Expanding our audience - any help appreciated

Interesting concept. Just asked the wife for her input, as she's currently on maternity leave (as well as a marketing manager ).

Her reaction, why would you go to one of these parties when childrenswear is so cheap at outlets like Tesco and Asda. It would be hard for party organisers to undercut the retailers whilst keeping a decent profit margin, as well as buying product from you.

Tupperwear and Annsummers, and also things like Avon, are more niche, with more expensive upsell options.

Or maybe go for more high end clothing, kiddies party dresses, designer clothes? etc. Other ideas, play the charity card, a percentage goes to xyz kiddies charity.

As for marketing, look at targetted adwords campaigns. Once you have a handle on your conversion baseline for your products, then you can start experimenting with google adwords.

Hope that helps?

I've doubts about the viability of this too.

My gut feel is the "party" idea is a bit outdated. There are very few Mums who don't work part-time (from home or elsewhere) and they'd generally earn far more per hour from their employment than they could expect to earn from party sales.

There are people who need to buy at home / very locally and who can't get to Tesco's etc (eg because they live out in the villages and have no private transport during the working day or are housebound and / or disabled). Sadly most of them don't have any real buying power so wouldn't happily attend parties where they'd feel pressurised to buy more than they could afford. They might like the idea of becoming a party organiser but many of them are socially isolated too.

Many of the better off people in their position (people able to be your customers) rely on buying online and having their goods posted / couriered to them.

My sister was a "stay at home Mum" of the sort you might be trying to recruit as a party organiser (socially well connected, very active and living in an affluent village). People like her though wouldn't be interested in the job.

Would suggest a rethink. Would it be profitable to offer a more bespoke online sales service, recruiting online Mums to provide one to one help with buying queries (eg Q: "My daughter doesn't fit the standard sizes ... what can I get her that will actually fit?" A: "What you need is ....")?

I thought there was a party plan company that sold kiddies clothes that went bust a couple of years ago. As you want to get to mums, have you thought about targetting places where mums congregate like toddler groups, schools etc or you could do it online with sites like mumsnet and netmums.
Just a thought

Hi guys.

Thanks for the swift and very insightful responses! You've given me a lot to think about! My boss is still trying to get a handle on the idea and figure out if it's worth pursuing so we're happy to see what you had to think!

It does seem like it's going to be a little more than a working from home job if this were to work. Taking products to toddler groups and schools is a great idea as it could potentially save the people there a trip to the shops, but I guess you couldn't solely rely on that as people are unlikely to want to buy new things every week.

I have a feeling this may be something we should aiming more at people who're considering going into business properly rather than people who just have a bit of spare time on their hands. It's back to the drawing table I think!

I just posted the thread "how to promote your site quickly."

The same rules / process applies.

You need to sit down and workout your strategy and STP. Read it.

I sell Usborne books and parties do still happen with mums but I sell far more through schools and toddler groups and just wondering if that would be the same for clothing...but toddler groups is a good way to promote the home parties.

facebook advertising, it failed for me for the very same reasons it will work for you, I needed DM's (decision makers) and very few on FB, so sank a good few quid in their advertising to show ads to mums and people not working their butts off, for you though, this could be an awesome market, has to be worth a couple of hundred quid.

I see it like this. The 'stay at home' mum chose to do that after havings kids (lets face it there are alternatives for many not to stay at home who want a job). They can get out to town for clothes shopping and they do go out - not many mums actually stay cooped up at home with their young kids. They will stick them in the buggy and jump on the bus or in the car and go to town for a shop or as above, tescos, asda etc for the weekly shop. So on price alone the idea cant beat the competition nor the range/choice.

Secondly the stay at home mums dont want an inconvenience of a job which means they have to take their kids and be at some place for what is at least 2-3 hrs in reality. What if their own kid gets whingey, feels unwell, etc? This is a job (and someone's business) so cant just pack up there and then and go home.

Cancelling parties for same reasons can't also happen too often - for obvious reasons - and the mum doesnt want to have to traipse around pesterig folk to have parties, going around collecting the money then doing the delivery - which assumes she needs a car - so how many stay at home mums who arent single parents on benefits have a second spare car at home? Not as many we suspect, and those that can afford it dont usually want to be party planners in their spare time.

Of all these type of parties i've been to the women dont tend to do this long term. Its often to earn a few quid before christmas or for their holidays. They start out motivated and soon find the party hosts let them down, dont get enough people there to make it worthwhile, find it hard to get new parties on board after current leads have dried up, then dump the idea and get a 'normal' part time job.

Being a party planner is in effect like running your own biz even if you do it for a comapany, as you have to source all you own leads for parties, do the bookings, do the party, collect the money and sort the dleivery, rinse and repeat! And if the parties dont happen you dont get any wage, so it's no different. Running a business is hard work and so is party plannng. It will suit a minority. That's why only 13% of the UK is self employed. It's not for everyone.

You can't beat selling at a toddler group though, where mums all try to out-do each other and keep up with the 'Joneses'...from experience!