How to Start a Mail Order Preschool Curriculum Business
Starting a mail order preschool curriculum business is one way to profit from the rise in homeschooling families and the increased funding and opportunities for home daycare providers.
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Things You'll Need
- Preschool curriculum
- Graphic designer for catalogs and ads, possibly website
- List of potential clients
Instructions
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Write a complete business plan before you get started. Even if you're not seeking investors or a bank loan, having a business plan helps solidify your goals and objectives. Staying focused in business can help you reach goals faster. Having a mission statement and measurable goals can help you stay on track.
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Decide who your clients will be. Do you want to specialize in homeschoolers, home daycare centers, large day care centers, Head Start programs or churches? Specializing in one niche will mean that each of your items are chosen with them in mind. It narrows your client base but generally means a higher rate of return.
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Write a preschool curriculum or secure the rights to distribution of preschool curricula. If you're writing your own you'll want to compare your product to others that are on the market. Look for prep time requirements, other materials involved, academic challenges, learning style accommodations, testing and evaluation methods, cultural and ethnic references and costs involved. If you're looking to distribute a product already available, speak with the publisher directly for the best rates. You may have to buy several copies to get started.
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Create a catalog or brochure that contains accurate information and photos of the products you're planning to distribute. If you have testimonials from satisfied consumers, they're often great selling points. Pictures are also great sales tools. Make sure they're professional quality and that the children look happy. Also be certain your product is visible in each photo.
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Meet your state and city business licensing requirements. Every state has different requirements; some cities and counties have additional requirements. You may need to adhere to zoning requirements (not likely unless you plan to have a lot of deliveries or customers in your home). It might be necessary to house your inventory in a warehouse.
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Consider making other necessary items available to your clients, like art supplies and learning manipulatives.
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Begin your first advertising campaign in May or June to secure placement for the coming September. Even supplementary units for the holidays should be advertised in the spring, and then you can send a reminder a month or so before the unit should be started.
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Tips & Warnings
Consider having downloadable electronic versions available on your website or via CD-Rom, so that your clients can print worksheets and activities without damaging the originals. The advantage to hosting this content on your website is that it becomes free advertising for your other products each time a client visits, plus the client can share the resource with friends and colleagues. Pay attention to the competition, and keep your competitors' catalogs handy so that you can know what your clients are exposed to. If the only product you know about is your own, you won't know why it's the best. Rainbow Resource Center is a vendor that sells a lot of curriculum to homeschoolers from several different publishers. Abeka and Veggie Connections are popular for Sunday Schools and church-based preschools. Secular preschools gravitate toward Calvert School and Montessori and Waldorf. Keep track of your clients so that each year you can offer additions, reprints and updates.
Consider consulting an attorney for limiting your liability. If a child is injured while doing an activity in your curriculum, you don't want to be held liable for damages. Your attorney may recommend a disclaimer, a waiver or a specific business entity, like an LLC, for your business.
