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MagnaPlay Cases Hit Market in Just Months Son’s Project Begins Business Venture That Sticks
MagnaPlay, a magnet toy company, grew from a project that scientist Maya Gowri was working on with her 10-year-old son, who had to develop a board game for a class project, she told TDmonthly Magazine. When the pair failed to find on the market any magnetic activity case to use for the project, Maya began calling toy stores and vendors to obtain samples of materials that were available for such a product.  With help from her son, she began putting together a prototype — a wooden box with a magnetic surface — that would soon become her company’s first toy, the patent-pending MagnaPlay MagnaKase.FROM PROTOTYPE TO PRODUCTION After designing the case in June 2008, Maya began talking with her friends and family, showing them her idea but never letting on that she was considering entering the toy business. Upon receiving positive feedback, she began taking her prototype to toy stores. She also met with a trademark and patent attorney and searched toy directories to see what was already available. The official product launch came in November, just months later. “My son loved it and he was my inspiration,” Maya told TDmonthly. “He’s my cofounder, and he’s been a part of this process, so he’s learning right along with me.”  For the component pieces, Maya obtained samples from manufacturers in the United States and Canada, preferring to deal domestically. In addition to her North American suppliers, she also is using a manufacturer in India for her wooden magnetic toys.“The company (in India) had high-quality products and they were willing to customize [their] products and make several different samples for me to look at before deciding,” she said of her decision. FINANCING AND PLANNING PURCHASES A former biological researcher, Maya funded much of her new business venture with money she had saved, but banks weren’t eager to lend the additional capital she needed. So, she borrowed some of the remaining $50,000 from her family. Once her suppliers were in hand, there were more decisions that needed to be made, such as how much product to make at one time and how to best purchase material. “At first I bought in bulk to save money, but then as things evolved and changed, I needed other materials, so buying in bulk wasn’t such a savings,” Maya admitted. DIRECT BUY KICKS OFF SALES  To control costs and get her products into retail stores, Maya launched a website where both wholesale and retail customers can purchase directly from MagnaPlay. She has also offered stores incentives to market the toys through the Preferred Store Partners Program, giving storeowners samples to share with customers. The program compensates storeowners with a significant percentage of the purchase from the customers they refer to the online store.Maya assembles small orders in-house and uses a local nonprofit organization to assemble large orders. “You have to be flexible to be successful,” she told TDmonthly. “Think outside the box.” See some MagnaPlay products below:
 Writer's Bio: Terri Hughes-Lazzell is a freelance journalist based in Ossian, Ind. After spending nearly a decade as a daily newspaper reporter, she has worked as a freelance journalist for more than ten years, writing about a variety of topics. Her work appears in newspapers, magazines and specialty publications nationwide. Read more articles by this author |
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