Episode #160: Top Tips for Creating a Neighborhood Toy Store with Theresa Duncan
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Have you ever dreamed of creating your own neighborhood toy store? Even if that’s not your toy industry dream, today’s episode is full of valuable tips for any toy industry entrepreneur. Today’s guest started a toy store in her local community with her dad, and turned into a successful family business over the eight years it has been open. Listen to the episode to find out about the differences between starting a digital business and a brick-and-mortar business and how a business plan can give you a solid framework for success.
Today’s guest, Theresa Duncan, started her career in non-profit work, developing programs for at-risk youth. Now, she is the owner of Villa Villekulla Toys in Amelia Island, Florida. In today’s episode, she tells how she got the idea to quit her job and start a neighborhood toy store in the first place, how focusing on the community can help you to market your small business, and valuable tips for getting your toy into a neighborhood toy store. Listen to the full episode for these essential pieces of toy industry information and more!
EPISODE CLIFF NOTES
Learn how Theresa’s work with kids inspired her toy store idea. [00:01:45]
Find out how having a business plan helped Theresa and her father start their toy store. [00:08:46]
Learn about the startup differences between digital and brick-and-mortar toy stores. [00:09:54]
Learn about the five stages of entrepreneurship and how they relate to your business. [00:13:32]
Ever heard of Neighborhood Toy Store Month? It’s something you need to learn about even if you don’t own a toy store! [00:21:34]
Find out the benefits of shopping locally. [00:22:37]
Explore clever ways to market your toy or game products to independent toy stores. [00:32:31]
We even dive into tips on Google Ads! Find out how to save money on Google Ads with the negative keywords list. [00:33:35]
Learn why Theresa got comfortable being the face of her store and how it helped her business. [00:39:19]
Find out the “secret sauce” of Theresa’s toy store. [00:40:40]
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
Visit Villa Villekulla’s website by clicking here.
Follow Villa Villekulla on Instagram here.
Visit Small Biz Sanity’s website by clicking here.
Follow Small Biz Sanity on Instagram here.
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to Making It in The Toy Industry, episode number 160.
[00:00:05] Hey there toy people Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of the Toy Coach Podcast, Making it in the Toy Industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by thetoycoach.com. My guest today is Theresa Duncan, a recovering fig adult who's now a proudly a child who refuses to grow up. She spent more than a decade developing and facilitating enrichment programs for at-risk youth.
[00:00:41] Through this work, Theresa saw firsthand the power of play in growth of emotionally, physically, and mentally healthy children. The pressure of pretending to be an adult finally became too much. So in 2014, Theresa and her father Todd, also not a grownup. If you were wondering, open Villa Villekulla Neighborhood Toy Store in Amelia Island.
[00:01:01] When she isn't playing with toys, learning about toys, or talking about toys, she is passionate about helping small business owners thrive by helping them simplify their systems and amplify their voices so they can live the dream just like her. Theresa, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here today.
[00:01:17] Theresa: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:01:19] Azhelle Wade: It's a pleasure. I'm happy to have you here. And also I'm excited to talk about your toy store. I'm looking to my right, it's my right here because I'm looking at your website and excited to share, a little bit of a preview of your store as we start talking about it. So my first question for you is, I wanna know a little bit about your toy story. Did you always know you wanted to work in the toy industry?
[00:01:41] Theresa: No, I had no idea. I think like a lot of kids, that was not even on my radar as an actual job that I could have. So I took a more traditional safe route and thought, I always knew that I wanted to positively impact the lives of children. So I always knew that I wanted to work with kids and I took the route of education because that's a, you know, I think kids grow up and they know doctor, lawyer, teacher.
[00:02:06] And so I thought I wanted to be a teacher and ended up in this great opportunity where I was able to develop out of school programs for kids, which was the most fun. And so I really saw firsthand how important play was. And it really started clicking with me when I would see, oh, I can get teenagers to learn math if we play Yachty, or I can get a small child to open up to me if we pull out the dolls.
[00:02:33] And I just really saw how much those toys were allowing me to do my job. And one day I was at lunch with my dad and he had just retired, but he wasn't ready to be retired yet. And we were just chatting and talking about our cute little downtown and wouldn't it be great if there was a toy store here?
[00:02:53] And so that's where the little spark came. And then not long after, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that was about toy deserts and the article was talking about how children lack access to good, healthy toys in the same way that they lack access to good healthy food.
[00:03:10] Azhelle Wade: Oh,
[00:03:10] Theresa: I really. It just really ignited something enemy.
[00:03:13] I started seeing when I'd go to the big box stores, what the toy selections really were like, and started really thinking about that concept of a toy desert. And that's when I really realized that I could not only make a difference, but that I could do my own thing, cuz nonprofit work it, it's hard and it takes a special kind of person to be able to do that all the time.
[00:03:35] And my dad was ready to retire. So it just seemed like the perfect fit for us, where we could really make an impact, but we could also have fun. And then there's that other piece of feeling like a square peg in a round hole where sometimes you're putting on a suit and you're just not the person to be putting on a suit or you know, pretending, like I said, pretending to be an adult that owning your own business allows you to be a lot more authentic.
[00:04:01] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. So what made you think that you were pretending to be an adult?
[00:04:04] Theresa: I always felt like everybody was more grown up than me, that, that I was missing something that I just wanted to play and have a good time. And when I would go into a meeting, like I said, I would feel like I was in a costume and I would, I would feel like I was holding these like goofy parts of myself back in order to impress funders or to show performance outcomes of my programs and that kind of stuff. And I love the idea of owning my own business and just being able to be unabashedly who I am all the time, you know?
[00:04:38] Azhelle Wade: I think so. Like this is gonna be a really good conversation cuz there's so many creatives out there that, or just people that are like playful at heart that might need to know that they too can have a business and not have to be so buttoned up to be successful.
[00:04:54] Theresa: Right.
[00:04:55] Azhelle Wade: That I think I wanna dive into that a little bit. So I wanna share my screen and hopefully be able to share a, a view of your store so that people joining us that maybe don't know your toy store okay, let's take a look. So this is your toy store and, and how do we say the name Villa Villekulla.
[00:05:14] Theresa: You got it. That's it. Villa Villekulla.
[00:05:16] Azhelle Wade: Villa Villekulla Toy Store. And how did you choose? The first thing I wanna know cause people reach out to me quite often. You'd be surprised how often people reach out to me and say, Hey, I wanna start a toy store. And I'm like, I have never done that. That is not what I teach or what I know. And I will connect you to whoever I can. So now you are here. So tell us like, how did you first even choose the location for your toy store?
[00:05:38] Theresa: So we knew we are in a tourist community and we have a very special little historic downtown. So we always knew that's where we would wanna be. And really, to be quite honest, there weren't a lot of options because it is a very sought after area to rent. So we at that time, took what we could get and we're on a little side street. But it has worked pretty well for us for the time we've been there.
[00:06:05] Azhelle Wade: But why did, why Amelia Island? Like were, did, were you familiar with that area?
[00:06:09] Theresa: Yeah, absolutely. So I live here. I live about two blocks away from where my store is. And part of that coffee conversation was really we were really talking about how special and sweet our little downtown was and how cute it would be if there were a toy store there.
