Kids like new
An online marketplace for children's goods, that shares parenting advice and supports children's charities with every purchase.
A propos de vous
Background Information
Prénom
Mick
Nom
Watts
URL Twitter
URL Facebook
The competition is only open to people between 18-34 years-old and resident in UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark or the Netherlands. Does this apply to you
Oui.
Country of residence of entrepreneur
UK
Tell us about your personal background. Why are you passionate about this issue? Making an idea a reality takes innovation, dedication and strong leadership. Do you have the necessary entrepreneurial skills to realize your vision?
My personal background is that I’m a father and have some first-hand experience of what a growing family needs, uses, then doesn’t need any more. I’ve watched my child grow out of shoes, clothes and toys before my very eyes. And I’ve scratched my head, looked at my bank balance and thought “there must be a better way”.
My profession is in marketing. And my job is to think of ideas for businesses to promote themselves and their products across all media channels such as TV, Radio, Social Media and across Digital platforms.
So, being passionate about my family and being passionate about innovative ideas it wasn’t too long before the two things came together. One day it struck me that there was a real need for an alternative to all this consumerism where babies and children were concerned. So I put my marketing cap on and decided to come up with a plan.
I decided to create a marketplace and community dedicated to helping ‘strapped for cash’ mums and dads just like me and dealt with the issues I am passionate about. One where I could not only buy and sell kids’ stuff but one that was cheaper than Ebay. One that wasn’t an “auction site” but “fixed price”. One that was a place to go for help and parenting advice when I needed it. And one that donated to children’s charities with every purchase. One a with real heart & soul. So I talked to a couple of friends and now we’re busy building it.
A propos de votre organisation
Nom
Kids like new
Site Web
Pays
Royaume Uni, DUR, Durham
Pays dans lesquels ce projet crée un impact social
Royaume Uni, DUR
Votre organisation est-elle une
Entreprise
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Innovation
Le besoin : quel problème tentez-vous de résoudre ?
The problems facing parents are multi-faceted.
There are the practical needs and the emotional needs. On a practical level kids’ stuff is expensive. It costs up to £3,000 to bring up a child in the first year of its life. And they require lots of stuff, which means consumption is heavy and all this takes its toll on the environment.
Children also grow out of things very quickly. So all these things become surplus to requirements which creates another problem: where am I going to store all of these things I don’t need anymore?
On an emotional level, new parents are often overwhelmed with taking care of such a precious little thing and if there is no one to offer help and advice anxiety levels are often high.
La solution: quelle solution proposez-vous ? Soyez précis !
Create an online marketplace dedicated to buying and selling used children’s goods which offers parents a cheaper alternative to new. It also offers parents an outlet to sell their surplus goods, leaving them with more space in their home and more money in their pocket. It’s also environmentally sound because buying and selling used goods is the essence of recycling and re-using.
Create a community spirit of like-minded people online. In addition to the main function of the site we would create a forum. This would be a great way of sharing advice with new parents as well as a perfect place for posting information about children’s groups & services. Make charitable contributions compulsory with every purchase. Build the site so that every time someone buys from the site, the site donates 10% to a children’s charity (from three we have selected). And better still as a buyer, you would get to nominate which charity benefits. So every time you buy, the site donates.
Le système : décrivez un exemple spécifique montrant de quelle façon votre initiative fonctionne ; indiquez vos principales activités.
Katy and Andrew are having their first child. Katy has been reading up in parenting magazines on what things are essential for a new baby. She makes a list and prices them up on the internet from well known high street outlets. The total cost of everything comes to nearly £1000!
A friend of hers tells her about a new website called ‘Kids like new’. “It’s like Ebay but only for kids’ goods. It’s full of second hand things that are in near perfect condition so there will be no compromise on quality” she says. So she prices the exact same list of items on Kids like new. She’s amazed when she finds that she can buy the entire list for around the third of the price as new. She buys everything from Kids like new and saves herself a small fortune.
As part of the buying process she finds out that she can nominate one of three children’s charities (Cash For Kids, The Sunshine Foundation or The Children’s Heart Unit Fund) to receive a 10% donation of the site’s sellers fee. She chooses The Children’s Heart Unit Fund as it’s a charity she feels passionate about.
