End of semester

The end of the semester is here and though I do not wish for any more classes or tests I have had a good semester. In this post I would like to bring a conclusion to all of the work that I have done this semester for my business. I have learned a lot about how to discover a business. The most important message that I learned is that if I want to be successful I need to be bold and get to work. Nothing happens from sitting around and thinking. I need to get out and test my ideas. Go sell some stuff, ask people what they like, and gather ideas from others. With the coming summer I hope to really get rolling on my business. Not only will I have more time; I will have lots of events to go and try selling my toys. Once I can start selling I will be able to really develop my dashboard and make plans to build the business.

Internet and letting time fly

There have been two really great things that have changed the way that I will be able to work in the coming weeks. First, I have a friend who is going to be able to help me set up an internet site. All I have to do is get some pictures together and we will put together a website. He knows everything that I had questions on and is willing to help. I need to get some professional pictures taken and I will sell my good online. I don't anticipate immediate business but it will be a great place for return business and so forth. I am excited about it. It may be premature to make a website but it is inexpensive and can be maintained for an easy amount.

the second key is the Square. I was introduced to this in class. this is genius. I can definately use this tool when working at the farmers market selling my good. this allows me to work with credit cards. I think this will be tremendously useful. I can't wait for spring to come and the markets to begin so I can test out my toys on the market.

Invoices and craziness

Ok. After a lot of work we were able to make the 48 toys for the Red balloon and gave them to Paul (the owner) this morning. I forgot to make any kind of an invoice but I went home and with the help of templates from Word I created an invoice that I think looks professional and will do the job. This has led me to many different questions that I need to get answered. Like what do I need to know about taxes for my business. Do I need to claim my family members that helped out on the project as employees or can I keep them all out of that mess and just pay them a portion of the profits. There are so many things that I need to learn. I think that a good contact for me to ask these questions is a guy named Dale, who owns a company and should know first hand about all my questions. I will email him and see what I can find out.

Gregory

in the shop

Alrighty, I made the first step in getting my toy into a shop called "The Red Balloon". I would love to sell my toys in a shop because it takes work away from me, I will be free to just make the toy. I will lose money because Paul from the Red ballon will mark up the toy substantially but for now I can live with it and learn about how to make my toy better. I will basically consign my toy in his shop and take $7.50 for every toy he sells (he will sell for $15). He suggested a few things to do to improve the toy while leaving them as suggestions I see the value in his opinion and plan to implement them. Darken the paint, try different colors on the toys, think about making a pull toy version, apply for a patent, do better at stressing that it is made in Utah, and make a poster to advertise a little (for in the shop). I have 14 days to make and deliver the toys to him and he will put them in his store and we will see how they sell. I am excited to learn how the market likes the toys.

what can I do now?

Well i have taken the first step in getting my idea out. I have just set up an appointment to meet with the owner of Red Balloon Toys. He runs a very nice toy shop that sells all types of toys but does a good job of selling unique toys. The shop sells a lot of toys that are made in china but all are very unique. It made me think about how important it is that I make my toy unique and appealing. well lets see how the appointment goes and we'll move from there.

hey here is a picture of the main toy that we are going to sell. This is just the beginning. I have other toys but they all hinge on the basic plan of this chicken and egg.

Alright for the assignment for the 4th week of class I will post my responses here.

1. Plan A find out where i can sell the toys and for how much. I just posted my toy on Ebay this last week and have had about 4 hits. Ebay is not the place to sell toys, there is just too many different toys and none of them are being sold. It took me 10 min to find my ad just going through the website. I need to find a more direct way of getting to the consumer. I think that the next best way is to sell my toy at local shops. This would hit the kinds of people that would enjoy the toy, people that like to buy local and want unique toys for their loved ones. I am going to start contacting stores to see if they would be willing to stock my toy.

2. I know how much the toy cost to produce $2.25 give or take. This includes all wood and materials to make one toy. Labor is not included in this cost. At this time we can make about 3 full toys in an hour. The amount of time it takes is variable depending on what we do to the toy. Lots of painting takes lots of time. To make the simplest cutouts we could possibly do 10-15 an hour because of all the saved time on painting.

I don't know how much people will really pay for them, if they really like the idea, and how hard I will have to work getting people to buy them. Is it possible to find 20 or so vendors and let them do the selling and just focus on replenishing the stock (this is what I would really like). If not, is it worth going to every state fair in america and farmers market in Utah selling these toys