The Party Bag World Story
Why Party Bag World Started
In 2011, both Jason and I were working in very different industries to Party Bags! Jason worked in the construction industry, and I (Kerry) ran a small transcription agency which I set up after the birth of our eldest son in 2003.
Jason’s job involved long stressful hours, working away and the phone continuously ringing with problems, even when we were on holiday. We were like ships in the night and Jason didn’t get to see enough of the children (our youngest son had arrived in 2006). We started thinking about how we could change that and work together.
We decided we wanted our new business to be completely different to anything we had done before so it would be new to both of us. Inspiration struck after we organised a birthday party for one of our sons.
I found organising a birthday party quite stressful – where to hold the party, how keep the costs down, who to invite (the thought of causing any offence or hurting a child’s feelings was paralising!) and waiting for RSVPs to book numbers. One of the things I couldn’t avoid was party bags, it seemed gone were the days of handing out a piece of birthday cake and waving the little guests off on their merry way so mum could collapse with a glass of wine or dad with a beer!
Living in semi-rural Essex, browsing and buying the loot bags and party bag fillers was a bit of a mission. Buying individual items was expensive, and buying a pack of 8 when we only need 1 would lead to waste; plus, the variety wasn’t that great. It would have been so handy if this was a simpler task – and that’s when we realised this could be our opportunity for a new business!
Getting Party Bag World Started
We had no experience in the world of online retail, everything was brand new to us and we didn’t know where to start. After lots of research into suppliers of popular party bag toys and sweets, chatting to friends and family about their thoughts and finding out more about e-commerce websites, we decided to go for it.
We sold everything that wasn’t nailed down, from our car to unused cushions that had been in the loft forever (including some bits we realised we actually needed and had to buy again!) to raise funds for the website and our first stock run – our boys as researchers were literally like kids in a sweet shop!
Orders began trickling in as we packed sweet cones and pre filled party bags at our kitchen table around our day jobs. After a year and a half of hard work and learning about the e-commerce world, we realised our new business was going to work and Jason was able to focus full time on getting the orders out the door. No more working away or only seeing the kids for an hour or so a day… mission accomplished!
The Party Bag World Story Today
We no longer work from our kitchen table and are fortunate enough to have found little warehouse in our village where, along with a few lovely colleagues, we continue to pack our sweet cones and party bags and focus on providing an excellent service to our customers. We are always learning and looking for new ideas to ensure we keep up to date with the latest children’s crazes, all whilst working around our own children, who have always been the “why” for changing the way we work.
Tags: Party Bag World, Party Bags, Starting a new business