[00:06:23] So that's kind of where it started. So we always knew that we wanted to be in this area. Now whether we would be, you know, we may have ideas about expanding out of this area eventually, but we knew that we wanted our flagship store to be in this special little, it's a little Victorian downtown on a river, and we just knew that that's where we wanted to be.
[00:06:43] Azhelle Wade: And I wanna talk also about like that first conversation, like did you feel confident that it was gonna be a successful endeavor creating your own toy store?
[00:06:51] Theresa: No, no, absolutely not. So everyone thought we were insane. My my mother is the director of our local Chamber of Commerce, and she kind of did the thing that moms normally do, which is like, oh, okay, you wanna do this thing where here's all these other things you have to do to actually make that happen. Thinking, you know, we were never gonna follow through with any of that.
[00:07:16] And she gave us a really good framework on how you start a business by doing that. So she actually helped us when I think she was trying to deter us from opening the business and. I mean, still today people will make comments, oh, you're still in business, or whatever it is. Everyone thinks that opening a toy store is insane. You know, if we go back to that lawyer, teacher, doctor conversation that kids are raised.
[00:07:43] Azhelle Wade: Yes.
[00:07:43] Theresa: Raised with opening a toy store right at the, we opened kind of right at the first little, little Toys R Us bankruptcy proceedings. And then we're just like getting our footing at the closing of the Toys R Us. So, you know, everyone thought we were, what were we doing.
[00:08:00] Azhelle Wade: They were like, why are, are you crazy? So, can you tell us, like, tell me a little bit about this story, like, Starting a toy store, going from what you were doing full-time or changing your career path to doing this. Like I like, I wanna know everything. Like I'm not just me. The people listening wanna know, cuz they wanna make a toy store too. They wanna start a toy store too. So Yeah.
[00:08:21] Theresa: I, I think everyone's shown a toy store, just not my neighborhood. That's all.
[00:08:27] Azhelle Wade: You cannot go to Amelia Island, but anywhere else.
[00:08:30] Theresa: Um, Um Um No, you can come visit my toy store, but.
[00:08:34] Azhelle Wade: Oh my gosh. Okay. So yeah, how did you even get started? Your mom made you start a business plan essentially without trying to?
[00:08:40] Theresa: Abso. Actually, no. She gave us the entire framework for writing a business plan. And I know now, which I didn't know then, that a lot of people start businesses without a business plan, and I would not recommend that. But I don't know the other way, but I do know how much that business plan helped me get my business going. Absolutely the, the business plan helped provide us with a framework of what we were actually doing.
[00:09:04] Otherwise, I don't, I think we would've gotten overwhelmed by everything and not known, you know, like you said, there's not a lot of resources out there for how to open a toy store, and so I don't think we would've really known what to do without the business plan, kind of directing our thoughts and all of our great ideas and putting them, you know, on paper that we could follow them, because it does require you to write a small marketing plan, a staffing plan, all of that from the outset.
[00:09:32] Azhelle Wade: Oh, interesting.
[00:09:33] Theresa: Yeah. And the other side of that is to open a brick and mortar store is expensive. You know, you have furniture plus you have, your initial inventory is very expensive. So we had to secure funding and no banks would talk to us without a business plan.
[00:09:47] Azhelle Wade: Interesting. So like when you built out like please, like, share more, because I, I started this business without a business plan. I started this business with some clients and an, and an idea to like make some recurring at revenue with a course. But, but an online business has so much less upfront cost than a brick and mortar or a product-based business that I think you can get away with not having a business plan for a little while because you don't have to invest so much money.
[00:10:15] Like you said, I didn't have to secure a, a massive loan to get started. So like what, could you remember key areas of your business plan? Like was it first year revenue goal that was really , key? Was it what revenue? Where we're hiring staff or how much staff are we hiring for the first year? Like what were your key points in your business plan that you still remember today?
[00:10:34] Theresa: I think the key, there are a few things that I remember and some I remember because they've actually been sort of irrelevant for us or we haven't done them. And some that continue to guide us. So I think the biggest thing was sitting down and really deciding what our mission statement was and who we were as a toy store, and that we spent a lot of time on that.
[00:10:58] And that is I, it's on my website and I may not get it all the way right, but it is a carefully curated selection of unique educational and hard to find toys. So that helps when we go to market also, because we can focus, because toys are awesome and you want to buy all the toys, but you can't buy all the toys.
[00:11:18] So what is your framework in which you buy for your particular store. And so many stores have different personalities that helped us from the outset decide what our personality was gonna be so we wouldn't be pulled in a lot of different directions, whether that was in product or in our marketing, or whatever it was that we were doing.
[00:11:37] It helped us funnel that into that one statement of who we are. And that still really continues to guide us. And then there was really a lot in our marketing plan about partnering with schools. And while it see it just, it didn't end up being we do a lot of stuff with schools, but it really didn't end up being the core of our business model like we thought it was gonna be to begin with.
[00:12:03] Azhelle Wade: Interesting. So like, and how many years in the outset when you built your business plan, were you building out for?
[00:12:07] Theresa: We did our five year business plan, which is I think, pretty standard. We did not hit our revenue goals the first year, but by the third year, we were hitting our revenue goals.
[00:12:17] Azhelle Wade: Oh, that's incredible. So like the question I guess I always have with something when you have a unique business or a business type that's just not often reported on how do you even define what a revenue goal is? Because you don't have a lot of things to model after.
[00:12:34] Theresa: Right. So for us, there were two key things at the time and I hope that they will renew this and do it again. But at the time, Astra had a book that was called the Business of Play. And you may still be able to get older copies of it, but the data may now not be relevant. But it did have just kind of benchmarking on amount of product for square foot and Turn. And those kind of things that I didn't know anything about at the time. So that helped. But to be completely honest with you, our revenue goals were how much money do we need to make to stay in business and to buy groceries. And that was like, this is how much we need.
[00:13:14] Azhelle Wade: And so, okay, now I, I actually just met with my mentor who kind of outlined the five stages of entrepreneurship and I, I'll try to remember them best I can, cuz I, I wanna ask a question about when you were in a certain stage. So stage one I know is the ideation stage. I hope she's not watching, cuz then she's gonna be like, why don't you remember these. So stage. So stage one is like your ideation stage. She said a lot of people don't actually make it out of this stage because they're so busy thinking of all the things that could be the formulation stage.
[00:13:48] Stage two is the concentration stage. That's where your, your head's down, you're getting things done probably around for you year one to three in your business. Then you got this momentum stage where you're, you're growing, you're building, you're rolling and things are going well. Then you get a stability phase where everything's like smooth sailing and working. And fifth stage is our reinvention stage where your company is is solid.
[00:14:12] But if you wanna stay in business, you have to like look at the world around you, reinvent yourself. Be better, right? So I'm curious, as the fela entrepreneur, while you were in your concentration phase where you are not hitting those revenue goals and you're like stressing, how did you keep yourself motivated to keep on going? And how did you know you should keep on going that you were gonna get there?
[00:14:36] Theresa: Well, I will say the first thing I did was quit my full-time job with benefits. And if there is anything to motivate you to be successful in your business, it is to not have a net to catch you. So there's that, that was very motivating because at the beginning I thought that I could do both. And when you're doing something, I really did like my full-time job. But when you're doing something you love so much, like the passion project of opening the toy store.
[00:15:03] Azhelle Wade: Yeah.
