Business idea: production of wooden toys

It's no secret that as they grow up, people cease to understand children's play logic - often the parent likes the toy, but does not arouse the child's interest. And adults themselves, when playing with children, pay attention to the quality or functionality of toys and think about what can be done better. Such reflections can lead to a promising idea of ​​making your own toys.

If you came up with an original toy or just want to make play products for children, you need to find the right approach to business.

Let's evaluate the market

Toys and stationery for children account for slightly less than half of the total children's goods market. Modern society insists: "All the best is for children," and marketers use this message for their own purposes. Therefore, according to analysts, despite the crisis, the market continues to grow slowly. The leader is a large federal chain (Detsky Mir, 13% of the market), representing a wide range of mainly imported goods.

There is a decrease in sales compared to the same periods last year, which is associated with the difficult economic situation of citizens. But there are also growing segments - construction toys, board games, jigsaw puzzles and jigsaw puzzles are selling a third better than in 2021. The current tendency is as follows: games are in demand, "reusable" and designed for the company, allowing children and adults to communicate.

Toy Games

There are many types of toys that traditionally use wood, plastic, metal, fabric, paper, cardboard and other acceptable materials. Accordingly, each raw material has its own processing specifics and requires different costs.

What exactly do you want to produce - your own toys or are you ready to work on a franchise? Some domestic and import brands are expanding their networks through franchising, and this can be a profitable partnership. If you plan to cooperate with an existing brand, then it is better to discuss all organizational issues of future production with the franchisor initially in order to avoid unnecessary costs. Such projects are acceptable if there are significant start-up funds.

If you have invented your own game, you need to make a pilot sample and calculate its cost (or make rough calculations if making it at home is not possible). Please note the following points:

• What materials are used and to what extent?
• How long does it take to manufacture?
• How laborious is the process?
• Do you need special technical means?
• Is there a demand for these products (at least based on the analysis of search queries)?
• What is the cost of similar products (if they exist) on sale?

Answers to these questions will allow you to see in which direction to move.

Product by face

Depending on who your toys are for, the specifics of manufacturing will be built. If you are planning functional toys rather than decorative furnishings, the reasonableness and safety requirements for the appropriate age of the prospective user must be considered.

Investments: from 700,000 rubles

Payback: from 4 months

The children's goods market has always been large. Until the 20th century, people did not know plastic, toys were made of wood, metal and other natural materials. And then everything began to be produced in China, including toys. The quality of Chinese goods leaves much to be desired, so now is the time to enter the niche in the production of wooden toys. The demand for them is and will grow in the coming years. Why not go into this business?

Business Concept

It should be noted right away that the field is not easy, it requires imagination, ingenuity and other skills. The business scheme is reduced to the production of wooden toys and their sale. The production itself is based on several "whales":

• where to produce?
• what is the manufacturing principle (drawings, instructions, etc.)?
• who will make? (If you do not know how to work with wood tools, you will have to hire people. Because you will not be able to quickly master the skills, it can take years).

Toys are made for children, so the product should be safe (minimum of small parts, no complicated elements and holes). After all, kids are curious creatures. Swallowing, sticking your fingers in, cutting yourself: to prevent this from happening, you must foresee and prevent.

What is required for implementation?

First of all, it is necessary to analyze the market. You can go shopping for wooden toys and ask which ones are in the greatest demand. It's also worth referring to WordStat. By conducting analysis, you will discover a foothold for the products you will make.

Machine tools and tools are woodwork's best friends and must be purchased. It is desirable that the equipment is new: with it the quality of the toys will be higher.

Don't forget that you also need packaging (bags, boxes). And before you get involved in the work, find partners. This ensures lower costs in the future development of the workshop.

Toy certification is equally important. To do this, make a small batch of goods and send them for examination to the sanitary-epidemiological station. After completing the procedure, you will receive a hygienic certificate, which will confirm that only environmentally friendly materials have been used in the production.

Step-by-step startup instructions

Making wooden toys as a business

Wooden toys are very popular all over the world. They represent one of the oldest assortment groups. However, in Russia now their production is rather poorly developed. Only a few (slightly more than 30) relatively large enterprises have managed to establish themselves on the market. In Europe, for comparison, there are several hundred of them.

The market in our country is flooded with imported products. Most often, customers are offered numerous products from China. Yes, their cost is low, but the quality in most cases is very doubtful. Therefore, domestic manufacturers now have all the prerequisites for taking a place in the corresponding niche.

The birth rate is increasing, there is growing interest in the enhanced development of children of preschool and primary school age. Accordingly, the demand for goods for babies is increasing, and wooden toys are no exception. Wood is great for making them. This material is beautiful and very pleasant to the touch. From it you can carve all kinds of items for games:

• various models of steam locomotives, airplanes and cars;
• cubes, counting sticks and pyramids;
• dolls;
• constructors;
• traditional national toys;
• equipped with electronic parts, developing puzzles.

