Revamp of Website

We changed the appearance of the toyrentalclub.com front page a couple of months back. The new design includes handy tabs along the top, a navigation bar that changes colour when your cursor hovers over an option, a neater right hand column and slightly larger text.

We liked the revamped design and wanted to extend it to all the other webpages. However, since our webmaster is a family member rather than a paid professional, we have had to wait.

In the past week he has managed to redesign about a dozen more pages. Now all that remains is to upgrade the many pages that contain tables listing our products. Not a straightforward matter, apparently, but he's "working on it" ...

Upstairs, Downstairs

After a gruelling weekend of shelf installation and movement of rental items from Level 6 to Level 5, we are now operating on two floors of Century Warehouse. The upstairs play space has benefitted enormously but we still have lots to do both there and downstairs. (The new unit is directly below the original one, so it's a shame we can't have a fire station pole or a spiral staircase to link the two.)

For the time being, you will still need to visit Level 6 in order to do rental transactions. However, if you phone us in advance, we may be able to get your items ready and meet you on Level 5.

Our ultimate plan is to have staff on both levels, with Level 6 devoted to play and parties while Level 5 holds our rental stock. We'll keep you posted ...

Extra Space for Indoor Play

We've just signed a lease on an additional unit, on Level 5 of our building, to commence on 10 November. We plan to use this as our main toy and equipment rental centre, thus freeing up space in the existing unit for more playground fun.

Please bear with us in the second half of November as we shift our stock and do necessary renovations.

Mom-on-Demand

Gee, it's tough being celebrities ...! We've done our second TV interview in a matter of months, this time for Mega Media, a local company that produces HD material for Singtel's mio TV. The piece about the toy rental club is for a channel called Mom-on-Demand, "Asia’s first on-demand channel for parenting and women’s issues".

You'd be surprised how much time these short television segments take. Initial meetings; checking out the playground to plan camera shots and anticipate lighting needs etc; the actual interviews (the two of us quizzed separately in this case, like suspects in a police cell!); and a couple of filming sessions, including a Saturday afternoon birthday party.

We don't know yet when it will be broadcast, but we'll add details here once we know more.

Website Woes

Our website disappeared this afternoon and is still offline. Really really frustrating as we are so reliant on it: that's how clients can see what's in stock and place their orders.

According to our hosting service (here in Singapore), their servers have been hit by a "distributed denial-of-service" (DDOS) attack. Sounds scary, huh? Basically, the internet server gets swamped with useless traffic until it drowns. The motives vary but usually someone is trying to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning. It seems unlikely that we are the target since hundreds of sites are down. (By the way, major sites such as Amazon, Yahoo and eBay have been shut down by this kind of attack in the past - so we're in good company!)

Postscript: In theory, our hosting service got us back online about 8 hours later but due to the wait time for "DNS propagation" it was mid-morning of the next day before the site actually became usable. It seems all ISPs are vulnerable to this kind of attack but clearly we'll have to investigate whether there is any form of backup we can employ in future.

NETS, Visa and Mastercard

We now have facilities to accept payment by NETS, Visa or Mastercard. This should ease transactions for clients. We are still happy, however, to receive payments by cash or inter-bank transfer.

Our least preferred option is payment by cheque because "for security reasons" out bank does not indicate on statements where each cheque came from; this poses problems for us when trying to reconcile invoices and receipts. (By the way, if you are aware of a way around this problem, we'd love to hear from you!)

TOY RENTAL CLUB Pte Ltd

As of midnight last night, a mere "business" has become a fully fledged "limited liability" company: The Toy Rental Club Private Limited.

It won't make any significant difference to our clients, but for us it has lots of implications. Yes, there are minor hassles with new invoices, receipts etc and we've already had to pay for the services of an accountant, but there are lots of good reasons for going the "pte ltd" route. Above all, the company itself (as opposed to ourselves as individuals) is now liable for legal claims, debts etc. Similarly, the company will pay tax on profits - separate from its owners - whereas previously we were personally responsible for such taxes. (We will still be liable for tax on any salary we receive, though the sad fact is that we haven't had any so far!)

There are other advantages in terms of attracting investors and we'll certainly need some of those if we are to achieve our goals for expansion.

Please note that from now on any cheques for the company will need to be made payable to: The Toy Rental Club Pte Ltd.