How to make money tailoring toys. What you need for sewing toys at home

Instagram
What's App
Google Sheets
Flipagram

The social network Instagram allows not only to share photos, but also to make sales. Galina Protsenko from Moscow started developing this network for her family business a year ago. Her account @obgonay was originally conceived to help her mother make money on toys - her mother had three stores. Today, the account has almost 87 thousand subscribers, foreign suppliers seek to cooperate with it, and offline stores of the project were closed due to their unprofitability. About how to sell toys on the Internet and establish smooth operation through Instagram, Galina Protsenko told the site to the portal.

26 years old, entrepreneur, sells children's educational toys through his Instagram account. She graduated from the College of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, after which she worked for 5 years at the Russian Embassy in Chile. In parallel with her work, she graduated from the Financial University under the Government of Russia with a degree in innovation management. He has been selling toys through his Instagram account since February 2016. Today in her project “Overtake!” five employees (managers and courier).

Internet to help sales

Initially, my mother built a business selling children's toys in our family; she opened 3 retail toy stores in Moscow in 2015. At that time I lived and worked in Chile. Mom really needed help, but how could I help from a distance? Decided to create a website to support her retail stores.

I was pregnant at that time and I understood that soon I would have to leave work and do something else. Therefore, I took up the site with pleasure. We have invested about 10 thousand dollars (approximately 600 thousand rubles) in it for half a year. The site itself cost about 120 thousand rubles. Plus photos of toys about 60 thousand, investments in advertising - 230 thousand rubles. We bought the goods so that there was a commodity balance. But for six months, this money has not been repulsed.

I began to wonder why this is happening. In an offline store, you are limited to the region or district where it is located. There you, as a business owner, can only rely on people living in your area. And your site can be seen by any resident of Russia if you pay for its promotion. But how to sell toys in an online store: the client comes and is left to himself. Many people leave the site simply because there is no one to advise them.

These 2 opposites led me gradually to the idea of Instagram. Your account replaces the sales assistant and makes the buying process more enjoyable. Here and on social media in general, you need to show your face so that people know who they are buying from.

Explore a new channel

Instagram "Overtake!" I started teaching in February 2016. I believe that in order to do something, you need to have some understanding about this area. I went to study at Instaschool Arpin, my husband and daughter Ksyusha were already in Moscow. The training cost me 12 thousand rubles. And it was the most successful investment in our business for the whole of 2016, no kidding.

I am a marketer by training. Therefore, I have an understanding of the market and the mechanics of sales. But the specifics of Instagram were not. I needed a good specialist with experience who would help me figure it out. I probably would have reached everything myself, but I would have made a lot of mistakes.

Arpine, the founder of the Instagram school, is more of a psychologist. She said one thing, which I basically go by. Social networks in general and Instagram in particular are not a sales channel, but an entertainment channel. If you want to buy something, you go to the store, not to Instagram. Therefore, the task of an Instagrammer who sells is, first of all, to entertain.

You should have not just a showcase with a product, but something that will hook subscribers and make them stay: dialogues, tips, games, contests. In social networks, mostly impulsive purchases, and people make them on trust in you - a specific person who has an account and who sells something.

Arpine taught us to speak Russian on her Instagram, just like we speak in everyday life. It is important that the language is simple and colloquial. If I speak the language that I use in everyday life, then people who look like me come to me. Therefore, my clients are on my wave, and I feel very comfortable with them.

stepbystep

I had and have my own personal Instagram, but for business I created a new account - @obgonay. It had 0 subscribers. He could gain followers on his own, but it would take a long time. You have to pay for promotion. I promoted my account wisely - not because I'm so smart, but because I had no money.

On Instagram, advertising can be aimed at attracting followers or attracting orders. I can call to action - "Buy from me!" or "Follow me!". People who subscribe to me do not instantly place orders. They sit with me, imbue me with love and trust, and only then come for a purchase.