[00:15:03] Theresa: The drudge of going to work every day, just I finally was like, I'm gonna be all in. So that is being all in. And that would have been within the first year. That was, we had made it. So within the f first year, I was like, if this is gonna work, I've gotta be all in. And so, that is what I did. And I think honestly, for us, I think that concentration stage really happened before we got open because from business plan to opening the store was like seven to eight months of, you know, we were told no by three banks before a bank told us. Yes. So at, even at that beginning stage, we were just trying to find funding and then, you know, securing a location, inventory, all of that stuff.
[00:15:50] So that for us was really the concentration phase. And then the initial, you know, whenever you start something new, I think there's a a natural amount of marketing that does itself because you're brand new and everyone's talking about it and that kind of thing. So that helped us launch once we opened. So opening and being there for the public is another like great motivator and getting a lot of positive feedback.
[00:16:15] Azhelle Wade: Right. Yeah. Well, my mentor says the concentrations phase is like when you're putting in a lot of effort and what you're putting in is more than what you're getting out. So that's why I say it's that phase where maybe you're not turning the profit that you want to, just because, but I mean, if you're still turning a profit, then maybe so that's why I'm thinking like maybe it was that process before you hit your stability. Right. So I'm curious, like, share, how did you market your toy store? What did you do?
[00:16:39] Theresa: Well that is an ever evolving process for sure. That's always my natural when I'm not hitting my revenue goals or when I wanna do something new. Marketing is very fun for me. So that's always where I go back to as kind of my favorite part, to be honest, is, is how we do that. And I think I had said at the beginning, a lot of our business plan was we were gonna partner with schools and give discounts to teachers and all of this stuff.
[00:17:00] And we just even, you know, almost eight years in have not gotten as much traction there and not seen the returns in that area, in, in the way that we thought we were going to. And so the first year of business with marketing and just felt like throwing noodles at the wall and seeing which ones stuck. But now, now that we've been here, I know which noodles stick and how to make those noodles better. I don't know if I.
[00:17:28] Azhelle Wade: No, that's great. No, I love how to cook those noodles well.
[00:17:32] Theresa: How to cook the noodles better. I know which noodles cook faster and will stick better to the wall when I throw them. So for us it was really what what works best for us is really community involvement. And it's also kind of why we wanted to do the toy store in the first place is like I said, we wanted to be. It's not just about turning revenue. We wanted to be. , if we were gonna be working, we wanted to be doing something good.
[00:17:59] And we really love this special place where we live. So ours is community involvement and really refining what that means. So, you know, your first couple years in business, you're getting all of these requests for silent auction donations and being involved in this thing and that thing and that thing. And you try them all and you see what really works. And so now for us, it's really funneling those resources into a larger scale.
[00:18:21] Like this next weekend we will be completely sponsoring and designing, setting up and running a children's, the children's section at a festival, a huge festival in our community. And it's doing things like that that allow us to not only have our name on a banner as a sponsor, but allow us to face-to-face, to be out in the community.
[00:18:45] So every festival out here, we're doing the kids zone which is huge for us, and it's also me as a person. Being involved in the community and being out there has been really helpful for us in marketing as well. But it also, I really believe is why we were able to survive Covid in the way that we were, is because of our community involvement. So when the community became concerned for us, they came out and supported us.
[00:19:16] Azhelle Wade: And I also am seeing the thread of you built this business plan and the business plan mission statement is even driving your marketing efforts. Like where, like who, who you sponsor, who you want your name on, or what events you want your, your logo and your brand name to be behind. And that probably makes decision making in your business so much simpler and more direct.
[00:19:37] Theresa: 100%. It is all about, I have these three pillars that I want people to know about us. And it is making sure that all of our actions, whether it's the interactions you have with my employees when you walk into the store, or it's the ad that I put in the theater or whatever it is, but all of those things, or it's the post on social media, are falling within those, those pillars of the messaging that I want to get out.
[00:20:03] Azhelle Wade: Do can you share those pillars? Are they secret pillars? Okay.
[00:20:06] Theresa: No, they're not secret pillars. No cause you can look at all of my stuff and you can see them right there. It is again, that carefully curated selection. So it's knowing that the products we have are really great products. It's knowing that we are all play experts, so it's that we genuinely care about the play that your child gets. And then the third, it's that we're experts that we have a carefully curated selection, and then it's that community involvement that we're part of your community. Because at the end of the day, we do have a website. We do some sales online. But at the end of the day, who we are and who we want to be is a community toy store.
[00:20:43] Azhelle Wade: And that is a perfect segue to my next question. Neighborhood Toy Store month. Initially we had planned to do this conversation a bit earlier when Neighborhood Toy Store month was still going on, but we couldn't meet up then, but we luckily can meet up now. So I wanna talk a little bit about what Neighborhood Toy Store Month is. I saw you on TV for Neighborhood Toy Store month. So like, tell, tell us more about it.
[00:21:06] Theresa: So Neighborhood Toy Store Month is an initiative by Astra, which is the guiding star of the specialty toy industry to really promote the power of play and the power of shopping with your Neighborhood Toy Store before you go other places for the holidays, right? Sometimes the local store is the default when you can't get what you wanna get online. And so the point of this is really to get you out and shopping and seeing all the wonderful things that your Neighborhood Toy Store has to offer before you really hit the the holiday shopping season.
[00:21:40] Azhelle Wade: So, okay, I, this is a great question cuz instead of like, aside from promoting, you know, this is a family owned toy store, you should support us because we're family owned, because we care about our community and all that. Aside from that, the goodwill of it all, what is the main marketing message behind why someone should shop local like the piece that fulfills maybe convenience, like is there a message around convenience or is there a message around like, what?
[00:22:07] Theresa: There's so much. I'm really glad you asked that question because sometimes as a small business owner, I can get really frustrated with the the rhetoric that, oh, we shop local because we're helping this person, or we're doing. And, and that's wonderful. It really is. And so I don't wanna sound like it isn't. But it's not, shopping local is not a charity to me, the business owner.
[00:22:32] Azhelle Wade: Right.
[00:22:33] Theresa: It is. It makes our whole community better. We don't wanna walk into, I mean, I know you are, you're in New York City. Correct. And so you have all of these lovely, vibrant neighborhoods that all have their own personality. And that personality is a hundred percent dictated by the businesses that are in that neighborhood.
[00:22:53] And so if we have, I mean, I feel like no one travels anywhere to go. You know, shop at the chain store that they have in their own town, or eat at the chain restaurant that they have, you know, everywhere people travel to experience. What's unique about that town and any town anywhere, what's unique about it is the people that are there.
[00:23:15] And the cool thing about small businesses is that each one has the personality of the people who own it and the people who work in it. And so everyone is so different that if we didn't shop at small businesses, we just wouldn't have access to cool stores to go into or cool, unique, interesting restaurants.
[00:23:35] We wouldn't get to experience, you know, the individual person's cultural background or whatever it is. So small businesses just make our communities better. And then I think everyone, you know, on small business Saturday, you know the statistics, it's 68 cents of every dollar spent with a small business stays in your community.
[00:23:54] Whereas an online mass market purchase, it's somewhere around 14 cents of every dollar. So you're paying into your schools, you're paying into your taxes. And the thing that I like, I personally buy almost all of my clothes from a little local shop because I know that she is way better at picking out clothes than I am.
