Hello and Happy New Year!
Was everyone working all holiday like me????? I bet not… boo hoo…. anyway, I hope that everyone had a wicked one! I have just received an email asking me if I can give advice to those that might want to start up in the toy design and manufacturing business… So I thought I’d paste it in my blog for all to read…
Here goes…………
Hello Laura,
I hope that you had a lovely new year!
have forwarded your email to Christine - so fingers crossed that she’ll be able to help you.
Before you can even think of manufacturing, you need to first get your product safety tested, there are many toy testing places (just type toy testing into google and have a look at the list and then chose who is beat for you).
It may be wise to call your local trading standards officer and have a meeting with him/her - I did this and gained an immense amount of knowledge in both safety and manufacturing!
It took me about 1 year of building the foundations for the youdoodoll like, safety testing, prototypes, PR and advertising, trademarks, design patents, limited company set up, finding an accountant, solicitor, etc etc, Before I could even get the Youdoodoll out in the public! Not to mention money - which I had saved up for about 3 years! (spent it all on the foundations of the product and for 1000 units)
…I did all of that myself, learnt as much as I could on my own because I could not afford to pay for some of the advice, and I took risks, and spent all my money (my savings, credit cards… you name it, I spent it!) and then after lots of hard work I managed to sell all 1000 in 3 weeks, paid my debts back for those dolls and then decided to apply to Dragons den!
The best thing I can advise is to take risks, put your money where your mouth is, listen to people who think you are chasing a wild goose chase and then take their comments lightly and
And along that:
(1) Get a business mentor (If Christine cannot help then go to Business Link or your local enterprise centre)
(2) Get in touch with Trading Standards and get to know the safety aspects
(3) Get in touch with manufacturers in the UK and get to know what is available and who can make your product a reality
(4) Protect all of your work! Trademarks, patents, design registrations, etc
I hope that this all helps for now!
Take care and good luck!
Sarah Lu x
2 Comments
Just watched your Dragons Den pitch etc - I think its an amazing product
looks like so much fun.
A few Q’s
Can you wash them?
Do they come with Pins?
Best of luck with what ever you do next - i’ll be sure to order one v soon!!! :D:D:D
Km-t
x
I have a few questions i hope you can advise.
Is your product a design patent or a utility patent? If it’s a design patent, how did you avoid the possibility that someone who saw your product would slightly change the dolls figure and then manufacture and sell their product faster than you? design patents are quite weak in protection.
Also, if you find a manufacturer in UK, they would probably be much more expensive than lets say China. This greatly affects profit margin and retail price. What is your advice to have products made as cheaply as possible?
thanks
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