How to Start a Toy Business

Are you a kid at heart? You might want to consider learning how to start a toy business. This profitable business can be built around your skill for making unique, fun toys, or you can buy toys wholesale and sell them through mail order or from your own toy store. Either way, you’ll have customers of all ages who love toys and want exactly what you have to offer.

What You’ll Need to Succeed with a Toy Business

If you plan to make your own toys, you will of course need the necessary materials and tools to do so. Toy makers are typically quite passionate about their trade, so chances are you have already been making toys when you decided to learn how to start a toy business.

If your plan is to buy toys from toy wholesalers and sell them at retail prices, your first step will be to research the various manufacturers and suppliers. Part of your research should be to contact current and former customers of these suppliers to make sure whoever you choose is reputable and trustworthy.

Once you’ve researched your potential suppliers, you’ll have a good idea of what your costs are going to be. Using this information as well as other overhead figures, you can determine for how much you will need to sell your toys to turn a healthy profit. But before you make any final decisions on pricing, be sure to also research the competition. If your toys are priced higher than anyone else, you better have something to offer your customers that no one else has. On the other hand, this research might reveal that you had planned on charging far less than your competition and could lead to more profits.

A business license, sales tax permit, and insurance are all items you’ll need to look into. A few states don’t charge sales tax, but most do, and a business license is required wherever you are. Also, if you plan to operate out of your home, check local zoning ordinances to make sure it’s allowed.

If you are going to open a retail store, make sure it is in a location where your target market shops. If you carry high end toys, locate in a mall or shopping center where people with extra money to spend on toys shop.

How to Market A Toy Business

Perhaps the most challenging part of learning how to start a toy business is figuring out how to spread the word about your new business.  One key is to grab the attention of your audience with plenty of color and fun. Whether using print media, television ads, or the internet, make sure all you do reflects the joy of being in the toy business.

If you’ve decided to make your own toys, approach local toy shops to talk about the possibility of their carrying your line of toys. This has resulted in some product makers building huge, thriving businesses. People have begun selling their products in a single local chain store and eventually ended up supplying to the entire chain.

Direct mail and email, using targeted, vetted lists of likely customers is another way to spread the word about your toys. Even if you have a store, you can still take orders that get shipped to customers all over the world.

Learning how to start a toy business involves quite a bit of work, just like any business, but it’s a whole lot of fun too. So get started, stay focused, and keep driving toward your dream!

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