[00:24:15] And she has narrowed it down to all the cute stuff. And I can go in and I, I don't get to see all the clothes that are available. I get to find this business owner who has a similar style to me, and she picks out all the great stuff, and then I can go in and it's far less overwhelming. Also, if I buy something from her and it rips the next day, she has to look at me at the grocery store. It's not, you know.
[00:24:39] Azhelle Wade: So wait. You're bringing up a really good question. Like, do you think that the identity of a toy store, a neighborhood toy store is in, is like, if I were opening a toy store in my town, would I be looking at the town as it is today and saying, how do I fit into the personality of this town? Or would I be opening it and bringing my personality to this town? Or would I say, you know what, my personality doesn't really fit this town. Maybe I wanna open a toy store in a, in a different neighborhood. Like, what would be the right way to approach that?
[00:25:14] Theresa: That's such a great question. Cuz I've been all those places, so I 100% percent. I mean, you have to know who your market is and who your neighborhood is and what people are looking for. So for mine I have a balance. I have people who are, I have tourists, but I also have a lot of locals. And I am in, like I said, a Victorian downtown.
[00:25:35] So if I were to do. Like, let's say a shop that was all Pop Funko and comic books and that kind of thing. It wouldn't fit with our town. Like it needed to be something more classic. But every day I'm bringing my personality into our store and every day my dad is bringing his personality into the store.
[00:25:54] But I will say that very frequently there are products that I would love to bring in, but I know that they won't work in my market, even though they work in Theresa's head. And I love them so much, but I just know that my market won't support that. And I also know I have learned now that my, you know, , I've been in a ton of toy stores and they all have a different personality.
[00:26:17] There's so many different types of toy stores, and we opened a second location. It was a pop-up shop for the holidays in 2020 that we had actually really hoped would turn into a long-term permanent location, but we had some flexibility to just try it and see how it worked. And it was in a more traditional mall setting. And it just was not, it didn't fit. The location didn't fit our type of store. It didn't fit, fit our personalities, and it didn't fit my version of what success is.
[00:26:47] Azhelle Wade: Right. You're triggering too many questions, so hold on. Because now number one, I'm wondering if somebody wants to get their product into a neighborhood toy store, and maybe, maybe it is a good fit, but you're a small store, you don't have space for new items, would it be a good idea, or has anyone ever actually just done this where they intentionally seek out to get local coverage for their toy brand in your neighborhood? So that when they pitch to you, they're like, oh, by the way, your local neighborhood newspaper recently wrote an article about me. So everyone's probably gonna be looking for this product anyway.
[00:27:26] Theresa: This is why you're the toy coach, because I don't know that anyone has ever done that, but it's genius because I have brought in a number of items into my store that I normally wouldn't carry just because there's been word of mouth around it or I've heard about it somewhere. So.
[00:27:44] Azhelle Wade: In your neighborhood.
[00:27:44] Theresa: That is genius. Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:27:47] Azhelle Wade: Interesting.
[00:27:49] Theresa: When people who already shop in my store, so I already know they're, my customers are interested in a product, I'm definitely gonna bring.
[00:27:57] Azhelle Wade: And an easy way to do that is to get local, local coverage on it.
[00:28:01] Theresa: Yeah, I mean, like you said, you saw me on tv. I'm gonna tell everybody a little secret if you haven't told them. But local news is real easy to get on. It's not hard at all. So they're always looking for content, and if you've got something good to share, they're gonna share.
[00:28:15] Azhelle Wade: I think local news in New York City's a bit harder to get into. But I'm trying, I'm doing what I can. But, and then, oh my gosh, the second question I had for you it escaped my mind. It was something around the building of a toy store in a community. I don't know, maybe it'll come back to me. But you know what, we haven't actually talked about this Neighborhood Toy Store a month that I have on the screen right now.
[00:28:31] Neighborhood Toy Store a month is a whole month to showcase how awesome it is to have an independent toy store in your community and throughout the month. This is not exclusive to Villa Villekulla Toy Store. This is an event put on by Astra, but this is Villa Villekulla's toy store's announcement about it. And during this month, They're like essentially marketing activations right around neighborhood toy stores that each store carries out individually. Is that correct?
[00:28:58] Theresa: Correct.
[00:28:59] Azhelle Wade: So did you determine all of your events or was this like Astro sent you a list of events and then you did what they said?
[00:29:06] Theresa: So Astra provided themed weeks. They came up with the themes for each week, which was a really good way, I feel like, to showcase this. What's special about a brick and mortar independent toy store? So I'm gonna try to remember, I might have them up there, but one, there was, yeah, but I don't know if I have the weekly themes, but the first week I think was a STEM theme. Then there was an arts and crafts theme. Then there was a family game night theme and then make Way for play, I believe was the last week's theme.
[00:29:38] And so they provided those themes, which helped to provide a framework of ideas. And every store did it differently. Again, back to that personality of the store, I saw some stores that were running specials on products that were those themes or featuring on their social media products within those themes. And we chose, because I love a good party in the toy store. We mostly did events for based on each of the themes.
[00:30:05] Azhelle Wade: Is that what most people do for a neighborhood toy store like events?
[00:30:09] Theresa: I don't know if most is a good, I think there's a fair balance of people that use it for product placement and discounts and the people that do events. I know that for some people, like especially people in a traditional mall setting, it can be really hard to do events especially during the holidays. So I think that's why the flexibility is so great. But we just, I love a good event in the store, so we chose to do mostly events with ours. One featuring a Toy Creator Academy Alumni.
[00:30:42] Azhelle Wade: Oh, really? Oh, with a, yeah, yeah.
[00:30:44] Theresa: We had Freedom Flyers come in. Yeah.
[00:30:46] Azhelle Wade: How was it?
[00:30:48] Theresa: It was great. Yeah. We did a whole stem night and it featured him and the kids really loved meeting a real toy inventor and seeing the person who had made the toy.
[00:30:56] Azhelle Wade: I hope I don't regret asking this, but how is the product selling?
[00:30:59] Theresa: It's doing pretty good. But what's been nice is like, it's a good litmus test on feedback and how, how to improve it. So it's doing pretty good. It does require like a little bit of exp It's so, such a different way, even though it's so simple that it requires a little bit of hand selling to people are like explaining it, but the people that get it really.
[00:31:18] Azhelle Wade: So, okay. I wanna talk a little bit about that. Like you said, that hand selling and back in the day. All the, the popular products that we hear about today, like Jenga for example. Pictionary, when those inventors were trying to pitch those ideas and slinky, even when they were trying to pitch them to get into stores, a lot of them said the way that we got stores to agree to carry our product is that we, we would demo it there.
[00:31:43] So what are some marketing offers that have worked in the past where you were on the fence about bringing something in and then someone said, you know what, we'll give you this . And you were like, okay, I'll take in the product. Like, what are some, give us some insights. What, what pushes you to the yes side?
[00:32:01] Theresa: So I'll give you a good one. And that is, I don't carry anything licensed. Almost never do I carry anything licensed and almost never do I carry anything electronic. So there's a really hot toy right now that is probably the most popular toy in independent toy stores, and that the Tonies Box. The Tonie Box and the tonies, which for people that don't know, Tonie Box is a little audio box. And then the Tonies are figures that go on top of the box and play stories and songs. The figures are almost all licensed, lots of Disney licenses. There we go. There's the Tonies box.
[00:32:37] Azhelle Wade: Tip for the toy people. I just Googled your name and you just paid an ad fee for me to click on it, and you should put that in your negative keywords list tip. But anyway. Go on, go on.