When I first started selling toys over the Internet, and I had no money, I could not afford such subscribers. I needed them to order from me right away. It was necessary to work in such a way that my advertising fought back that same evening. Therefore, I did not advertise myself as a store, but specific products. I said: “This pyramid is so wonderful, it costs so much, you can buy it here.” And people bought, conditionally, a pyramid. During the evening, the ad fought back, I could go further and launch a new ad with the money I received.

But all this time, they didn’t subscribe to me very willingly, because advertising was tailored to orders. I recruited my first subscribers for two months. Then in September-October, 15-20 thousand subscribers per month began to be added. When I recruited them, I was aware that they would not place an order with me now. And so it happened - they came with orders before the New Year: in November-December.

How to manage an account about children's toys

I try to post in the morning and evening. Selling I do at least every other day, because if there are continuous selling posts, then it looks like spam: the person seems to have subscribed to advertising. Selling posts contain a description of the toy, price, call to action. I try to write as if you came to visit me, and I would tell you about my toys.

One post takes an average of half an hour. First you need to think about what I want to say. Then think about how I want to say it - the thought in my head is different from the one that appears in the account.

It happens that you write selling posts, but there are few responses. In August, this happened several times. From objective reasons, this is due to the fact that everyone is on vacation. And because in July we had an excellent offer: people have basically bought everything for themselves. Guilt on my part - I didn't have time to make normal posts. I wrote about good toys 2-3 lines maximum. Plus - about the toys that we already had on sale, not new items.

I periodically post my personal photos - of myself with a child, so that people know me. Some are already addressing me as "you", the relationship is friendly. Daughter Ksyu (she is 2 years and 3 months old) helps me a lot to run Instagram. She loves to take pictures and play with all the new toys. And I use these photos in my account.

Since the task of Instagram is to entertain, I must have beautiful and pleasing to the eye photos. I have a photographer whom I invite once a month. We select new products for the next month, take many, many photos, which I then gradually expose.

But unglazed home photos are a necessary ingredient when it comes to toys. When people see the toy as it is - in a normal bathroom like this or on the street with all the street trappings - then there is much more trust in me and my account. A person sees that this is not a photograph “combed” by the manufacturers, but how the toy looks live. For shopping, this is a very effective tool.

I am still following my account. I do and see what effect. “Hmm, it turns out interesting,” I sometimes think.

How sales work

I have an LLC registered, I run a completely white business: official supplies of toys, contracts with suppliers, even an online cash desk under the new law. There has always been a legal entity, but at first it was my mother's. And now I have LLC "Obgonyay!". I like this name. Since we have educational toys, our slogan is: “Overtake in development, play, discovery!”. When you go to the tax office, some government agencies or a bank, to a notary, everyone immediately asks what I do.

I am a supporter of making it as easy as possible for clients to work with me. The classic scheme on Instagram - write to WhatsApp to such and such a number to place an order. To do this, you need to write down the phone in the phone book, but it is not copied - it must be written down somewhere and then transferred to the phone or memorized in parts and entered. Then save the number and only after that write to WhatsApp. With us, in order to place an order, you need to leave the word “I want” or something else in the comments (I announce in the post what you need to write). And then my work begins. I am the seller, and it is in my interests to reach out to the client, and not vice versa.

I have a team to process orders. We are 5 people (together with me), all work from home. After a comment about the purchase, someone from the team contacts the client, specifies the address and phone number. We have a table in the "cloud" where we enter all this information. Our own courier service can take delivery details from there. We work on a prepaid basis - the client first pays for the order.

I do not have a warehouse like some kind of large room, but there is some kind of stock of toys. I have such contracts with suppliers that they serve me promptly. We cooperate only with official suppliers - so you can sleep more peacefully.

Seasonality of demand

With toys, there is a classic decline - in January and during the three summer months. Everyone makes orders before the New Year in December. But in January, customers come in who make purchases that exceed the average order size by 5 times. I understand that these are those who were given money for the New Year. I have mats that develop, which are the most expensive of the new range. I sell no more than 10 of them a month, and in January I can sell 20, but only them.

In July, we managed to come out with a very good offer to subscribers - with Canadian sandbox toys. And we beat December sales. And at the same time, we had a classic recession month in June. If you make good offers, you can avoid seasonality.

