Making it in the toy industry as a preschool educator and mom of two with Karen Villard

Photo Credit: Frame and Fame Personal Branding and Executive Coaching by Tracy Ho

In our latest female founder series, Karen Villard shares her story of making it in the toy industry while being a full time mom to two young children.  She tells us how she has drawn her personal experience as a mom to uncover a pain point dealt by many young parents of today.  This preschool co-founder and educator turned toy entrepreneur also speaks about her journey and how she values the power of community and connections in her success. 

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I’m originally from the Philippines who have moved to live and work in Singapore, Australia, and now in Hong Kong.  I used to work in a media advertising agency handling children’s brands that you know and love before becoming a preschool co-founder.  I was awed by my own children’s wonder in learning that I was inspired to completely switch my career to the early years sector as an educator.  I worked with babies as young as 6 months old and up to kindergarteners age 6+ in an international and multicultural setting.    

What inspired you to start your business?

When we moved to Melbourne, we were amazed by the lifestyle of the locals such as helping in the community garden, strict recycling rules, supporting locally made items, eating organic food, and purchasing eco-friendly products.  As a mum, I became obsessed with wooden toys yet the other side of me feels that the purchase patterns are very excessive.  Every 1 to 3 months, I would find myself needing to buy more toys because the ones that we have no longer edutains our kids.  These toys are expensive and take a whole chunk of our living and storage so budgets and space start to become an issue.  I found out that other new mums like me are finding ways to cut down on purchases and find an alternative.  This was the eureka moment for me to create a toy brand that helps conscious parents move away from single-use (plastic) toys.

Where is your business based?

We’ve opened our shop here in Hong Kong but we do think that our HQ will land where it needs to be. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

When I had my second child, I started to look for ways to be more involved in my children’s lives while also furthering my career in the early years sector.  I figured that it’s unlikely to happen if I’m tied to employment and that it was an enticing idea to start something that is my own instead.  That will give me the freedom to be with my children and work around the hours when they are sleeping or at school.  

I took business courses to help me with my business idea and eventually found an industry specific course called Toy Creators Academy by The Toy Coach Azhelle Wade to develop my product.  The concept pivoted several times through rigorous prototyping and playtesting until we have found the optimal product range to launch.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

I do believe in establishing credibility as the topline strategy in building awareness for our business.  As a new entrepreneur in a highly competitive space, we needed to enter the field as an industry expert and get the backing of reputable individuals and organizations in the field.  Our trifecta to achieve this is a combination of press relations, toy accreditation, and honest reviews.   

We needed the help of a reputable press to tell our founder story and communicate our expertise in the education space.  The second attribute is to look for  independent research and play experts that assess the benefits of our products.  I have recently used a social media post featuring a toy accreditation seal and it outperformed our lifestyle product shot.  And the third one, which is the strongest and most important, is to have that social proof from actual product users, giving our product an honest review.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge that I’ve faced was getting rejected to participate in a trade show.  I took this rejection personally, being triggered by a similar personal experience.  Yet, I am living proof that when a door shuts, the best opportunities open up for you and it brings you closer to the right kind of people you need.  The redirection allowed me to revisit opportunities that are ripe for picking, in the right timing.

How do you stay focused?

I’m a working mum so it’s hard.  The only way that I am really able to get things done is to not work at home.  I am totally against this whole working-at-home thing as it isn’t working for me.  When I stay at home, I would just clean, cook, and do laundry because all these chores are staring back at me.  I find going to our residence club house, a buzzing cafe, or a co-working space beneficial in my level of productivity.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

We focus on educational toys and the first series we have launched is about social emotional learning.  While there are existing SEL toys out there, our point of differentiation is the multi-usability feature of our toys that allows it to grow with the child’s learning needs.  This means that parents don’t buy toys that they only use for a month or two but can benefit their kids from preschool to primary years.  

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

In the early stages of our business, I got caught up with the glam and glitter of the social media space.  I got to the point that I was so exhausted from the content batch creation that I abandoned it.  I realized then that socials isn’t really building anything for our brand so I started looking at the other marketing channels.  What we’ve seen so far is that our efforts in improving our search engine optimization is increasing our brand reputation and awareness.  That’s why we are making sure that all the efforts that we are doing are value-adding in strengthening this funnel.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

The best advice that I can give to an entrepreneur, especially if you are working in isolation, is to expand your network.  I believe that making connections in the industry is a key element in unlocking your potential to be successful.  I have found invaluable insights, key business partners, and a ton of resources just by showing up.  Whenever I air out my current challenges, my peers are able to unpack and process it using a fresh perspective that I might have missed.  There’s always someone who knows someone or knows something that can bridge that gap for me.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

I love Paul Arden’s, an advertising icon, books because they are small enough to carry for travel and still beautiful to be placed as a coffee table book.  In fact, my youngest child is obsessed with flipping through this book even though he is at an emerging reader stage.  The contents aren’t exclusive to the creative industry but its applications encompass a multitude of fields and its lessons are timeless.  I love going back again and again to his words as his vision and approach to life is infectious.  It’s amazing how words can switch us on and make us raring to go, and that’s how Arden influences my day to day when I needed a boost.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

I swear by Planable’s social content scheduling platform.  It’s great for solopreneurs since I can create a piece of content that can be simultaneously posted in ten different social media platforms.  When you scale to bigger teams, they have a prebuilt approval process in place from edits to push to production.  They’re also up to date with the content you want to post from shorts to reels. 

Who is your business role model? Why?

I watched the story of Joy Mangano in the movie of the same name “Joy” and I became a fan of her story.  I resonate with her because while growing up, I also love to create tools that help other people.  The little girl in me finds inspiration in her because she allowed herself to dream and create again despite being a single mom, living with one of her parents, and working odd jobs.  She held strong to her dream though the people who surrounded her, even her own family, had told her multiple times that she is inexperienced and has no clue in doing business.  In the end, it was her resilient nature that overpowered those who didn't believe in her and she continued to make 100 more products in her lifetime. 

How do you balance work and life?

As an entrepreneur with two young children, I would say that balancing work and life isn’t as easy as I have imagined.  The plan was to move away from employment and start a business so that I have the flexibility to stay with my kids whenever they need me.  However, the first five years are proving that they need a lot of attention and guidance from me.  I learned that it’s actually a good thing because before working in the early years sector and having children, I would work until midnight even on weekends.  My kids are the blessings in disguise that helps to pull me away from work and live in the present moment.  

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

I was curious about aerial yoga so I started attending the beginner and advanced classes.  My peers would go upside down while hanging in mid air and I thought, how would I ever learn to do that?   Fear comes first and there were a lot of scary yoga positions that I didn’t try at first because I was scared of either getting hurt or embarrassed for not being able to do it.  With frequency and progression of practice, the positions that looked complicated at first were actually easy to execute.  Those complex positions helped me to decompress because it tells me that things get easier with time and experience.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

We’re geared up for two to three product launches this year centering around our Cubo Stickies range, which is our social emotional learning boxes that help preschoolers to thrive.  We’re officially unveiling them at the Toy Coach Showcase during the ASTRA or American Specialty Toy Retailing Association Marketplace and Academy this mid-June at Columbus, Ohio.  We’d love to be the go-to brand for parents with kids under five years old when they think about preschool educational toys so this will be our brand building strategy in the first year.   

How can our readers connect with you?

We’d love to get connected with our community through our monthly newsletter by subscribing at https://www.cubotoys.com or meet more female founders at https://www.linkedin.com/in/karvillard