Growing, growing ...

Phew! These past few months we've been run off our feet. Lots of playgroups are using the indoor playground, the website traffic is soaring (about 1,600 unique visitors this month) and every weekend we have one or two birthday parties to host (not to mention deliveries to other parties in our customers' own homes).

To keep pace with demand we've had to expand our stock pretty rapidly. Winther trikes, Like-a-Bikes, a large inflatable Thomas the Tank Engine play tunnel, "travel systems" that double up as a plane seat booster and a carseat, mini trampolines, bobby cars, bubble machines and countless other thingummybobs. Every cent we earn goes back into the business.

We have a growing number of rentals by visitors coming from Australia or further afield. In September, for example, a competitor in the Aviva Iron Man triathlon and his wife rented a twin stroller while staying at the Ritz-Carlton. In recognition of this kind of service we've been listed on the official Singapore tourism website www.visitsingapore.com as a "pro-family" business!

We've also been listed on the Birthdays page of the very informative Singapore for Kids website and the New Mothers' Support Group did a feature on us in a recent newsletter. NMSG have had a playgroup session at the toy rental club, as did Twins Plus last month. (Rose, as a mother of triplets herself, is a member.)

Toy Rental Truck

After months of heartache with truck hire (including, most recently, separate hire of truck and driver) we are now the proud owners of a toy rental club truck. It's a secondhand Mitsubishi Canter with a "box" at the back that will allow us to transport toys and equipment securely and without risk of rain damage.

For the time being, however, Rose is going to have to do most of the driving. It's arduous work, and sometimes stressful (picture yourself stuck in traffic with 3 precisely timed birthday deliveries ahead of you), but the hands-on experience should make it easier to train a full-time driver later on.

A certain husband, by the way, has already slammed the truck into a height barrier suspended over the entrance to a condo carpark! Perhaps it's just as well that we don't have our logo painted on yet ...

Delivery Problems

There are three main items on the toy rental club menu - toy/ equipment rental, the indoor playground and birthday parties. But obviously rentals are our "signature dish", the thing that people think of as soon as they hear our name. So we must try to get those right. The problem is, it's difficult to do these efficiently while we depend on a hired truck and driver for home deliveries!

We've been hiring a driver who owns his own vehicle but (a) he's expensive, charging separate fees for every delivery, regardless of distance; and (b) he's not really willing to assemble or dismantle items such as slides, playhouses or inflatables, which is a service we need to provide.

We've also tried self-drive van hire but that's expensive too and it takes one of us away from both the business and our family for long periods. It looks like we'll have buy our own truck and - once we can afford it - employ a driver.

A Bit of Pre-history

So how did it all start? Well, something like this ...

SCENE 1
Somewhere around 2003, Anita (Belgian born, fluent in Mandarin, married to an Aussie) takes her 2 pre-school boys to a small home-based play school run by Rose (Kenyan born, in Singapore since 1998, married to an Irishman). They are neighbours and soon become friends.

ANITA (exasperated): It's so hard to get good quality toys. Why can't I find things that are durable and educational? Toy shops are full of stuff based on the latest movie or TV show, stuff that breaks down after a week - and in any case the kids are already bored with it before then.

ROSE: I couldn't agree more. And here we are in a tiny island faced with a waste disposal problem. You see so many toys going into the bin lorry. I wish there were better toys and I wish they could be re-used when kids grow tired of them.

ANITA: Most people live in small apartments, so it's understandable that they have to get rid of clutter. In lots of countries there are toy libraries where you can borrow toys, but I've never seen one in Singapore. I wonder if something like that would work?

ROSE (warming to the theme): Yes, and not just toys - what about strollers, slides, baby carriers, carseats, nursing pumps, all sorts of things? And birthday parties: think of all those parties in condo function rooms and the trouble parents have trying to organise activities for kids ... Their lives would be so much easier if they could just rent out play houses and push-along toys and a ballpit and so on.

ANITA: Yes! And what about all the visitors who come here and have to carry strollers and carseats and toys with them - I bet they'd love to travel lighter and just rent something while they're here ...


SCENE 2
Scene 1 is repeated at least a dozen times.

SCENE 3
Rose, hugely pregnant with triplets, takes a break from work. The babies are born in May 2005. Life will never be the same again. Anita, too, is busy as one boy starts "big school" and another moves to kindergarten. Who needs a business?

SCENE 4
April 2007. The idea just won't go away! the toy rental club is registered as a business.

SCENE 5
May 2007. A hundred amateurish versions of the website are launched. (Come back every 5 minutes and spot the changes.) Ads are placed in magazines. Fliers are distributed.

ANITA (excited): Look, look! We got an email!
ROSE (terrified): Oh no, the phone's ringing! What will I say?
ANITA: Just don't answer it. No, I mean do! Oh heck, I guess this means we're in business ...

(The rest, of course, is history.)

Toy Rental Club toddles onto the stage

the toy rental club launches its website www.toyrentalclub.com and thus becomes a functioning business. We have so much to learn, mere toddlers taking those first wobbly steps across the carpet with our arms outstretched and faces full of hope.

But despite the playmats, the jolly seesaws and the colourful toys, this is actually the world of grown-ups. Setting-up costs have broken the bank, there is rent to pay and soon we'll have to hire delivery trucks. These toddlers must run before they can walk!