Supplier selection

In stores, my mother had toys in a different price segment than I have now. I'm not chasing the lowest price, I think that other parameters (quality, usefulness) are more important. And my model found a response, found its clients. And we eventually closed retail stores, my mother became part of my team.

In the first place for me the quality of toys. In my opinion, this is a concept that is not even worth discussing when it comes to children's toys. We work with Swiss, Belgian, Canadian, Israeli and French companies. Recently, three Russian suppliers have appeared - these are start-ups with unique toys.

I am very picky when it comes to choosing partners. Suppliers call us and ask how to sell their toys through our account. I very rarely agree. I have a list of requirements, so our toys are really very carefully selected. As a result, many clients say that they trust my taste. Many write that the day after tomorrow I need a toy for my nephew of this age, the budget is your choice. And I pick up a toy for them.

When a supplier comes up with an offer, I immediately have a question - what happens if the toy breaks? I, by virtue of my philosophy, will return the money. Out of pocket or will the supplier take responsibility for this? If he is ready to answer, then such cooperation is interesting to me.

We have water toys on a motor that periodically burns out due to water. We have special conditions with the supplier that they change all burned-out motors. There is nothing like it, we have it. Or somewhere there is, but I do not know about it.

There was such a case. In October, we sold Swiss crocodiles very well under the promotion. Now they have arrived again. I made a post about it. And a client writes to me: “Our crocodile broke after 2 days, it lies idle.” In general, Swiss crocodiles do not break, this is an out of the ordinary case. I asked why they didn't write right away? The client said that she was used to it when all the sellers refuse and say that it was the people who broke the toy themselves. We agreed with the supplier and exchanged this crocodile. They even took him away to study - because this is an extremely rare case when their toy breaks.

I have 150-170 items in my assortment. This is enough for normal operation. Each person buys a maximum of 10-15 toys per year for their child. Why do I need a bloated assortment, it only hurts my head?

How to make money withInstagram

In principle, the monetization of my account is the same as in retail stores. I make a markup on the goods, which, among other things, includes courier services, payment for the services of assistants and packaging of toys. The price difference is my income.

Sometimes we receive an additional premium from the supplier. I'll tell a story. We have French brand Janod. He sells wooden magnetic puzzles - maps of Russia, in which each piece is a separate region. Such a card costs 4,000 rubles, and by the day of Russia, the supplier made a discount - 2,000 rubles for such a puzzle. For retailers, the supplier has introduced an additional premium for the sale of a certain number of cards. I don't remember this number. But we exceeded it 10 times. And they sold more than anyone in Russia, despite the fact that we are not even a store, but just an Instagram account.

Last February, when we started Instagram, the turnover was 50 thousand rubles a month. Now about a million rubles.

When it all started, I did not get out of my phone, with a child in my arms, and worked until night. From the side of relatives, it looked strange. Imagine that you are all sitting at the table together, and one person constantly does not get out of the phone. But you can't explain what you're doing right now. No one understood this, it annoyed everyone. It took a long time for everyone to get used to it. And elderly relatives were surprised: “Do you get money for this? Alive and real? Can you spend it?"

Business costs

We have already burned ourselves in retail stores: you want it there - you don’t want it, but you have to pay rent, salary, sales fees every month. I tried to avoid mandatory payments as much as possible. I am the kind of employer who pays his managers a percentage of sales. If there are no sales, then at least I am not at a loss. But if we have exorbitant sales, then managers have a high salary. I don't care about this money.

Every month I spend 3-5 thousand rubles on a photographer. Payment depends on the size of the photos. I can go to a popular studio and pay 10 thousand rubles for shooting. Or you can turn to a girl who shoots well, but is just starting - she needs to develop a portfolio, so prices are lower. I don't lose anything in quality, but I pay less money.

Delivery

We have our own couriers who deliver orders in Moscow. The customer pays for delivery - 300 rubles, in Moscow with an order amount of 3000 rubles or more it becomes free.

