Evening All! Bit late this week, still feels like Monday..
So for those of you following (thanks Val), I had my new stock, but it was 250 miles away and it was a bit much to expect mum to keep posting my stuff when I sold something. She already had 2 jobs as it was (see where I get it from?)
So she offered to load the stuff up into her car and meet me halfway. So I set off on a Saturday afternoon to meet her at Warwick Services. So far so good. Then I found out a bus had caught fire on the M6 and had shut it so I had to go cross country. It took me nearly 4 hours, getting stuck behind a variety of slow moving vehicles and going round several roundabouts in Burton-On-Trent more times than was strictly necessary. I was already exhausted when I turned up at the services, but seeing mum made it better. So we stopped for tea and a chat, and then we started unloading the toys from her car, into mine.
It is surprising how much stuff you can get into a 3-series - the toys just kept coming and coming and I was lucky to get it all into my people carrier. We got some VERY funny looks from some men obviously on their way to a stag do or similar. Two portly women who look bizarrely similar putting 24 bears from one car into another at a motorway service station must be a sight you don't see there very often. I felt like I was going to be arrested at any moment and the bears were going to be slit open for the police to look for drugs.
So I hugged mum and set off home - I was pleased to have all the stuff but I was knackered. I got home about 9pm, and then I had to unload it all into my hallway - I wasn't going to leave it in the car.
Next day I got some shelving and the stock room started to take shape. It almost made me feel like I was running a business rather than having some bizarre hobby.
Yes, I did buy more shelving - one obviously wasn't enough to hold all the bears. The room was a bit spooky in the dark, they all seemed to be looking at me...
Anyway - I was on my way - all I needed now was customers. And packaging. And a Costco trade card - obviously.
Next week - bubble wrap and free muffins - the joy of being "trade"
www.rachelstoyshop.co.uk
I GOT MY FIRST SALE!!
It came at about 11.30pm on Thursday via eBay and I was very excited. It was a Cloud B Ladybug nightlight and it was to a gentleman about 5 miles away from my house. So far very very exciting.
Now if you have been reading my blog you'll know that my stock of toys was 250 miles away at my accountant's office. Despite already being dangerously close to wearing out my mother's goodwill, I asked her to post this nightlight to my customer and she was happy to help. I created my first invoice and emailed it to her, and she carefully wrapped the parcel and asked my dad to take it to the Post Office.
I got a call from him on Saturday morning, it went something like this.
Dad: "I've been to the Post Office and I think you'd better sit down"
Me: "Why? How much was it?"
Dad: "£6.30"
Me: "WHAT?"
Dad: "Don't shoot the messenger, you'd better re-think your pricing strategy".
(I tried not to bristle at this, so I changed the tone of my voice)
Me: "Why was it so expensive, did you send it Special Delivery?"
Dad: "No, its the new rules, it was a "large parcel, 2nd Class Signed For" as you asked"
Me: "Its OK, I still made £3"
Dad: "Not much good for all that effort, and you haven't allowed for packaging costs".
Now, my dad may not seem very supportive from this conversation. But don't judge him harshly. He didn't know why I was giving up a well paid job to do something like this, and he didn't believe the market was big enough. I'm talking in the past tense, but I'm pretty sure I still have some convincing to do.
I was lucky I was still in profit to be honest. And if you take into account packaging, eBay shop fees etc it wasn't enough, but I was learning every day and I still am. But one of my strong points is I'm adaptable, and I immediately started doing my research and found an alternative. This is what I do - I make mistakes (some horrendous, more to come) and I try and learn from them. That doesn't mean I don't get despondent, but I do pick myself up. I find it easier to do than in my old job, because I do really care about my business so its easy to be motivated.
So I've built a nice little relationship with my friendly local newsagent who takes my parcels in. I like it because I am used to them, and I get tracking every step of the way - that doesn't mean I don't know it will go wrong at some point, but I do everything I can to make sure my toys get there in one piece.
I took a few more deliveries at mum's office, and then I decided I had made her carry the parcels up the stairs enough. Also, the postwoman wondered what the hell were in some of the parcels one day when they started singing to her in German in the back of the van. So I took mum up on her offer to drive halfway to my house to do an exchange.
Next time - doing a toy swap at Warwick services and the stock room starts to take shape...