[00:32:47] Theresa: That's a good tip for me too. I didn't know.
[00:32:49] Azhelle Wade: Oh yeah. Put if somebody, so, okay. Sorry. Quick mini toy coaching session in. So like, we're gonna Google Tonies right now. If somebody Googles Tonies, they already know your brand exists, so you definitely don't want your website showing up. And cuz then you're paying for like, it's an ad, you're paying for that. So if you put Tonies in your negative keywords list, it won't show up as an ad. It'll show up as a regular Google search. So you won't pay for people to click on it. When people search the Toy Coach or Toy Creator's Academy, I wanna pay for them, they'll click on it because they already know I exist. So, yeah.
[00:33:23] Theresa: That's so smart.
[00:33:24] Azhelle Wade: negative. Okay. Anyway, go on. You won't. Yeah, you won't bring in the Tonies.
[00:33:30] Theresa: So it was never anything, it was not anything that would have ever, if I would've my sales rep, I would've been like, no, no, no, no, no. And then would've been late. I would've been picking it up this year while it's super popular, and I would've been late in the game and people wouldn't know that I was a place that had these.
[00:33:49] However during 2020, when they first started to launch in the us they were already like pretty popular in Europe when they first started to launch in the us. They sent me a demo. And with a couple of Tony's, and I gave it to my daughter and she was obsessed. And it's my favorite parenting tool. It is my favorite thing in the store.
[00:34:10] So we were actually very, very early adopters of it. We got the Tony's in when they were initially available in the us so now we've had them for several years, and so they've been a really great seller for us. But this year Tonies has really, they've put a lot of muscle into marketing and everybody knows what they are and everybody is looking for them.
[00:34:32] But my people in my area have already, now they're seeing those ads and they're like, oh, that toy store has these, so instead of going to Target or online, they're coming into me, which for the past two years, we really had to hand sell them and we had to explain them to people. But if you're a staff you know, knows about a product and if you have a demo of the product there to show and you have staff that's willing to talk about the product.
[00:34:58] We've been able, they've been a popular seller for us, but this year is the first time people have really been coming to the store looking for them. So that's a good example of just like how if you've got something great and sending a demo to somebody can really be effective.
[00:35:14] Azhelle Wade: So talk about that demo though, because I'm sure you get overwhelmed with samples all the time. So what made, like how they delivered it to you or what it was, why did it stand out to you before it was even super, super popular?
[00:35:29] Theresa: You know? I don't really get overwhelmed with demos except for the days that my reps come to see me. So, as far as somebody thinking through putting an item in the mail with a note.
[00:35:42] Azhelle Wade: Mm-hmm.
[00:35:43] Theresa: And sending it off. I don't get overwhelmed with that. It maybe happens once a month, twice a month. It may be because of my size.
[00:35:52] Azhelle Wade: Yes. You are a small toy store. Interesting. How big is Villa Villekulla?
[00:35:57] Theresa: We're about 1500 square feet.
[00:35:59] Azhelle Wade: So how many skews do you hold at a time?
[00:36:02] Theresa: Somewhere around, I think 2,500.
[00:36:05] Azhelle Wade: And what would, like, how could somebody get you to say like, you have something that's like, not such a great seller, but you're holding onto it cuz it's pretty steady and somebody comes in with something else. What would make you wanna swap a slot?
[00:36:19] Theresa: Oh there's a lot of things. So I'm a small business, so I am a sucker for another small business. So if I'm carrying something mass and somebody has something better, that's a small business, I'm definitely gonna make the swap. I'm also a sucker for a good toy story, so if there's like a great origin story of your toy or some like, I don't know, is this Angelina Jolie's kid's favorite toy?
[00:36:42] Something like that, that really helps me make the difference. And to be quite honest with you, Azhelle I hate to say this, but a lot of times it's just personality. It's do is the person, I mean, obviously I'm making choices on the product, but let's say, you know, product A and product B are completely the same when it comes to price and quality and all of that. I'm gonna go with the company that's easier to work with, that has the nicer people that maybe has the better assets for me online to promote their product, that sort of thing.
[00:37:14] Azhelle Wade: Okay. I know, I feel like I'm just picking your brain here. I'm sorry. I hope Okay. Okay. good. Because I am trying to think of all the questions. If I were to start a toy store, which I, you know, never say never, but I don't think that's something I ever wanna do. But, if I were to start
[00:37:30] Theresa: You got
[00:37:30] Azhelle Wade: open a store, I mean, It's just, that's, you are, you are brave and you like are just stronger than I am. So I couldn't do, that's so much. I would So many decisions. Visual product, people like that. You do so much so like congratulations. So, okay, my question, if I did wanna start a toy store, I think I would be wondering, like, how do I connect with the people in my community so that they actually wanna come back? Like, how much connecting do you have to do? Like, do you know the names of most of the people that come into your store? Do you have an email list that's super personal? How did you start those relationships? Like how, how community are we talking here? Like, you know.
[00:38:15] Theresa: So that's a great question because when I first started, I started to feel like, well, you know, I own the store my dad. And my dad will never be on camera, on a video n he just won't do it. And I was really hesitant. I just kept saying, I don't wanna be the face of the toy store. Like I want Villa Villekulla Toys to be its own thing, and I don't wanna be the face and I don't want it to be like Theresa's toy store.
[00:38:39] So for a long time I worked really hard on trying to separate myself from the store. And to be honest with you, you just, it didn't work. I had to be okay with being the face of the store and jumping on the videos and making the videos and talking to the people and going all the places. But really honestly, the majority of our com community is really, even though we are a local neighborhood toy store, we do so much of that community building via our social media and our email.
[00:39:10] And while I do know the names of a lot of our customers because they're regulars and they're starting to grow up in the store, what I want is somebody to be able to come into the store and feel that same connection, whether it's me there or Todd there, or any one of our wonderful employees. So really that connection is in training with the employees to make everybody feel special when they come in. So.
[00:39:34] Azhelle Wade: What do they say when they come in? Yeah.
[00:39:35] Theresa: Well, we play well. A little bit of the secret sauce. We never say, can I help you find anything because everyone is just, so, I think I learned this from Bob Fibs anyway, so it's not like secret sauce. The retail doctor, if nobody's familiar with him, it's pretty, pretty good. But he I'm pretty sure I, I might get his, his phrasing wrong, but what we ask is, is there anybody special you're shopping for?
[00:39:58] Because people just love to tell you about the kids in their lives, and I wanna hire only people that wanna hear about that. So that's how we always start. It's not starting to sell, it's starting to find out about why they're in the toy store. Sometimes they're just a grownup that wanted to wander into the toy store and they don't have any kids to shop for.
[00:40:15] But a lot of times they're coming in and they've got five grandkids and they wanna show you the pictures of all of their grandkids. And we, that's what we live for. We love that. We love then when they come back next year and be like, remember that toy you helped me pick out? They love it.
[00:40:30] They still play with it every day. So that for us, like I said it earlier, they're a lot of versions of success. And that wasn't the same, the same kind of success that we saw when we went into a more traditional mall setting, though I think other people could, maybe, could, could get there, but for us, we just weren't able to get there. And for us, success really is
[00:40:50] Azhelle Wade: the connection and
[00:40:51] Theresa: the connection and, and the repeat customer and seeing the kids grow up.
