RentDToyz – Jess Loh

Story by Jess Loh – RentDToyz

My Background

I am a stay-at-home mother (SAHM) with a lovely daughter of 18 months old. Currently, I am pregnant with a baby boy who will be born early April 2009. I graduated from my Business Admin Degree in 2006 and was actively looking for a job when I found out that I was pregnant. I managed to work for a company for about 3 months when my condition was not ideal. Therefore, I quitted my job to prepare for the arrival of my first child. After the birth of my daughter, I decided to stay at home to take care of her so that I won’t miss out her precious growth and development during the early years.

Birth of RentDToyz

I have always wanted to start on an online business even when I was working. As I am a SAHM, I have the time flexibility to start on RentDToyz.

The birth of the idea of RentDToyz was due to the cost of toys nowadays.

amoxil online style=”text-align: justify;”>The retail prices of children’s toys can really kill especially with the increase cost of a baby and living standard. I always wonder if there are other ways that I can let my children enjoy playing with toys and also keep cost as low as possible because children get tired of one toy really fast. That is very true as I seen the situation happened right at my home.

I thought it will be great if I can rent the toy that is suitable for my children at their age and let them try it out. The amount spent on the toy will be minimize since I don’t need to pay the retail price of the toy and once they get bored with it, I will just rent another toy for them. They will get to play with a variety of toys throughout the stages of development.

My hubby has been nagging at me on what are we going to do with all the toys after our children have outgrown them. That’s when the idea of renting toys came about. I feel that it will really benefit a lot of parents out there with the same thinking as me.

How I started my engine? And the challenges I faced

The tough part comes in after the idea comes along and when I finally put my mind to go ahead with setting up the online business.

I have to find out what I need to know about the business before stepping into it. So I did my market research. I asked my group of friends and online forum to get feedback on my business idea. The feedback and comments that I got from them was very positive. All of them welcome the idea of renting toys.

The next step I did was to perform my research on my competitors. I have to know who are in the market currently, how well they were doing, what products they are providing, etc. I have to know them well and then differentiate myself from them. What I can provide better than them? Those are really difficult questions that I need to find answers.

After gathering all the necessary information and I am sure that I am passionate about this business, I need to work out the costs of toys, website design, documentations, etc. The list just gets longer and longer when I was doing it. So I prioritize them and work on them one by one based on my daily schedule.

Now comes more challenges, it was really tough especially I was already pregnant with my second child and 6th months into my pregnancy. I got tired so easily and need to cope with pregnancy-related symptoms and was kind of moody when things are not going too well in the beginning.

I also need to worry on how to design the website as I have no web design knowledge and source for good quality and affordable toys, how to advertise, etc. Luckily my husband is an IT guy and I managed to ask him to help me out with the website. I told him my requirements but there were a lot of changes along the way which we also have our own opinions and views. Then constructive arguments started and we will need to work till late at night to resolve the issues.

The toys search was another headache as I have limited capital too to work on. I searched online for good bargains, look for local distributors for a better price before finally deciding on what toys to be rented out so that parents and children will benefit from it.

Of course with the start of a new business, it will also mean less time for my daughter who was in need of attention at her age. She will want me to play with her throughout the day and can get very angry when I was not able to do so due to this business. However, I will make it a point to schedule my time so that I will still be able to spend valuable time with her playing, reading and watching DVDs with her. Then I will work with my husband after she sleeps which will be usually after 10pm.

The next phrase of challenges came along the next day after the launch of the business. First rental order was received and I have to work on it to make sure the necessary tasks are done. A lot of fine tunings to the website were also perform during the week RentDToyz was launched. A lot of pressure actually comes from within me, as I always hope to achieve 100%, no mistakes. This can be kind of difficult to achieve even when things were well planned.

I hope that my website will be able to help parents save money and children to be able to play a variety of toys throughout their early stages of growth and development. Hope that one day, I will be able to hear parents telling me how fortunate they are to be able to give their best to their children through my business idea.

Advice for other moms who wants to start a home business

I feel that mummies should consider the followings before deciding on starting a home business.

1) Passionate about the business then focus on it
2) Don’t be afraid to ask and face the challenges that comes along the way
3) Be open to different views and concepts, and willing to accept changes
4) Prioritizing
5) Handle pressure from everywhere
6) Most importantly, is to be able to get the support from your family.

Special Thanks

I would like to thank my husband, who has been very supportive since the very first day. Without him, I don’t think I will be able to start my own online business.

Jess Loh
My Toys Rental Website: http://www.rentdtoyz.com
My email: enquiry@rentdtoyz.com