We also send orders to St. Petersburg by the courier service KTS, and in Russia - by Russian Post. We cooperate with the post office as a legal entity, which is much more convenient than as a private trader. We don't stand in lines. I have my own personal account on the Russian Post website, I know the track number of the parcel in advance, even before sending - at the stage of its registration. And then I can track its movement online. When a client asks me where my package is, I don't even need to enter a track number. I go to my personal account, there the statuses of shipments change online.

The worst thing is when something is lost. If you are a private person, you need to come to the post office and attach a copy of the receipt. Those. you need to keep it. And imagine when you have 200 parcels, what does it mean to find the right check. Then you need to write a statement by hand to the department and wait about a month for a response. And I have a Russian Post manager, to whom I write an email about the loss. She replies in the evening that the package is there, they sent it there.

Promotion

There are three methods I use to promote on Instagram: advertising on other large Instagram accounts, follower contests, and collaborating with bloggers. I love advertising in other accounts: for the price it's the average between bloggers and contests, but they bring you a quality target audience.

I choose other people's large accounts by topic, so that there is the audience I need. Before placing ads, I look at the subscription, audience, reviews for each account. I choose those that are dedicated to children - as a rule, they give advice on care, upbringing, there is a discussion on various hot questions for mothers, and so on. These can be recipe channels where the main audience is women. And women tend to have children. I collaborate with decor accounts, because they are read by women who have moved with their families to a new apartment. They probably have a child too.

From the contests that you hold, people come who want to win something, they don’t need your toys in the first place. But this is one of the ways to gain subscribers.

Bloggers are much more expensive than advertising in other people's accounts or contests. And at the same time, you need to be able to negotiate with bloggers, because this industry is poorly regulated. Sometimes you send goods to bloggers, pay money. But you have no guarantee that they will make the post you need, post it when you need it, and keep it as long as you want. By the way, you don’t always pay them: the terms of cooperation depend on the size of the blogger’s audience.

At the very beginning of my Instagram, I managed to negotiate very successfully with a blogger. I was lucky because she is a nice girl and honest. I sent toys to five of her children. She liked my product so much that in addition to a blog post, she made a video on YouTube. And she and I came up with an offer, not just an advertisement: her subscribers were given a discount on my toys. And it worked. My new account, which had 200 followers, received 78 orders overnight. And this result for me turned out only for the price of toys and payment for courier services.

Service above all else

One of the rules of my work is service, and it concerns everything. Our couriers call customers and ask if it is possible to call the intercom, if the child will be sleeping at this time. They come to the park, beauty salon, anywhere. When you are waiting for an order, you do not have to be tied to the house. Our couriers move by car, they do not make a tragedy of the fact that they need to drive somewhere to a different address - for example, to a park or a beauty salon.

We pack all toys in branded packaging and holiday packaging if it is a gift. We do this on our own initiative and free of charge. Inside each order we put gifts and, if necessary, batteries.

We never leave our customers after the purchase if something happened to the product or there were doubts about its quality. Some are embarrassed to contact me on such matters. I have to write in posts such a phrase - "You are our customers and after the purchase, you are our customers all the time."

* Calculations use average data for Russia

The production and sale of goods for children is considered one of the most profitable areas for own business. However, if you are planning to do such a "production" at home and on your own, then you should take into account a few basic nuances.

Features of making handmade toys

You will be able to start your own business with minimal investments and risks (in the worst case, if your business “does not work”, you will simply close the IP, and give unsold toys to friends and family). This is an interesting area with good prospects for development. However, this is also a drawback - the first few months of work should not count on big profits.

Most likely, you will have to invest all your proceeds in the further expansion of your production, the purchase of materials, the search for new buyers ... Many never manage to reach large sales volumes and their hobby remains a hobby that brings more pleasure than money. Unlike some other types of hobbies, making handmade toys is not the most profitable direction, since it has objective limitations both in terms of “production” volumes and in terms of the target audience. Let's start with the last one. On the one hand, toys are usually intended for children. Parents spend a lot of money on them, trying to choose the best and highest quality goods for their children.

