Setting Up A Doll Company

Hi guys, as some of you know I'm unemployed after the retail company I worked for went bust last year.

My Job Coach mentioned in our meeting self employment or starting my own business and I obviously like Dolls and maybe I could possibly start a Doll business selling TPE or Silicone dolls in the UK.

I mean these are just initial ideas and I haven't even spoken to my Job Coach about it, but since this is a Doll Forum I wonder if anyone has any ideas on how viable they think it would be.

I mean I would also have to have a small warehouse to store the ladies, and I have never owned a TPE or Silicone doll myself, just a plushie lady.

The company I visit in Guildford work with another company that helps people who are looking to become self employed or start a small business.

So if anyone has any ideas or thoughts, or has their own doll company, please feel free to respond

Bobby

Hi Bobby, this would need major working capital if you are to have Uk stock and warehouse, then there is the buying power you would need, big orders to buy at right price from China, and there would be insurance and overheads, rent tax......
Really you can't start in that way, maybe think about just one make of doll to buy in at a right price, from a Doll maker and try sales from your home, if you can make that work without major overheads, you could build on that.

One other thing is don't think Dolls offer much, potential profit, other then to manufacture yourself, many make profit from other things, other than Dolls.....

There is also advertising that can come at great cost, and getting your customer base, how many sales, and for how long?

Don't want to put down on your idea, but would have a good think about, how you could start without major cost, Lady-J (y)

Thankyou, Lady-J it's just an idea at this stage. I dont really have a lot of space, as I live in a maisonette, so I would need to have some kind of warehouse.

I mean it dosent have to be the larger ladies, it could be Phicen Dolls or Smart Dolls. That way I could start from my home, but I dont know how viable these things are.

I'm just thinking about it at this stage.
I mean if I was well off, I'd like to open a doll showroom, where folks could see before they buy, like you do with kitchens or cars and you could sit down with a sales person and discuss eye colour, make up, etc and you would get the doll you want, but I dont think that would be very viable in the UK and you probably would get complaints from the neibourhood, unless you opened it in a business park or industrial site.

I mean for me a Silicone or TPE lady is a luxury item and not something you purchase everyday. Just imagine walking into a showroom with all the ladies on display. You have a free coffee and have a walk around and chat to a salesperson. You choose the lady you like, and then shes boxed up and you take her home and you know exactly what you are getting!

Mr Tex says, good entrepreneurial thinking. Slightly easier start might be to create the "right" sized clothes for us girls. Alternately modify charity shop dresses etc. The issue is usually that our nice dainty waists are scale wise a bit small for off the peg clothes. Also we can be a bit petite so taking up skirts and dresses can be helpful.
There are bound to be dressmaking evening classes in your area to help you get started.

Also Bob has Doll molds, but worked out it would not be viable to make Dolls, and that was some years ago, now the price of Dolls is close to the price of making them, Lady-J

Well that's an idea, but again its putting these ideas forward to the Restart company I'm with Polly, and how viable it would be.

I mean how many ladies or owners would buy from me? You ladies on here might.

Thankyou Lady-J that's helpful to know.

Perhaps go high end? Here is a cosplay dress Mr Tex recently made (for a real person)

Also like Polly said doll clothes and other Doll accessories that you can do and start from home, maybe a way to go, the small Lady Dolls maybe an idea as you said, Lady-J

I'm sure Sara would be happy to model some small clothes for you :)

I wonder if wigs could be a way to go, if you could buy real hair wigs at good price, or color wigs, Bob got some really nice ones from a show at good price, they can't be found that easy, 1k could buy you a good bit of stock to start, Lady-J

Is the Restart company offering help, and capital at a good rate of pay back, if so you would need to show what ever you do can work, I'm thinking this would need to be seen on paper, more than just an idea, Lady-J

Thanks for the advice everyone! Maybe the smaller dolls would be something I could look into. It would also be easier to put it forward as a viable plan if I was to go down that route.

I could do it from home to begin with. I have a lot of ideas, but unfortunately not the money to do it😁

i Get that Mr Bobby and it's not easy, but a really good idea, is sometimes all you need, Lady-J (y)

Oh yeah I would have to come up with a viable business plan, so it's in the ideas stage at the moment Lady-J. Restart is a scheme similar to the Jobcentre. It was set up during Covid, because a lot of people lost their jobs or where made redundant

But the Job Coaches at Restart/Fedcap are more understanding and take the time to help folk, unlike the Jobcentre, normally you have to be out of work for 6 months or more to join. I put myself forward as the Jobcentre were pretty useless

Restart work with another company who help those who want to become self employed, with advice and courses.

I have applied for jobs, and I dont know whether it's my age or other things, but I dont even get to the interview stage. My Jobcoach at restart just mentioned it today and whether I'd ever considered it.

I've applied for retail jobs at the big companies, but it's all online and then you have to have a right to work in the UK and fill all that in online and sometimes you dont even get the links!

Gone are the days when you just filled in an application form, gave it in, got a phone call and then went for an interview 😞

Yes it's very hard Mr Bobby:(, and I feel for you, but good on you for trying:), do get all the help you can that is out there, they really don't make it easy for you.....
Thought you would need to submit a business plan of some kind, and hope you can find an idea that works, I'm sure we will all help here if we can, Lady-J(y)

I don't know about starting a full size doll company. Expensive, limited market, legal issues, might be a bit much just starting out.

Years ago I started a mail order company and ran it out of a small apartment the wife and I lived in at the time. This was way before the internet, Amazon and eBay. It took a lot of effort back then finding wholesalers, printing catalogs, advertising and whatnot. These days it's pretty simple to set up a virtual store on eBay and get merchandise to sell off Aliexpress.