Making toys as a business is not easy. An entrepreneur must successfully develop an original idea for his products and find the optimal ratio of price and quality of the manufactured goods. But the most important and difficult tasks in implementation are ensuring competitiveness and competent promotion of products on the market. The direct method of making toys from wood is quite simple and does not require impressive investments.

Organization of production

Production area

The primary task in organizing the production of children's toys is to find a suitable room. At the initial stage, it can be a separate spacious room, a free part of the garage or a country house. In the future, for full-fledged activities, it will be necessary to equip a small workshop. The premises in it will be divided into several specialized zones.

The work of designers and artists creating models of future toys should be carried out separately from the production process. Like the manufacturing process itself, it requires the use of appropriate areas. After all, it is not possible to process wood, paint, assemble and pack finished products in one place.

The workshop will require a water supply system and electricity.

Investments: from 320,000 rubles

Payback: from 2 months

If you decide to start your own business, you need to analyze the market for demand: what customers are willing to pay for. The manufacture and sale of wooden toys for children is now a hot topic. A large assortment of toys for all ages on the market is leveled by low quality. And parents want to please the baby not only with a beautiful, but also an environmentally friendly item for the game. We will find out how profitable such a business is, and how quickly you can open it.

Business Concept

If we analyze the assortment on store shelves, we can note: basically, the choice is represented by Chinese handicrafts from not the best materials. The Russian manufacturer was almost ousted from this area.

Many parents are concerned about the safety of their baby's health and are willing to pay for products made from environmentally friendly materials.

The tree fits perfectly. It is pleasant to the touch, beautiful material. From it you can carve a wide variety of items for the game:

• cars, locomotives and planes;
• dolls;
• pyramids and cubes;
• constructors;
• a traditional Russian toy.

If you equip the model with electronic parts, you can make modern educational games.

As a rule, wooden toys are created by hand from several elements. Therefore, it is difficult to put this business on stream, and the cost of products is higher than that of plastic counterparts.

You can sell wooden products through online stores that sell figurines and souvenirs. Ordinary retail outlets can also take products for sale, but often they already have their own suppliers.

Alternatively, you can try to arrange shipments overseas, since wood products are highly valued there, but you need to consider competition and shipping costs. This is only relevant for works of authorship intended for foreign collectors. The price of such wooden souvenirs is high and justifies the time and transport costs.

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

Features of making handmade toys

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

Most likely, you will have to invest all your proceeds in the further expansion of your production, purchase of materials, search for new buyers ... Many people still fail to reach large sales volumes and their hobby remains a hobby that brings more pleasure rather 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” and the target audience. Let's start with the latter. On the one hand, toys are usually intended for children. Parents spend a lot of money on them, try to choose the best and highest quality goods for their children.

However, handmade toys are rarely 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.

If you plan on making your own toys by hand, experienced entrepreneurs advise you to target an adult target audience. If you are going to hire assistants and automate your work, then it is better to start producing children's toys. In the first case, as a rule, we are talking about primitive textile toys.

They are quite simple, they do not require a lot of time and effort to make. The most difficult part of the work is the decoration of the toy: coloring, shaping a hairstyle, creating various accessories. Handmade textile toys are not suitable for children to play, as they quickly lose their appearance. But they open up great opportunities for creating a story souvenir. By adding different accessories to the same blank, changing the hair color and coloring, you can make any character - from a representative of a certain profession (for example, a teacher, firefighter, policeman, accountant, etc.) to a portrait doll. The cost of one product is, as a rule, no more than 100-200 rubles, depending on the materials used. Its retail price starts from 500-700 rubles and more (usually about 1000 rubles). It will take 2-3 hours to make a simple toy. Of course, a large number of products cannot be made in this way, so craftsmen usually work on order.

What business is worth starting in a crisis?

Minimum investment. Fast payback. High demand. Does not require premises and staff. 2 days to launch. Choosing an openbusiness portal. u.

For the manufacture of textile dolls, the following materials will be required: fabrics (for the manufacture of the doll itself - linen, cotton and for clothes - coarse calico, wool, cambric, etc.), accessories (eyes, ears, noses), accessories, woolen threads or natural wool (for hair), paints for painting (acrylic, tempera), natural or artificial leather (shoes), stuffing material (synthetic winterizer, holofiber, etc.), etc. Fabrics and other materials are more profitable to purchase everything either at wholesalers or in ordinary stores in the departments of discounted balances. To make one toy, a small piece of fabric no more than 1 meter in size is quite enough.