[00:40:56] Azhelle Wade: The value, the customer lifetime value is like very important when you're a neighborhood toy store. You know that phrase, I worked at things remembered when I was young. And that phrase of like, is there something special I could help you find or shop or a special event you're shopping for?
[00:41:11] I don't remember exactly what our phrase was, but it was something like what event are you finding something special for something like that? So you're not talking about like, what do you want? It's like, tell me about the event that's coming up that I know you're here for. That's why you might know that's
[00:41:25] Theresa: Yeah. So you're gonna be really excited to tell me about your wedding or your grandkid that's about to be born or whatever. Right? And that's if we're just all pre-conditioned to say no
[00:41:34] Azhelle Wade: Yes. No please leave me alone. I'd like, but I have to say, there is a toy. So when I was looking for my wedding venue, there was a toy store next to one of the wedding venues, which for us being a toy couple, we were almost like, oh my God, this is a sign we should get married here. But then we went in and like, I felt like I shouldn't be in there.
[00:41:53] Like the people were like, it was a local neighborhood toy store, but the people, I think they knew that we weren't shopping for kids and they were just like, we don't care that.
[00:42:04] Theresa: Yeah.
[00:42:05] Azhelle Wade: And, but had they asked, we would've probably been like, oh yeah, we're thinking about having a centerpiece made of toys. So we're looking for toys and we both work in the toy industry and we would've had a whole conversation. And that could've led us to not only buy centerpiece toys from them, but to like have our wedding there , because we, it would've worked. But yeah, not everybody focuses on that community piece so.
[00:42:28] Theresa: I it's so important in training and in hiring too, is like, obviously I started a brick and mortar business. A retail you won't if you don't like people. Being in retail just seems like the most miserable thing I can think of. But I love people and I try to hire people that love people because, I mean, I want my employees to see every person who walks in the door, not as an opportunity to sell a toy to, but as an opportunity to have a great interaction with the people.
[00:42:56] The kind of people who come into toy stores are typically really fun and fascinating. You know, we meet people who are professional clowns and just, you know, every, and if nothing else, everyone has a good toy story to share it with you. What was your favorite toy when you were growing up? And so I think that community piece. From making the store itself a hub in the community, even though it's only 1500 square feet.
[00:43:20] It's like if you go in, you're gonna chat with somebody who's generally interested in you and you guys can have a fun time and maybe that time you're not gonna leave with anything. But that doesn't mean you won't be back to shop for your nieces and nephews or whatever. I mean, I love an auntie. Aunties are fun because they'll play with all the toys with you and then they'll buy just the craziest toys that grandma won't be brave enough to buy so.
[00:43:40] Azhelle Wade: That's so sweet. Okay, wait, we we're getting to the end of our interview. I have to ask you closing questions, but before I do, I'm sorry. Your story is too positive. I need to ask you about struggle because there has to have been struggle. You're just way too happy. What's going,
[00:43:54] Theresa: sure. So, oh, well I'm happy cuz I own a toy that like literally I play.
[00:43:58] Azhelle Wade: But even as you talked about not hitting your revenue goals, you were like, we didn't hit our revenue goals for two years, but then we did. And like, like so tell me about the struggle.
[00:44:07] Theresa: So the struggle is that, you know, retail doesn't even usually, like we might hit our revenue goals, but you don't turn a profit for the first three to five years. And we did not turn a profit for the first three to five years. Then there, like 2019 for some reason was just really rough for us. It was, you know, there's a lot of nuances that go into having a family business and we had a lot of struggles there and luckily and then, you know, our revenue was down.
[00:44:33] It just like, I don't know if you ever reached those points in your business where it just feels like something is not right and you're not, it's not like I wanna jump ship, but it's like, what, what are we doing here and how can we make this better and what's going on? And luckily at that time I was accepted into the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and that ended up being just such good timing for that because that was really helpful in really reinvigorating myself.
[00:44:59] Spark and helping me to like, understand how to understand my numbers better, which ended up being really powerful. That was kind of, that was really key for me. Like, I can go have fun and market and ha do community events all day long, but I had no understanding of what my real numbers are. And that's embarrassing to say now. But knowing what my financials were was really key to improving my business and, and strengthening that.
[00:45:26] And then covid happened and I ju you know, it was hard on everybody. But for us, it just really, I, I hate to say like the silver lining in that was, it forced us to be like, if we burned it all down, what would it be? Because right now it's all burnt down and so, and so what would that be? And like I said, then we opened the second store and the second store didn't stick, but it like fixed all of our processes because we had no choice. We had,
[00:45:56] Azhelle Wade: had to build a process to,
[00:45:58] Theresa: So it was really that what, what got us out of the struggle was learning how to do some adulting to be honest, was like, okay, this isn't great anymore. Why is it not great anymore? I think, what did you call that, that fourth?
[00:46:13] Azhelle Wade: Reinvention. It was the fifth phase. I was just thinking the same thing. I was like, oh, she was in reinvention in the fifth phase.
[00:46:20] Theresa: Yeah. So Covid happened, we had to shut our doors and we were like, what are, what would we do? And so that allowed us to be really creative and kind of get our footing back and figure out how to run a better business. And that's been really, really great for us.
[00:46:34] Azhelle Wade: I wanna tell anybody that's here with us. We have a few people still live with us. And if you have a minute throw a question or two in the chat if Theresa has a sec to stay a little later with us. Do you see now since Covid, since people were stuck at home, this like renewed interest in being part of a community and going to your neighborhood toy store, are you seeing that come in your revenue and in your interaction with your con consumers? Like they're just more excited?
[00:46:59] Theresa: Absolutely every event we've had has been so much, hu more huge than any event we had before. Cuz I think people are just so excited to be out and with people and remember, you know, people. Yeah. What that was, what that was like. And then also just our population. I think a lot of, a lot of suburban towns are really growing quite a bit. So our population is growing.
[00:47:20] Azhelle Wade: Lot of Covid babies, you know.
[00:47:23] Theresa: Yeah. And I will say, like back to the struggle thing, I do wanna say, so that's like the business struggle side, but for anybody that's, I think any small business, but especially when it's something crazy like opening a toy store when people have this mentality of the old toys Rs when not a business, which you and I both know had nothing to do with toys at all, but
[00:47:41] Azhelle Wade: was investors.
[00:47:42] Theresa: Right. But I, it gives like this public idea that, oh, there aren't toy stores anymore. And so for me, the thing, the like dark side is the amount of resiliency and the amount of belief I have to have in my own business every day. Cuz even after eight years, like I was walking home from work the other day and my neighbor was like, oh, we were still in business and just like, you know, just people.
[00:48:05] People say the dumbest things or they're like, oh, I didn't know there were toy stores anymore. Or, you know, just whatever it is. And I think whatever your small business is, and however your crazy or crazy idea is, you've gotta be all in on it because you're just gonna have people, like I said, we had so many banks say no.
[00:48:20] And it was everything from toy stores are going, you know, no one's shopping in person anymore to, you don't have enough parking of reasons why we were told no. So I think just like really believing in what you're doing is key, because people are just gonna try to knock you down every step of the way, unfortunately.
[00:48:40] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. It's so hard to stay that focus and believing in what you're, you're doing, but also rooted in reality so that when things come up, you're able to intelligently respond and say, oh, yeah, maybe I do need to pivot. But I, I was also interviewed recently and someone was like, how do you feel about the toy industry failing the past couple years.
