TOY BUSINESS STRATEGY: WHEN'S THE RIGHT TIME TO SET UP TO SELL DIRECT IN ANOTHER COUNTRY?

Here's how you know when you are ready to set up a Toy company subsidiary in another company and start hiring staff - you are ready when you decide you are.

That might seem glib, but the reality is this - for most Toy & Game companies, you are ready to make your first hire in a country & to start selling direct to retail in that market as soon as you understand what is entailed.

The legal process is the easy part in most countries. Fill in a few forms and you have a registered company. Understanding the local employment situation is critical at this stage, because some countries have far more onerous commitments to staff than others. Needless to say before you take this big jump you need to have some idea that your product offering is going to be in demand for retailers and that you have a fair chance of getting to open up new trading accounts with your subsidiary.

Normally most companies enter International Toy markets via distributors. The key sign that you are ready to set up a subsidiary and go direct is when retailers start reaching out to you, or if you find your distributor is always out of stock and not keeping a good enough eye on inventory levels.

Then once you have gone through all this process you need to find best in class commercial operators to help you set up trading accounts. Typically your first hire should be a Head Honcho/senior sales person. Because with a venture like this, nothing else matters until you have trading accounts and purchase orders. We have significant experience of setting up new sales subsidiaries, and therefore we understand the right type of personality and temperament to start something new. Fundamentally of course the right candidate needs existing retail relationships, but they also need to be entrepeneurial with a problem solving approach. They can't just look around for someone else to fix crappy retail interfaces or logistics issues, they need to push the sale through despite all hurdles encountered along the way.

We would like to advise you on how to start a subsidiary and to help you find the right person to start your new business in another country. Please feel free to get in touch for more information via the Contact page.