Let’s be honest. Not everyone is equipped with the patience to spend hours around children—especially the younger ones. They can be loud, and they might want to keep running around all day, but in the end, we still have moments where we find having them around sparking a little bit of joy in us.
But if you’re one of the people who have a uniquely high amount of patience when it comes to dealing with children, it’s good for you to know that there are several business opportunities behind your love for kids.
Overview of the kids’ industry
In the United States, there are over 73 million children under the age of 18. That number grows every year. This means that there are no shortages when it comes to individuals requiring the services of businesses oriented towards this age group.
Even if most people in this age group aren’t capable of engaging in activities that will generate income for themselves, their parents and other relatives are willing to spend money on them is what drives the kids’ industry. This gives kids’ the purchasing power required to keep the industry on the move.
The 1960s had households spending only an estimated 5 billion dollars on children, but today, they influence households enough to have adults spend 500 billion dollars purchasing their needs and wants. These items include food, toys, toiletries, and many others.
Another factor about today’s kids is the amount of their exposure to media. They’ve become ingrained in companies’ marketing strategies because they now have unprecedented access to different platforms. On the flip side, this isn’t a good thing because the number of good things in the media equates to many bad things.
In terms of children digesting advertisements both meant for their group and not, an average three-year-old child can identify a hundred brand logos. That’s huge, knowing kids that age have a shorter attention span.
What are the businesses you can start?
Now that you know how much purchasing power children have, you must be thinking you sat on a business opportunity for way too long. But it’s never too late to join the kids’ industry because there will always be kids at every point in time. Even if you start tomorrow or in 10 years, you can still rely on their ability to move markets.
Here’s a list of businesses oriented towards kids that you can start:
1. Party Planning
From birthday to graduation parties, there’s an endless amount for businesses in party planning. All-year-round, they can trust that households will throw different types of parties to keep their kids and their friends happy.
We’re all aware that households love to celebrate their children’s milestones. There’s also no denying that these parties are appreciated. Aside from the number of parties thrown, parents also tend to spend more money on kids’ parties.
2. Caretaking
To fend for the expenses of raising children and giving them what they want, it takes parents to go to work, and in case they don’t have people they trust to look after their young ones, you can step in and start a caretaking business from home.
You can opt to be an on-call caretaker who can be booked right when households need your services or work with other people to accommodate more families that need caretaking services.
3. Gift Products
From toys to bath products, there’s no denying that there’s a big box of choices when it comes to giving gifts to kids. It has been found by the research company Information Resources that parents spend over 80 million dollars on baby soaps in different stores. As most children have sensitive skin, parents need to look for the best type to keep allergies and irritation at bay. This makes them go on a trial-and-error cycle with varying bath products.
People are fond of giving gifts to babies and kids that are a little older. It can be toys, clothes, books, and many others. But all in all, the number of babies born in the U.S. is4 million per year. That’s 4 million baby gifts bought every year.
4. Toys and Games
An industry that boasts 22 million U.S. annual sales is the toy industry. The number doesn’t include sales for electronics such as video games and gaming gadgets. Children love receiving toys, and let’s all admit it—toys are foolproof gifts when you’re out of unique ideas.
They can be expressive about what they feel about what they receive, but toys have lower disappointment chances compared to clothes and books.
With these ideas in mind, you can make a well-informed decision about starting a business that involves kids.
