Market Research

OK, I know it was only last week that I was considering being a social worker - but this week it is Entrepreneur!

My friend and I are planning on opening a baby store in Wellington (hopefully Kilbirnie - by the Children's Bookshop) primarily selling cloth nappies as well as other baby bits and pieces.

We decided while there are tonnes of people buying cloth nappies online... there aren't many options where you can go, see, and touch modern cloth nappies. As well as those who don't use the internet and don't know about modern cloth.

So yeah... as part of market research, consider this a "focus group"! Opinions, ideas, constructive criticism etc, all appreciated

And just for the record, I am a bit more serious about this career move than I was about the social worker... that was more of a dream... this has its hurdles (such as where the hell we are going to get money to finance it!) but is possible

Somewhere to check out cloth nappies would be awesome!!! Sounds like a fabulous idea!!

Would have several types...pockets, prefolds, AIO's, fitteds? It would be excellent if you did so people could see the different options.

i was going down the same track as lizzle...if you stock across the board so customer is informed then ultimately you tred on the toes of the companies who are cutting costs and selling online...and then the other end is competing with the big companies such as nappiesonline etc...and a shop only has a small niche market - as in the people who can stop to shop or are local.
All the banks have great small business set up guides, maybe pick up a few of those?

Lu - Yep... going to make an appointment tomorrow to see what WINZ offer. I know they offer an allowance while you are starting out as well as a grant. It makes up for the lack of capital I have to invest. (Still working on my parents )

Gen - Yep... planning on having a few options. Especially to educate myself. While everyone is very helpful with the whole nappy thing (on here and TNN etc) I want people to be able to come to me and ask questions (and then I defer to my lovely forum experts )

Liz - Instead of the easy-pay option, which is great but I don't know how we'd finance it (to start with anyway), I'd like to reiterate to customers that they don't have to purchase the whole lot at once. I brought my nappies in small lots and even using one washable nappy a day saved me $3.50 per week, which 10 weeks of use covered the cost of the nappy.
And about the online thing - we've kinda gone the hard way in aiming to set up a brick and mortar shop, but we are being semi-environmental in our mission to provide cloth naps to those that aren't internet inclined. (And to those that are impatient and don't want to wait for shipping!) The distributor of the nappies we will be stocking is an online kid, so may take exception to us stealing her market.
And yep about the enivornmental thing too. We are going to try and stock natural products and stuff... but not turn people off with the whole tree-hugging hippy thing.

Bombshell - you are right about it being a small local thing. We are still sorting out ways to overcome this. The site we are looking at is by the Children's Bookshop, which is pretty amazing and draws a lot of people in. WELLY LADIES! I thoroughly recommend it! Cheaper than Whitcoulls/Paperplus etc and much cooler. We are going to do stuff like babyshowers and perhaps convince parenting gurus to hold workshops. All inspiration welcome


Annie - thanks! Will look into those naps. And yep, if we can convince someone to supply us with stuff like the breastpads, that'll fit into the whole theme.

I'm trying to track down a knitter who will knit funky baby clothes. Anyone got a spare grandma? (I don't trust my own... you should see the delightful things she sends down. Love her really!)

Ahhhhhh long post. Sorry! Lots of ideas

OoooOoo and Christchurch City Council is subsidising cloth nappy starter packs... might try and pitch to WCC

for finance theres tons of funds available that you could try and tap into. i work for palmy city council and i help out the "money witch" at work lol. She deals with all the council's funds that get dished out to people and often I'm writing the letters telling people no sorry you don't match the criteria but try xxxx instead. im not sure what is available in your area but winz is a good start and most council's can tell you other places to try .. worth a shot anyway if you are serious.

when mentioning it to the council be very selectful about how you word stuff. like if you wrote an application to us and it said something along the lines of that you were aware of a more pressing need for mums to use reuseable nappies because of the amount of refuse dispposables create etc so your idea is setting up a business that stocks all types of modern reuseable nappies etc" that would get our attention because council deals with getting rid of waste so anything that is going to promote zero waste would be very very good lol.

with council's its all political so anything that helps out other areas that they are trying to work towards or helping the community will be more helped out than those that dont

Nikki i've tried all of those except piko baby and i havent brought from ecobubs either. they all have great reviews on the nappy network tho...and you should (if you havent done so already) check them out too, they have lots of info and reviews of products and being a diverse bunch of people have differing opinions.

all the best - i hope next week tho you dont post you are planning on becoming a real estate salesperson instead tho...

I could see this being done in Palmy, and getting money from the council. Our Mayor is a green freak so she would be right into it.

Thanks for that Amy... maybe with the council we can try to create a rivalry with CHCH?
They've gotta want to minimise waste right?!?! Argh... I'm turning all envirnonmental!!

And yep - have emailed the babylegs people

The more councils that do it, the more will hopefully follow. If you were thinking of approaching the council, it would be a good idea to talk to Charity and get some tips. I know she has presented to them before so she may have some ideas.

And I know someone already mentioned natural products, but another area is natural/organic mum products that aren't expensive. Oh and the video idea is great!