"Ein, zwei, drei, hier ich komme"
www.rachelstoyshop.co.uk
This week's post is about my first lot of stock arriving - very exciting!!
The lauching of Rachel's Toy Shop began is January really - I went to the London Toy Fair with my accountant (aka Mum) on a very snowy day, and I met some of my future suppliers.
I was really lucky that the first supplier I talked to when I got there was Nicole from Melissa & Doug. She was so friendly (mum whimpered when I turned down chocolate muffins) and with a little help from mum ("would that be on a proforma basis?" "what is your return policy") I stumbled through my first retailer/supplier interaction. As I say, thank god Nicole was so nice, because some of my subsequent interactions weren't quite so smooth. Lego were a closed stand ("Your name's not down, you aren't coming in") and a couple of the suppliers were down right snooty. You know who you are. I really don't understand why they think this is a good idea - one day I'll be able to do a Pretty Woman-style flounce I'm hoping. "When I started you wouldn't talk to me. Big mistake! Huge! Massive!"
Anyway, there were lots of lovely people there apart from Nicole - Fiesta were very pleasant, Cuckoo, Clementoni and Cloud B were absolutely charming. So I had 2 enormous bags of catalogues to lug back to Wigan on the train, and I was super excited.
So I started to select my stock, got in touch with the people I met at the fair, and I was away. But one small problem - delivery. I was at work all day, so mum offered to have the boxes delivered to her office, which is my registered address, so all systems were go.
One by one the deliveries arrived. Poor mum had to carry them up the stairs. She started to get a bit miffed
Then 24 bears went missing on their way from Ireland. It turned out that the courier couldn't find the building, and just sent them back. The supplier was great though and sent me some more.
Now just one little problem left - all my stock was 250 miles away. Which leads nicely to next week...
Next week: Royal Mail and my profit margin disappearing down the toilet
Click here for Rachel's Toy Shop (Opens New Window)
This week I am going to talk about why I started this business...
It all started for me when I went to a spa day for my birthday (35 since you ask) with my beautiful friend Angharad (she really is). I hadn't managed to get our treatments booked in at the same time so we actually spent a couple of hours on our own. I was supposed to be relaxing, but in that semi-dark relaxation room all that happened is that I started to take stock.
So there I was at 35 with 2 lovely children and a great husband, and I had worked hard to get where I was at work (Banking). I did feel extremely lucky but I had to drive a 100 mile round trip every day to get to work, we were heavily reliant on my husband's family to pick up the kids when I got stuck on the motorway/had an important project, and I felt like "angry mum" every morning getting them ready for school and out of the door for 8am. So classic working mother's guilt you might think, and that's the conclusion I came to.
But now I realise I was also bored. So bored I could feel little silent screams building up inside me. And tired. Every day I battled with what Mike Pegg (The Strength Foundation) calls "pot drillers" - people who drill little holes in the bottom of your pot of energy. And my daughter kept saying to me "why can't you work at my school like all the other mums?". Whilst I knew one day that she would be proud of her working mum, as I am of mine, work just didn't feel worth the struggle any more.
So I started reading books on entrepreneurs, mostly woman's books really, although I'm not sure that was 100% deliberate. I also read "How to Start A Business From Your Kitchen Table" by the wonderful women who founded "Not On The High Street". I thought "I can do this", but I needed an idea.
It came to me in the Islington Hilton at midnight - I remember emailing my mum "I've got it". All thanks to my nephew Javi, for whom I struggled to find a Spanish speaking toy for his birthday. I think I've found a really good niche with bilingual toys, and I love to hear feedback from my customers when they tell me they wish they could buy all my stuff in their language, or that the service is good. I know there are times coming where things will go wrong, but that's life and I can cope.
So, back to my children. I am now doing contracting in the day as well as building the business at night, so you may think that I am defeating the object of having less pressure, but because I now get a couple of days working from home, and I get to take the kids to school, things are already better. And I am no longer angry mum.
People at my work told me I was having a mid-life crisis and it would blow over, HR put my reasons for leaving as "work life balance", family told me I was mad to give up a good job. I think all these things are probably all true, but you only live once, my children will only be young once, and I am seizing the day.
x
Next week - the first lot of stock arrives.....
www.rachelstoyshop.co.uk