Whilst on the site she also discovers that there is a forum where she can ask parenting questions and receive useful answers. She finds this invaluable as her mum and dad live over 100 miles away and she really has no one else to ask for advice.
Katy also finds out about local toddler groups on the forum and decides to go along one day and makes a bunch of new friends. Plus before she was pregnant she worked in a children’s nursery and wants to transfer her skills to becoming a child minder. When she is fully qualified she posts her services on the site and pretty soon she is inundated with requests from parents who want her to look after their children.
Meanwhile her little girl has grown out of her moses basket, a wardrobe full of clothes, several pairs of shoes and the car seat. She doesn’t have the space for all of these things so she decides to sell them on Kids like new and makes enough money to buy her little-one a cot-bed (she buys one at a bargain price from Kids like new).
All in all Katy is happy. Kids like new has helped her save lots and lots of money. It’s also generated some extra money. It’s helped her create more space in her home. She has done her bit for charity by nominating one to benefit from every purchase she makes. She has been given valuable advice and met friends on the forum and she feels good about recycling and helping the environment.
Le marché : qui sont vos collègues et vos concurrents ? Identifiez les autres personnes qui travaillent à répondre au même besoin et indiquez ce qui vous différencie d'elles. Comment ces concurrents pourraient-ils influencer votre réussite ou votre croissance ?
Mumsnet offers advice, Ebay sells second hand and recycles and Just Giving allows you to donate to charities. But Kids like new is the only one we know that is going to bring all of these features into one place. And that’s the main difference with Kids like new.
The challenges may be from a big competitor like Ebay. So to counter this, we’re going to have lower sellers fees (8% as opposed to 10%) and were a Fixed Price site not an Auction. Online market places for parents do exist but not in the shape or form that we are proposing. It’s going to be quite unique.
With over 700,000 children born in England every year, the market is large and growing every year. And while this is set to be launched in the UK only, once we’re up and running the plan is to take it to international markets
Select the stage that best applies to your business
This Entry is about (Issues)
Impact social
What is the social impact you have had to date and how you measure it?
Kids like new will have a social impact through recycling and re-using. It will have an impact through the connections made on the forum and the advice gained. It will have an impact economically, through the savings made by buying second hand and the extra money generated by selling second hand. And it will have an impact through the lives changed by the charitable donations made.
How do we measure it? Through the money generated by these charitable contributions will be the main yard stick upon which the sites social impact can be measured.
Viabilité
How does your model address financial, social, and environmental sustainability?
Financially, it’s all about belt tightening, saving money and generating extra cash for parents.
Socially, it’s about connecting with an online community on the forum and making a difference to people’s lives through supporting charities.
Environmentally, it’s about recycling and re-using.
Awareness & learning
How do you see social entrepreneurship contributing to the improvement of developing countries?
If Kids like new’s social entrepreneurship can make an improvement to the lives of people through our charitable contributions in this country, there is no reason why it can’t help people in developing countries. By simply adding more ‘Global’ worthy causes to our charity list in the future, like Plan International, we can help make a difference. I’ve been a supporter of Plan International for many years and this charity is a perfect example of how raising funds through sponsorship, can educate and empower poor local communities in developing countries. Plan is just one of many charities that we could offer support to that will help make a difference where it is needed.
What aspects of your stay in Uganda as part of the competition do you think you will find most challenging and rewarding?
The Uganda Challenge is described as life-changing and I truly believe it will be.
I hope to learn everything I can about social enterprise from seeing and working on a real live example and hope to put everything I’ve learned into action in my own business.
I’m looking forward to gaining inspiration from meeting the local farmers, meeting local families and most of all seeing impact that can be made through the type of empowerment that such a social enterprise program can provide.
And I’m also excited about making Ugandan friends and more importantly, gaining an insight into their way of life.
| Fichier attaché | Taille |
|---|---|
| kidslikenewlogo_dragged.jpg | 482.76 Ko |
 | il y a 66 semaines Mick Watts updated this Competition Entry. |
| il y a 66 semaines Mick Watts submitted this idea. |