However, handmade toys are just the least likely to be intended for children, which significantly limits the possibilities for organizing their sale. As a rule, such toys are rather fragile, have a large number of small decorative elements and are rarely certified by manufacturers as products suitable for children. Thus, such toys are rather souvenir and are positioned as an original gift for adults.

Where to look for buyers for handmade toys

It is best to start looking for your first buyers in your environment. Sew several different toys and show them to your friends and acquaintances, create a group on social networks or your own topic on a regional forum. Consult with your potential customers and listen to criticism. Offer small cafes and themed restaurants in your city your products to decorate their interiors. Recently, shabby chic or retro style in the interior design of catering establishments has become especially popular, and your naive toys can fit perfectly into such an environment.

Often, toys are provided to such establishments for free, but their creator gets the opportunity to place a sign next to them indicating their name and website or contact phone number, which will be a good advertisement. In addition, stylish handmade toys are well sold through souvenir and gift shops, all kinds of "shops" with interior goods, through specialized online stores. Create your own website or at least a blog where you will post photos of your products, answer customer questions, post your master classes. Try to be as active as possible in leading your groups, topics and resources.

Additional Paid lessons can be your source of income sewing author's toys, master classes, publishing articles in needlework magazines, as well as your own books with step-by-step photographs (for this you will need high-quality high-resolution pictures of your work).

Expenses for opening a business for tailoring an author's toy

The initial costs for starting your own business for tailoring designer toys will be no more than 5 thousand rubles. This money will be used to purchase materials and necessary equipment (for example, a sewing machine). But, most likely, you already have all of the above, as well as experience in making textile dolls, so you may not need additional investments at all. With this option of work, this direction can be considered rather as a side job - a source of additional, by no means the main income.

If you are counting on something more, then you should start by choosing a direction and carefully studying the market situation, competition in this segment and drawing up a business plan. It is widely believed that a business plan is required only when it is planned to open a large-scale enterprise and / or the entrepreneur is going to attract investors to his project. In fact, a business plan is necessary, even if you are starting a very small business, hoping to manage on your own and ready to work on pure enthusiasm. When drawing up a plan, you will think over the direction of work, the target audience, assortment, opportunities for expansion, pricing, and analyze the activities of competitors.

The algorithm for opening this type of business on the example of the production of knitted toys.

Knitted toys are intended primarily for children of primary preschool age, but can also be positioned as souvenirs and gifts for adults. Such products are made from natural materials on special automated equipment. In general, the list of necessary equipment for making toys is not much different from the list of what is needed for the production of other knitted products.

In particular, you will need knitting machines (the exact number of machines depends on the planned production volumes, but at first you can get by with one or two), a buttonhole machine (the simplest semi-automatic will do), a lockstitch machine for connecting parts of one product, a chain stitch machine ( also for connecting individual parts), overlock (for processing edges, connecting parts, including clothing). As a rule, knitted toys are distinguished by simple shapes, so knitting machines and an overlocker will be enough for their production at first. You will also need an iron for steaming parts and finished products (it is often recommended to use a steam table for this, but you can get by with a cheaper option), and for processing and connecting individual parts, sewing on accessories - a cutting and working tables.

Knitting machines are complex equipment, which is divided into classes, depending on the thickness of the thread used. The smaller the class, the thicker the threads can be used (for example, for knitting bulky winter clothes). There are also universal machines that work with any type of yarn. They cost more than "specialized" equipment. Since children's toys are usually made from fine, delicate children's yarn with natural fibers, it is quite possible to get by with machines of a higher class, which are designed to work with fine threads.

Ready-made ideas for your business

So, organizing your own business for the manufacture of knitted toys for children includes several stages. At the first stage, an assortment is developed, characters, their appearance, clothes, details, and accessories are thought out. Think about how you can save on equipment. Industrial knitting machines are not cheap, and the cost of acquiring them for making toys will definitely not pay off.