[00:49:01] And I was like, what are you even talking about? That didn't happen. I was like, no excuse you. Let me tell you the truth. They were like, well, Toys R Us. No, that's not, yeah. Okay, so I don't see any questions in the chat. But I have my closing questions, so I'll ask those, but we do have like some friends here, Marjorie, Steve and Luna Bunny one.
[00:49:23] Well, Bannet she's a great artist that I follow, so thanks for being here. So if you guys have any questions, feel free to toss them in the chat, Joanna. Okay. I just saw a question come in Joanna to threw a question in the chat. So we'll ask those questions. Then I'll get to my closing questions and we'll get you outta here so you can run your toy store
[00:49:40] So, okay. Joanna says, I have a functional plush toy without packaging, which needs to be explained. Would that be a negative from your perspective? I do, yes. Oh, you can well, I do know Joanna's toy, so her toy does need to be explained. However, it's very Try Me , so you can like see it by touching it, but you go.
[00:50:02] Theresa: I think that's important. The Tonie box is another good example of that. Before it became really popular, it had to be explained, but it was at a high enough price point that it made sense to me to give the staff the deep level of training that they need and the incentive that they needed to explain that to everyone.
[00:50:19] So I would say that if it were not quite such a high revenue toy, is the staff time required to explain the toy worth it. And that's where I would, you know, where I would put that. Now I'm, I'm not familiar with the toy, but being that it's a plush, my guess and that you can kind of figure it out, my guess is that you don't need so much staff time to explain it.
[00:50:43] But packaging is really huge. We have a, an amazing toy in stock right now that I just love so much. And again, it's a high end toy that my staff can and will explain, but it has zero packaging, so it just kind of looks like a thing sitting there. I mean, it just doesn't even have a wrap on it. And it makes it really hard to sell.
[00:51:03] Azhelle Wade: And I think a lot of people. probably come to your store looking for gifts, so they want it to be boxed.
[00:51:08] Theresa: Right. And they don't wanna have to explain it to the person that they've given it to, but it just, I mean, anything like a ta, anything. So that like looks new and has information on it, whether it's just a ta you know, a tag stuck through the ear or something is helpful. I think no packaging really hurts. Kind of starts make things look crafty or and I don't know, that's probably, that's more Azhelle's side of it. But I will say in the store things that are not packaged or very hard to sell.
[00:51:33] Azhelle Wade: No, I hundred percent agree. And I do. Joanna, I think your, your plush needs a boxed. I love you Joanna, but I, I feel this way. I, okay, I like this a lot. It. What amount of sales would you be looking for? Like say she had a product someone had a product like that, that was packaged, it was doing well, they come to you, they pitch it to you. They've had it in another store. What weekly sale rate would you be looking at to consider it for your store?
[00:51:55] Theresa: Don't know that anyone has ever provided me with information on what they were doing in sales at other stores. And now I wanna ask for it Azhelle. I don't know that anyone has ever provided me with that information. You know, they'll tell me if someone nearby is selling it or a store similar to mine is doing, doing well with it.
[00:52:15] Some smaller companies are nice enough to connect me with other store owners that I can ask them about the product. But when I try, typically when I try something new, I'm gonna buy the minimum of what I can buy and make sense and try it out. And I'm gonna wanna sell through 70 to 80% of that within the first 30 days because something new is always gonna sell faster because my employees are more excited about it.
[00:52:40] It's, you know, better on the shelf. So I wanna see my own turn on a first order. I wanna be almost completely rid of that product within the first 60 days. And then that's when I know something is gonna be, you know, that's when I'll reorder.
[00:52:53] Azhelle Wade: How many units is that normally like for your first order?
[00:52:56] Theresa: I mean, it depends on the product because if it's something smaller, you know, if we're talking about something that's a $20 cost point, it's probably gonna be, you know, 24 items or something like that.
[00:53:07] Azhelle Wade: Okay. So you wanna get through it. Okay. That's good. I like that people aren't showing you sales cuz then my students can show you sales and they'll be impressed. And then.
[00:53:14] Theresa: I know.
[00:53:14] Azhelle Wade: Okay. And Steve says, curious which trade shows she prefers to find products for their store and how does she prefer for manufacturers to introduce new products?
[00:53:25] Theresa: Oh, so I love the Astra show. I am, I love it so much. I don't actually need, well, I do go to the other shows than I do need to go to the other shows, but I love the Astra show, especially for bringing in new products because it gives me, I have more time to talk. Like I said, I'm a sucker for a toy story, so for new stuff it gives me more time to talk to their representatives. There was another part of that question.
[00:53:49] Azhelle Wade: Wait, I have a follow up on that piece. When you go to an Astra show, do you make appointments or do you like to wander and see where the show takes you?
[00:53:57] Theresa: I will make appointments with my sales reps and I will, I have kind of a, yeah, I'm wondering where the show takes you That does not work. That's a good way to like not even see half the booths. I learned that actually this year. I took my daughter for the first time and got like nothing done because that's what we were doing. But I, always go, Astra does a new player's park and that is always where I start my trade show because if there is something awesome and new, that's where I want to put my resources first.
[00:54:30] And so I'll always start there. I don't make appointments. Astra doesn't typically have the big booths that, you know, the New York Toy Fair does, where you have to make an appointment to go in anyway. So I don't typically make appointments with individual vendors themselves. You know, if somebody's got good coffee, maybe I'll make sure to make it by the good coffee.
[00:54:47] Azhelle Wade: Okay. That's a tip. That's a tip.
[00:54:49] Theresa: And so he asked me how I prefer manufacturers get my attention. I'll tell you always has really great espresso at their booth.
[00:54:59] Azhelle Wade: Oh my gosh. And free freight. Right.
[00:55:02] Theresa: And free freight. Yeah, free freight is back to that question about how, what was it, how manufacturers?
[00:55:08] Azhelle Wade: Manufacturers reach out to you or introduce you to new products?
[00:55:11] Theresa: So sales reps I think are key. I love my sales reps and especially when it's a manufacturer that I'm familiar with, but they have new product cuz sometimes it's hard to, sometimes it's easy to miss when a man, a manufacturer launches something new that all it's. Easier to see when it's a brand new manufacturer and a brand new product. But sometimes it's easy to miss when somebody that you're familiar with launches something new.
[00:55:39] And so I think those sales reps are really important because they're the ones that are in our stores and face-to-face with us and kind of know the personalities of our stores. So if you can get representation, I, I think that's important. And I also, like I said, I don't get inundated with samples and I love a sample and I'll send 'em home for my employees so they can give me feedback. Sometimes I don't have time to play every single game that comes my way. So sending out and then I can give it to my employees and they can give me feedback.
[00:56:08] And if they love it, then the training's already done. And and so I do, I love a sample. I will say that. making a mistake in how you show me a new product is, is just as bad as not showing me the new product. So, for instance, calling me in the middle of December on a Friday to try to sell me something, I'm probably gonna just have a whole opinion of your company that maybe you weren't hoping for me to have.
[00:56:37] You know, and I know it's just like a, a rookie mistake. Maybe you haven't worked in a toy store or whatever, but that just gives me an opinion. So I think it's just as important to be mindful of how you're showing people what you have and that what's new. And to be respectful of that, we have a couple companies that my employees just cringe when they call, cuz they call and call and call and call.
