The Future of Shafer…Power!
Shafer…Power! is off to a great start. We’ve learned some things, sold some things and the kids are having a lot of fun. And based on what we learned from the Mast Brothers about making chocolate, I’m pretty sure we’re going to give it a try (making homemade chocolate) to see if we can move some product during our community thrift sale later this month.
Some of our these early successes in our journey have got me thinking about where we could take Shafer…Power so I thought I’d take a few moments to share my thoughts and ideas.
Since we’ve really enjoyed our weekly adventures as a family, I’m definitely planning to continue them as long as the kids are up for it (hopefully until they go away to college). In addition, I thought it would be fun to take our adventure a step further so I’m thinking about a small business we could create to see where it would take us.
Using our goals as a guideline for creating the company, I came up with the following idea:
- Have Fun: What’s more fun that playing with toys?
- Learn Something: Isn’t there a whole market for learning toys and tools, i.e. products that companies are selling and touting as great instruments for development? What if we could test these products and provide a review of them online?
- Share In Our Success: Is there a way we could give some of these toys and tools to children who don’t have access or cannot afford them?
- Earn Some Spare Change: I’m still working on this one…how will we monetize (make money from) this business?
Based on this analysis, I thought our family could start doing reviews of different learning toys and tools and share these reviews on our blog. We could do written reviews, photo reviews and even reviews via short videos. Furthermore, we can present both the parental and the child’s perspective on these learning toys and tools – a unique value in my opinion.
If done correctly, I think we can provide a great service to parents who are interested in new ideas for their children or perhaps want some feedback before making a purchase. Kids also might like to see the reviews so they can see the different options available to them. Finally, those people who are interested in contributing their own feedback or reviews can do so in the comments section after each post.
I realize this company is something that cannot be created overnight and will require some real horsepower. The biggest challenge – as I see it – will be getting our hands on all the products for review. I’m just getting the ball rolling here but like the concept so far.
How do you feel about toys? How do you go about choosing them for your kids? Have you ever found yourself playing with a toy when the kids weren’t around?
Next: An Interview with Mom
Previous: A Chocolate Making Family’s Journey of Entrepreneurism
Shafer...Power! 
Have you checked to determine whether any other companies are already offering this service?
Hi Jen, I did do a little bit of research and the reviews I found were boring and uninspiring. I’ll keep digging before going too far down this path. Thanks for the question!
Sounds like fun for the kids and if you can convince them all companies do things like review toys, I’m pretty sure they’ll want to get into business for themselves once they come of age. AR
Thanks AR. Fun is at the core of what we’re doing here…