But you can buy simple used knitting machines, saving a lot. However, experts advise: if you do not understand the equipment, be sure to consult with an expert first, otherwise you will later spend much more on repairs than you save when buying. Even if you are not going to work in production yourself, try to master at least the basics of working with knitting machines and overlock, as well as their maintenance.

Firstly, in emergency situations, you can replace a sick employee so that your production does not stand idle.

Secondly, you will be able to train new employees. As a rule, the turnover at such enterprises is very high, and wages are low.

Ready-made ideas for your business

Ideally, such small-scale productions function as a family business - so you can be sure both in discipline and meeting deadlines, and in the quality of products. Take care in advance to find a supplier of yarn and accessories. It is better to buy them at small wholesale bases (you are unlikely to gain volumes for large wholesale in the first months of your work).

Distribution channels for handmade toys

There are not many options for implementation. Basically, these are toy stores, as well as their own online store and small wholesale companies. If your toys are completely safe for children and meet all the requirements for such products (it is recommended to be certified as a product for children from three years old), then you can also sell them directly to preschool institutions - kindergartens and development centers. Sales of such children's toys do not depend much on the season, but usually there is some decline in the summer, as in other industries (holiday season). In the summer, such enterprises reduce production volumes and develop new collections of toys.

To start such a business, one or two knitting machines will be required, and the total cost of opening it will be about 70 thousand rubles (this money will be used to purchase equipment and raw materials). At first, you can work independently by issuing an IP. To work in a medium-sized production, the following specialists will be required: a designer, knitting machine operators, seamstresses, a mechanical adjuster and an accountant. A designer, as well as a mechanical adjuster and an accountant, can work on a part-time basis, since you will not need their services on a daily basis, but from time to time. The return on investment will be about 8-10 months.

1693 people are studying this business today.

For 30 days this business was interested in 103478 times.

Profitability calculator for this business

If you consider felting as a business, and not just as a hobby, then you will need an initial investment of at least 20 thousand rubles.

At present, the situation on the Russian toy market is rather contradictory. On the one hand, there is clearly no shortage here. The only problem is that the percentage of domestic products is produced ...

There is a large selection in children's toy stores today, but what a child needs is not always available. Sometimes they are not satisfied with the size of toys (too big or small), or their price tag scares. Indeed, is it worth buying a toy with which a child will play for a day or two, and it will become interesting to him? Maybe turn to the experience of our grandmothers and sew a toy ourselves? Moreover, it can become a new source of income.

Starting small

The Internet is replete with many workshops on sewing toys. Study, make toys for your child, nephew. Kids can also be involved in this business: they will be more careful about what they have created themselves.

Old things are suitable for the first works, learn to cut and sew from them. Accessories can be used second-hand or bought from a store. Master the seam technique, learn to embroider small details, sew on small accessories (eyes, buttons, etc.).

The baby will have a new toy, and also ...

you teach him that not everything in the world is bought, sometimes you can create something yourself;
if he participates in the process of creation, then he develops attention, patience and skills for work;
a sewn toy will not be able to harm a child, even if he gets hit on the head with it (unfortunately, children often fight with toys);
you will spend more time together, which will unite you even more. The child will learn to trust you more, and sometimes it is very important to know the “little secrets” of your child.

Why do we need so many toys?

One day this question will arise before you. That's when you should think about selling them. Your products are sure to please not only your children, but also their friends and your acquaintances. Rumors about your new hobby have probably already spread not only in your inner circle.

Textile Toy Business: Investments

If you sewed funny little animals and little men for your children only on your hands, then “for the good of the cause” you will have to acquire a not very expensive sewing machine (it will quickly pay off).

You will also need:

tailor's scissors;
needles and pins for sewing;
filler for toys;
fabric for the lining and top of your brainchild;
accessories.

Advice: It is better to purchase the material in wholesale warehouses, where the price is lower. You can also buy remnants of fabric - it is sold at a good discount. Enlist the friendship of the sellers, they themselves will begin to postpone such a product.

First Buyer Gets Discount...

The first problem of a novice businessman is attracting clients. Preferably permanent. Preferably increasing.