Might be a way to get started with very little investment and build from there. Some sellers on eBay never even handle inventory. They just get themselves an Amazon Prime membership and list items on eBay at a small profit. When they get a buyer, they simply place the order and have it sent directly to their buyer. Use to call that drop shipping back in the day.

Anyway, just a thought.

Thanks Mr. Franz, I did have a similar idea about visiting Charity shops, I think you call them Thrift shops and buying up dolls like Sindy and Barbie and selling them on Ebay for a small profit.

You can pick them up quite cheap

Hey Bobby, I've been involved with the doll world since 1994 when TDF was just a bulletin board. I've talked to Matt McMullen (owner of Realdoll), Went to see Matt Kirvicki (owner, Sinthetics), Patrick (owner of Private Island Beauties), and helped the guy in North Carolina (forget his name) with his Dolls. I even had one of those and it wasn't the best quality. It fell apart. I also know several resellers. Most aren't around any more.

I've seen what it takes to start and run a doll business. I thought about it a couple times and there's two things you NEED to start making dolls. One is complete dedication (Matt McMullen) and an artists touch. When Both Matts worked together and got Realdoll going, Realdoll was doing very well. Matt M was the financial expert and an artist, Matt K was pure artistry-he made creatures for movies. Remember 'Alien?'. One of the original movie monsters he'd created. They did well up until they had a falling out and sued each other. Yes, I did what I could to stop that madness, but shit happens. The fallout was Realdoll began a backslide though they are still in business, and Matt K's Sinthetics, although he is a great artist, his company fell flat due to him not managing money as well as Bronwen (his wife) wasn't the best person to talk to when people called them. Actually, instead of 'fell flat', even with doll community support, it was more like they crashed and burned.

Reselling can be tough too. You don't need the molds or to balance your mixes and colors to get a good, soft and durable doll, nor the molds, mixers, vacuum pump setups, or someone to 'finish' the dolls with makeup and and small things like pointed ears, horns, or other specially designed body parts. All that takes money to build properly. Visiting Patrick I learned a lot about doll making. Through my experience I also discovered true artists are a bit nuts - sometimes really crazy. Anyway, reselling dolls is risky because you're depending on a supplier to get you the dolls you ask for in the time you want them to fill orders, OR have a warehouse of them so you are able to get the customer the doll he wants with very little lead time. You also have no control over durability. You still end up with much overhead and little say on the dolls themselves.

I do like the idea of someone designing and making custom doll clothes. Like was said, some dolls are hard to size even if you're buying new. Things like a zipper all the way down the back to make some tops easier to put on and not stress the doll, right-sized panty hose that FIT and make pants/shorts easier to slide on, and costume items that FIT.

Anyway, if you choose to become involved in the doll business, make sure you plan ahead and get whatever small business loans you can to get off on a good start and remember- your customer relations can either make or break you.

Look for Barbie vehicles as well. Some of the older models can fetch a right fair bit of coin. Aliexpress is a good source for 1/3 scale BJD dolls and accessories. Some are dirt cheap and can sell for more than double on eBay. That's where I got all 3 of my 1/3 ladies.

If you are good at Negotiating, you need to get deals from the manufacturers to sell the dolls at a profit. You don't need stock, just have them delivered directly to the customer.

I wonder if a franchise with a retailer is the way to go. You just sell their doll products on your own website (that I can help you with). I was thinking more European dolls rather than Chinese. You could run this franchise and do other things at the same time. You can also use a crowd fund platform such as kickstarter to help gain some funds for anything ideas you have. Don’t just think dolls, there's a world of opportunity out there.

A website takes time to become popular and get to the top positions on search engines. Our website forum was dire for over a year, but it's now near the top of searches and is fairly busy, it takes time and a lot of attention to get it that far.

I am thinking of doing a story website where people can publish their short stories and novel ideas and get crits etc from other users. They could also sell their published work on the website and things like that.

Thanks guys and girls for all your input. I think trying to sell TPE or Silicone ladies is a step too far.

Maybe as you say it's better to start off small like on Ebay. But my passion is really for dolls and not so much the clothing.

I may think about what Mr. Franz suggested Barbie, Sindy or possibly phicen dolls and checking out charity shops for them. I mean I may even find Phicen dolls in a Charity shop mixed up with other dolls, I mean a lot of folk wont even know the difference, I mean those who work in the shops.

I could call myself the Dollman, Dollmans Dolls or something similar.

I am going on an introductory course just to get a feel for setting up a business venture, and could end up specializing in action men or a particular doll brand, although I prefer the lady dolls to action man, but I dont think there is anyone out there that specializes in old Action man or accessories and vehicles 😁

As Mr Story has said lots of opportunity out there, not just dolls, and you can run things from you home, that for you maybe the way to go, and let others have the overhead, trouble is today profits are very low, and letting others have the overhead your profit will be very low too, your sails will need to be very high to make any knid of living.

The workshop and farm here makes good profit, but after years of investment, and that wont come over night.....

One other thing HM Rev are looking at sale accounts at ebay and others, so it's very much down to doing accounts, even if only a small profit is made, it's up to around 1k at this time I Think before it's no longer a hobby.

So really a good job with good rate of pay, kind of looks good, and I would keep looking, even if it's not really what you want, Lady-J (y)

Well I have been looking for jobs, but mainly in retail, nightwork is where the money is in that sector.

I mean Fedcap have a company they work with called momentum, who help those wanting to go self employed to set up their business and help to design websites, etc.

If I'm going down that route it has to be something I'm interested in otherwise I wont have the passion for it. Oh yeah I know my sales would have to be high, I just need a gap in the market and as Del Trotter said. " This time next year we'll be millionaires " 🤣

Not with this goverment we’re not!