[00:56:57] And then we have other companies that my employees love to hear from because they, you know, they'll call, they'll check in on the product, they'll send a sample. And so I think anything that you can do to get FaceTime is important. And it's not a phone call, it's on email.
[00:57:11] Azhelle Wade: And if you do send it, they send you a sample. Do they send it along with their wholesale sheet or they wait for you to say, oh, I like that sample. How much is it? What can we do to get one in our store?
[00:57:20] Theresa: Yeah, so what usually works for me is if someone what works I pay, I pay a lot of attention to that, to what works to get my attention. Cuz we get really inundated. So when I notice something I like, because I love marketing, I like to think about why is it.
[00:57:34] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, me too. I'm the same way. Yeah,.
[00:57:37] Theresa: And so I'll just, I don't even know what the product is yet, but a good example is I just recently got a personal email that was definitely not a bulk email and it w it, there were no graphics in it, there were nothing. And it was just like, hi. This is my name. I represent this company. I just sent you some samples. I know it's getting ready to be your busy season. I'll follow up back with you in a few weeks and see how you liked your samples. And I took time out like right before Black Friday and I just wrote 'em back and I was like, I just wanted you to know that you got my attention.
[00:58:10] This was great cuz it was just like a human emailing me as a human. And then he put a box in the mail with his handwriting on the label as a human. And when I get time, we'll check out. Like I said, I haven't even opened the box yet cause we've been that busy, but when I get time, I'll open it and I'll be sure to give him feedback because he reached out to me face-to-face as a person. I know that the bigger your company gets, the harder that is to do. But I think bigger companies can spend more resources connecting with the stores that carry their products, in a more personal way if they really want to get the attention on their new products.
[00:58:47] Azhelle Wade: No, I think that's a great idea. And I am thinking now of like telling my students about how they're sending their product. One time I got I purchased like, I think it was hair, actually, I think it was buying hair. The product came as very expensive and as soon as I opened the fancy box, there was an envelope with my name on it in like a scripty, handwritten looking font and like a silver metallic color.
[00:59:11] And my name is very odd. So this, I'm like looking at this and I'm like, did someone hand write this? Like, it looked very handwritten and I opened it up and it, and it was a printed note and a message from the founder, but like, I was already sold seeing my name on a black envelope in silver silver Inc. In the scripty font. I was like, wow. Honestly, the fact that you took the time to do that for me was like enough to make me say, oh, what is, what is this? Like what is this company? I love them. I'm so glad I gave them my money. Like, you know, like,
[00:59:43] Theresa: While systems are so important for making our businesses run well and automating things is, is really a game changer for being able to scale. I think it's really important to remember all the ways where we can add that human element in, because at the end of the day, you know, with a, whether it's hair or whether it's toys, you can order from a big box that's gonna just print something out and have a label or you can order from a person. And the only way that we can really differentiate ourselves is that human element. And I think that's, it's super important. And like you, I'm sure you probably always order your hair from that company now because you know it's good quality and that they care
[01:00:19] Azhelle Wade: about you.
[01:00:19] It's amazing. They care. They wrote my name. So.
[01:00:22] Theresa: Yeah, they do. They care enough. that's a, I mean, just like this, you know, like I said in my example that was, he only sent me an email. Everyone sends me an email. But what everyone doesn't do is send me an email. Most people have an email list where it's one generic email that's going out and this person took the time to send me an email.
[01:00:43] Azhelle Wade: Email. but also like appreciating the fact that it's your busy season. I've been telling a lot of my students like, they're like, Azhelle, we're not hearing back from this company. And I'm like, listen. Send them an email and say, Hey, I know you're busy. Haven't heard back yet. I'm gonna check in with you in January.
[01:00:58] Hope you have a great holiday. That shows so much respect and understanding for the time of the year, their time, and the fact that they're kind of welcoming you into their home by reviewing your product or reviewing your thing, you know? So
[01:01:11] Theresa: Yeah. One of my first jobs was at a restaurant and the manager wouldn't hire anyone that came in on a Friday at lunchtime looking for a job. And I feel like it's kind of the same. It's, it's just a basic understanding of the industry and a basic understanding of the industry is like, don't mess with toy store owners between Black Friday and Christmas.
[01:01:30] Azhelle Wade: my gosh.
[01:01:31] Theresa: Just send us Starbucks cards or something.
[01:01:33] Azhelle Wade: Oh my gosh. That that's actually really, that's actually really good marketing. I'm gonna write that down.
[01:01:39] Theresa: I will remember you if you, if you buy me a coffee right now, I will order your product in January.
[01:01:46] Azhelle Wade: Oh my gosh. I could just imagine. Someone now was shipping you a toy with a Starbucks card attached to it. it. Okay. Theresa, thank you so much for this conversation. Do you have any final piece of advice that you wanna give to somebody who is thinking about starting a toy store like you did?
[01:02:04] Theresa: Figure out who you're gonna be and what's important to you first, and ignore all the haters. That's, that's it.
[01:02:12] Azhelle Wade: Steve said Starbucks card is on the way.
[01:02:15] Theresa: Thanks Steve. What company is Steve?
[01:02:18] Azhelle Wade: No idea.
[01:02:20] No idea. It doesn't say, well, you'll know when you get your Starbucks card that says from Steve, so. Okay. Well Theresa's been a pleasure having you on the show today, toy people. I wanna recap a little bit here before we close up this episode. Oh wait, no. Theresa, last question. What toy blew your mind as a kid?
[01:02:39] Theresa: Oh, what toy blew my mind as a kid? I st Okay. The toy that blew my mind that I thought that was the coolest thing was this is gonna show my age. I had the little strawberry shortcake vinyl figurines that all smelled like their different characters. So, you know, the blueberry ones smelled like blueberries and I like carried them around in my bike and I could never figure out like why I, like, rinse them in water and couldn't figure out why the smell would never go away.
[01:03:01] And I just thought it was the coolest thing ever. But I also have Ellie, my stuff to Elephant. She makes appearances on her social media sometime, but I have had her since I was eight years old. She's a Mary Meyer stuffed elephant and she's still in perfect condition and she's moved to eight different states and I don't know how many different houses with me, but my poor husband still shares the bed with Ellie and.
[01:03:22] Azhelle Wade: That's amazing. We have several stuffed animals. Yeah.
[01:03:25] Theresa: I'm sure you guys do.
[01:03:28] Azhelle Wade: Okay. Alright. Before we close out today's episode, I just wanted to highlight one of the biggest takeaways, honestly, for me, I'm gonna get working on this the end of the year. And for you, if you're starting a toy company, a toy store, whatever, is when Theresa said that we should have a, a business plan, we need a five year business plan toy people.
[01:03:47] And the most important thing is actually not what we're thinking, like revenue and all and all that, where we're gonna get our funding, but first is our mission statement so that every time we have to make decisions in our business, we're not having to go back and start from scratch. We have like a mission with pillars that we can follow.
[01:04:03] To make decisions on marketing or products that we'll bring into our company or people that we'll work with. So that is an important takeaway from today, as well as the five stages of entrepreneurship, thanks to my mentor. The formulation, stage one, the concentration phase two, momentum three, stability four, and reinvention phase five.
[01:04:25] Okay. As always, thank you so much for spending this time with me today. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there, so it truly means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week, I'll see you later toy people.
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