You can find customers at first among your friends. We make good discounts, give small gifts. Word of mouth now works three times more efficiently: cell phones and the Internet have been added to a personal confidential conversation (“I bought this from our Masha”).

Advice: If they don’t buy a toy from you, but order it, then take the customer’s requirements seriously. Try to do everything exactly as requested. And then people and ... clients will be drawn to you.

More about the World Wide Web

Use the Internet to the fullest: open your website selling toys. Soft "buns" are in great demand not only among children. Adults also need them and are called "anti-stress."

Your resource will be appreciated pretty quickly if, in addition to selling, you offer your visitors detailed descriptions and diagrams.

How to further increase sales

participate in exhibitions and sales of finished products held in your city;
walk around kindergartens, sometimes they are also interested in such events;
look at the sellers of toys and souvenirs with finished products. Some of them may be interested in the idea of taking your products for sale;
offer a discount for purchasing online;
Provide potential customers with multiple payment options.

What toys are in demand today:

Moms are interested in products for the development of motor skills, traditional dolls, animals, crumb cubes, mobiles in the crib.

An adult audience can be offered a romantic and anti-stress collection of your products.

How to choose a price

The approximate formula for determining the value is as follows:

Cost of materials + electricity + working time = product price.

Do not overcharge, make discounts for regular customers, for holidays, hold promotions to attract new customers.

Work hard, fantasize, delight kids and adults with your masterpieces!

Many women are excellent at sewing, knitting and other types of needlework, but they never think about making money from their hobby. As a basis, we will take the base of the plan for creating toys in the style of Teddy.

Product

The first thing you need to do is decide what you will produce directly: bouquets of sweets, exclusive custom-made cakes, soft toys, or something else.

Author's photo: Lyovkina Nadezhda, author in the magazine "The wrong side of needlework", owner of the hand-made blog don-kupidon.livemaster.ru, Work experience: 3 years of training in the center - a certificate of additional education in crochet with the right to teach, several years work as the head of the circle of applied arts, prizes in offline competitions.

In our case, the product is soft toys made in the style of Teddy. This is a special production technology, in which all the limbs of the toy are movable, while fastenings can be of different types - bolted, cotter pin, thread. The traditional Teddy toy is a bear, but today there is a new term "friends of Teddy bears" - this is any animal (cats, dogs, hares, cows, horses, giraffes). The main thing is the observance of the technological foundations of sewing.

Demand Analysis

The next step is to conduct a demand analysis for the products you plan to produce. A free way to calculate market capacity is to analyze search queries using wordstat.yandex.ru.

An example of analysis for the query "Teddy Bears":

On request "Handmade toys"

At the request of "Handmade":

Production plan

The next questions you need to find answers for yourself are: How to make toys? What equipment and materials will be required for this? What kind of space is required to get started?

Requirements for the premises

The indisputable advantage of this type of activity is that there is no need to rent a production area to start a business, toys can be made at home.

Manufacturing technology

The process of making soft toys can be carried out both manually and using a sewing machine. The basis of any toy is a pattern, on the basis of which the manufacturing process takes place.

An example of a German bear pattern:

It is important to remember that by creating your own unique pattern, you become its copyright holder.

Equipment and materials

For a full-fledged home production of Teddy-style toys, you will need the following equipment:

Expendable materials

Name	average price



fur (artificial/natural)


Holofiber:
Sintepukh:

Weighting agent (glass, silicone or iron granulate)

hardboard discs
Additional fabrics and accessories for decoration	As requested by the master. The minimum amount is from 3000 rubles.

Finished product cost

The next step that needs to be done is to calculate the cost of manufacturing the product in order to understand how profitable it will be to produce it and whether your toy will be a competitor in the market.

The cost is determined from the amounts of direct costs and indirect.

Direct costs are directly, the cost of materials used in the creation of a toy.
Indirect costs are electricity, the time of the master.

