Do you/would you pay for an educational / activity subscription for your child?

[SinkGirl]

This year I want to start a new business. I’ve found the products I want to sell initially (will hopefully develop my own additional ones if it goes well) which are not sold much online that I can see, but trying to decide whether to just sell them or run a subscription service.

Essentially they’d be STEM based kits which you’d put together (with adult help for younger children or alone for older children) to make things which are wind up or battery powered etc. I’m thinking a subscription service would be good as they pack small and this a subscription would make a good gift.

If you already are signed up to something similar, or would consider it, could you tell me how old your child is and how much you spend per month, and whether you think it’s worth it?

Thank you!

I think there are similar stem based boxes out there already. I’ve got a craft subscription and it has gone down really well. I have found some months we don’t get round to it and others we race through so being able to pause the subscription has been good so we can get through the boxes. I enjoy them because it gives
variety and there are ideas I’d never come up with. It’s probably not the best value at £12 a month and I wouldn’t go higher so that might limit you a bit more re stem activities.

The kits wouldn’t be too expensive - need to work out costs exactly as some are cheaper than others so I would need to average it, and of course I need to figure out costs for packaging, postage etc but I think it would be profitable for around £10 £- £12 a month from an initial look (possibly less if I got enough volume). I have looked at the other STEM ones available but they’re quite different to what I’m looking at. I saw some which were eye wateringly expensive but think I could do this for much less.

Or I could just sell the products separately through amazon and a website as they’re not on amazon already.

Do you mean something similar to Kiwi boxes? I home ed so spend a decent amount of resources but I find most subscriptions expensive for what they contain.

I might,, if it was well packaged and looked super professional/like it would fit in with the curiculum. I dont know if I would pay 10-12 euros a month though - that might be me being tight. Actually, I might if it was possible to cancel any time (but that might affect your business model).
I would spend 15 euros on a one of small science box/package and might do that more than once

I think you'd have to pick your market. Weathy Londoners who are used to paying out on educational extras might be keen. And on the basis you think that £10-12 a month is not expensive, I guess that's the sort of market you are thinking of.

I can't imagine many people round me paying £10-12 a month on something like that, particularly if it needs adult support. That's just too much to spend on one activity for one child. If adults were sufficiently knowledgeable they'd be organising their own STEM activities without need for a kit.

@Thesearmsofmine

Do you mean something similar to Kiwi boxes? I home ed so spend a decent amount of resources but I find most subscriptions expensive for what they contain.

Yes, that would be the closest thing, although shouldn’t be more affordable.

Maybe I’ll just start with selling individually with a small amount of stock and take it from there - would be able to sell the subscriptions more cheaply if I can order in higher volumes.

I would if it was something for younger dc, say 7-11 year olds and had easy to follow instructions and could be completely largely independents.

Could you have a subscription service as well as customers being able to buy some of the kits as one off purchases?

Our three children all got a three month Kiwi crate subscription as a present from a grandparent. They had the first one yesterday for Christmas. The kits are good and they've all been enjoyed, but they are expensive and I don't think I would resubscribe to Kiwi with my own money. I'd definitely be open to the idea in principle though if I felt it was better value.

Branding and packaging is really important I think, and of course the activities themselves need to be completely reliable (one of the Kiwi crate ones was actually a bit miscut which meant it doesn't quite work properly, which was disappointing).

DS and DD5 have Kiei crates and Toucanbox respectively. Both were a godsend during lockdown and school holidays with naff all else on. we’ve also got a few months if the atlas crate. Toucanbox are getting more sustainable with their materials and packing, kiwi crate and atlas crate are well thought out and the things are keepable. Might be worth doing some market research about what already exists. Someone local to us also dies a gardening/craft subscription fir kids too.

I’d love something like this (my daughter is only 18m and I couldn’t find anything I bought was worthwhile when I looked for her age group). I don’t think £10-12 per month is that expensive, but I pay £15 for half an hour of toddler swimming 😂 Compared to any kind of club/toddler class etc it’s much cheaper. It will be out of budget for some, sure, but other subscriptions I’ve seen are around this price and they are presumably profitable so I don’t think you’re way off the mark.

I spend s lot of money on extra curricular for our foster child. He is very good at cricket but has some learning needs. I pay for a tutor for 3 hours each week. 2 hours of Maths and 1 hour of Science that will increase to 2 hours after Xmas. I pay for 4 hours of small group cricket coaching and 1 hour each week 1-1 coaching that costs well over £2k each year. Plus lots of Maths, Science and English extras. He is in Year 10 and will only take GCSE in Science X 2, Maths and BTEC's in Sport and Food. He will do Functional Skills in English and ICT and Entry Level in English. I pay for him to do D of E and he just needs to do Expedition to gain Bronze Award and will do Silver Award in 2021. Soon he will start a cricket coaching course. I buy him lots of little educational aids like Top Trumps Chemistry, wall charts for Science, experiments he can do like make a bouncy ball, spud clock etc. I would be very interested in any extra curricular Science or Maths activities either as individual purchases or on a subscription basis. You can pm me if you have any suitable things for sale. He will sit foundation papers for GCSE. He loves Maths and Science and I would buy him anything that would help his understanding or get him some qualifications. I can afford £40 month or more if need be.

Thanks all, really appreciate you sharing. I’m not saying £12 a month is no money, but I do understand why kits and subs services are so popular. I am a crafter and usually source everything myself but sometimes it’s much easier to just buy a kit, get everything you need in one place, and is good if you’re short on ideas or time.

I think I’m going to get a few subs boxes to research, get hold of some stock and try some individual sales first and see where the market is, how the price sits, etc.

I have two children with autism, definitely not the target market for these but very interested in toys that aid learning so would like to start a business around that. Will see how it goes - maybe I can run a proper Mumsnet test when I’m closer to being up and running :)

I wouldn't have subscribed. Sorry.

I tend to find the problem with subscription boxes like that is they have one or two good things in, but the rest is pretty non-descript. It's the sort of thing I might have tried with dc1 and then cancelled the subscription 6 months later because we'd done the first box and not looked at it since.

Add to it that if my dc wanted to do eg a science experiment, then I'd look on the internet and find one that would specifically interest them at that moment.
You've also got to think about the age range too. Things that would have interested mine at 5yo, would probably have been babyish by 9yo. And something the 9yo would have found fun, the 5yo would have needed it doing for them.