example a booth at your local supermarket, or even a booth inside your local petrol (gas) Station. The key is to keep it small so that it does not cost much to fit out, and to ensure that you have a high amount of foot traffic that will see your product and may buy on impulse. Many independent petrol stations struggle to compete with the major chains and the rent that you would pay for your space may help them to keep going. You can read more on starting a shop in our "finding customers" pages on the website.
Websites are only useful if you can achieve sufficient traffic. We usually recommend them for supporting an offline business but in this case, with the right promotion, the internet may be your most useful distribution tool. You will need to invest some time and/or money in getting the design right and allowing users to make choices before they purchase, but the ability to show how the toy will look in different combinations is something that can only be achieved with the internet. Be prepared to invest in online and offline advertising, Search Engine Optimisation, and accept the fact that it takes a little time to build traffic.
Being local is a huge plus with any business, many people are just happier if they can see, touch, feel the quality of what they are buying. They like to know that they can bring faulty goods back, and if they intend to repeat buy that they can build a relationship with the business owner. For all these reasons advertising in your local newspaper is a cheap and effective means of advertising a small business. If you are prepared to offer delivery services and to accept orders by phone this will be even more effective.
At first glance it might seems a little callous; but giving away your toys to appropriate events and causes is a great way of getting publicity, and of doing your bit to help within the local community. Personalised toys can either be offered with the name of the charity/event organiser on them, or with the name/picture etc of the final recipient. Naturally you will offer these gifts free in exchange for a plug at the event, in the program etc. You should attend these events and hand out plenty of business cards to ensure additional orders. It isn't necessary to be an aggressive closer simply to be enthusiastic about what you do, and the fact that you are able to help out in your own small way.
This will depend on what you propose selling, some ideas that we had included teddy bears, Frisbees, or bicycle wheel covers. Each has its own possibilities and complications. Will you have a picture on the toy, or just a name? Will you allow colour/style choices and how varied will this be? The more unique an item is the more appeal it will have but you wonˇ¦t want to bamboozle your customers with too many choices.
Have a look at www.buildabear.com to see how complex this can become. I recently bought a Bear from them through a shop in Taipei and was very impressed with the whole experience, which includes stuffing the bear yourself using a machine with a hose that blows stuffing into an empty Bear shape.
It may be possible to franchise ideas such as Build-A-Bear but equally with a bit of thought you should be able to find suppliers using our usual sources such as www.alibaba.com and www.google.com . Many manufacturers will offer a personalisation service if you buy in bulk but you will find some who will do smaller orders.
One option might be to buy a plain toy such as a teddy bear, and then to find someone to manufacture sweaters with names on to fit the bears. Then you simply have to put the correct sweater on the plain Bears to have a personalised toy. Remember that you do not have to get all your supplies from the same supplier, or even the same country. Offering a choice of Bears and maybe scarves or shoes will help.
Another option is to order a minimum quantity of each standard name (Mark, John, Suzy etc.) so that you have stock for your most popular orders. This will require a larger investment up front however.
Children's toys will be strictly controlled in many countries. Make sure you understand what the minimum standards are and check with your suppliers that they can meet them. An example would be ensuring that Children's Teddy Bears are fire resistant and do not have any sharp objects used as parts. I remember seeing a Bear on TV once which had eyes attached using 2 inch spikes, obviously dangerous if a child were to pull it out.