An example of identifying the cost of a Teddy-style toy:

Direct costs
Fabric consumption
fabric cost
Fabric costs
Hardware costs (cotter pins, paints, eyes, noses, pendants, etc.)
thread costs
Total direct costs
Indirect costs
The amount of time spent, taking into account the average cost of your work (for example, 200 rubles / hour
Sewing machine power (Rm)
Light bulb power (Re)
Time to make a product on a sewing machine (tm) and under electric lighting (te)
Cost of 1 kWh (a)
The total amount of indirect costs
The total amount of direct and indirect costs

Of course, this is a very conditional plan, and each master refines it "for himself." For example, you had to spend time shopping for the right fabric and so on.

From practice: on average, tailoring a simple Teddy toy has a cost of materials - about 1000-1500 rubles. Each master has his own time costs.

Pricing

Now you know how much it will cost you to manufacture a particular toy, then you need to determine its retail price. On average, the cost of work is determined by the sum of direct and indirect costs multiplied by 2 (cost of work). But you can revise this system to a greater or lesser extent.

From practice: When determining the price, it is necessary to focus on the cost of handmade toys, Teddy Bears of their "colleagues in the shop":

Target audience and ways to promote products

The next step you need to take to open your own business is to understand who will actually buy your products and where to sell them.

Potential Buyers

The main target audience of buyers of soft toys consists of women, and there are practically no age restrictions, as well as children. Collectors and handmade lovers in general can also be referred to potential buyers (by the way, there are also men among them).

Ways to promote products

The hand toy market is very specific; for it, the most relevant way to sell it is to trade via the Internet.

Sales channels

Potential buyers can be found in thematic communities, forums, social networks.

This article is for those who still doubt that their favorite and interesting hobby can bring a decent income.

Now I will tell you a very real story of a woman named Natalya, who lives in the city of Chelyabinsk. Until she went on maternity leave, she worked in a recruitment agency and received a salary of 13,000 rubles. Work, like work, schedule from 9.00 to 18.00, five days a week, it had its pros and cons, but still, there was at least some confidence in the future. But, having settled at home with the baby, Natalya felt not only a lack of money (child allowances and her husband's salary were barely enough to make ends meet), but also the realization of herself as a person. I think many new mothers are familiar with this feeling. I must say that since childhood she was fond of needlework, loved to make beautiful crafts and sewed cute toys. She had a whole collection of her toys at home, before Natalia sewed or knitted them for herself, as well as as a gift to relatives and friends, later she began to sew for her son. But never when she did not take her hobby seriously, and did not even think that it was possible to earn something on this.

Once, when Natalya was walking around the mall with a stroller, her attention was drawn to the department with children's goods. Entering there, she heard one of the customers, buying clothes for the baby, ask the seller if they had handmade toys to decorate the children's room. She just shrugged her shoulders and replied that they had never had such a product in their assortment. Natalya, not at a loss, approached the customer and told in a nutshell about her products and gave her her phone number. When a satisfied client left the department, Natalya approached the seller and offered to take her toys for sale. Demand creates supply, and soon Natalia's handicrafts were sold to many shops in the city. These were also toy and household goods stores, souvenir and flower shops, etc. Word of mouth also paid off and customers made direct orders. One of these clients helped to create an online store and a group in the social. networks, so our needlewoman was able to expand her business and sell her goods also via the Internet.

Of course, with such a large volume of orders, Natalya could no longer cope alone and took several assistants working remotely to help. She found them among lovers of needlework, subscribed to her group in the social. networks. Thus, she did not need to keep a workshop and pay rent for it.

A couple of years later, Natalia's son grew up and was given a place in the kindergarten. But she did not even think of returning to her former place of work, because by this time her needlework business was already bringing her decent money.

She was able not only to patch up a hole in the family budget, but also to save enough money for her own store. So, in one of the shopping malls in Chelyabinsk, Natalya's first store appeared, where she sold not only her own handicrafts, but also other craftswomen. Also, her shop sold needlework equipment and all the necessary accessories. The store immediately became very popular. In the future, several more Natalia's stores were opened throughout the city, she also recruited sellers among her subscribers in the social. networks. From one of her sellers, I learned the story of this wonderful woman, who by her example proved that nothing is impossible for people who know what to strive for.

home > Calculations