To wonder if the kind of success in business that party pieces has is possible today

[breathing]

I was interested and did look at the website. I dont know of its just marketing but the site does make out its a mumpreneur venture. Just Carole M getting the idea from having kids and starting a party supplies business first with mail order and then online. That was 24 years ago and now it is worth £30 million.

Do you think this type of success is possible these days or has commerce changed in such a way over the last 25 years so that these type of amazing successes are harder to achieve? Right time right place? I wonder if all the ideas we have are all now tapped out. What think ye?

I don't understand at all how it makes money when you can buy party stuff in poundland/supermarkets et al.

Makes no sense to me.

Good point LFC I wonder if poundland etc was around 25 years ago?

I dont know, indoor and outdoor markets are dying on their arses due to primark, poundland etc so it does seem amazing

Right time right place. Read the book 'Outliers' by Malcolm can't remember his surname!

Will do, thanks salty

Poundland and supermarket party stuff are very limited and crap quality.
I think if someone came up with a bright idea for a business, and there was a gap in the market for it, it could be successful, but nowadays, there are fewer gaps to fill.

I used them for years when my children were small and liked themed parties.
I work full time, it was great to be able to select items and know they'd be delivered on time, right number of items, bits for party bags and be reasonable quality (colours, liquid-resistant etc)
There are a lot of party package deals around now that weren't available 15+ years ago.

Combo of right time/right place, and that you don't actually need to have an original business idea or invent something new to make a mint: Duncan Ballentyne made his first pot of cash with ice cream vans and then retirement homes, gyms and nurseries. Nothing original there. He just did those things incredibly well.

According to his book no one in any of his businesses is allowed to buy a paperclip: they get hundreds of letters per day with paperclips on them, just take them off and use them again. That kind of tight arsed cash control is the difference between profit and loss. My firm has gone on a similar budgeting exercise and saved £40,000 this year on stationery. We only have 70 employees so that is a huge saving. Probably saved someone from redundancy this year.

I've used them because I was looking for super-hero themed stuff for a party DS was having and they have a really good range.

I always thought Duncan Ballentyne ?sp's success was in knowing when to float and to sell and to move on to something new rather than sitting on a successful business on his laurels. My husband could learn from that. He wont move on.

bannatyne?

I think it must have been one of the first of it's kind and not sure whether mummies in the circles she was in would have graced Poundland with their presence, assuming Newbury (one of the nearer towns to Bucklebury) has one.

I think you could if you had a revolutionary idea. I also wonder if it was different setting up a business back then because Thatcher encouraged it. My dad runs his own business and pre-divorce mum was listed as a partner and not properly taxed on it IIRC and it was properly above board, but then that got clamped down on.

I've just looked at their site.
The prices still seem perfectly reasonable, the range has increased massively over the years. I think there was around half a dozen when I was ordering, and little for adults. I'd probably use it now if my children weren't 16 and 20.

Of course it is possible to set up a business today and for it to be exceptionally successful.

It takes hard work and a little good luck. Look at social networking sites such as Facebook. If you are looking for a group of mothers that have set up a ridiculously successful business then how about ...

Mumsnet

I had never heard of mumsnet until a few months ago

Mind you, never heard of party pieces until recently either..

A friend dated someone who set up a website at about 18/19 selling disposable plastics (cups etc) and went from a school leaver with no job to super, duper rich with people working for himwhen the internet took off.

So there were def alot of opportunities at that point.

I think the market is definately for people who dont have the time to search through poundland etc. as stock there is unpredictable

I used them in 1990 and for many years after, as there was nothing else around and they used to send you a catalogue about a month before your children's birthdays when you registered with them.

I used them for many years as I could get everything all in one place and the theme the child wanted.

They were brilliant! The only oher place used to be Toys R us, but they were crap, eeither had cups, but not plates etc