How I made a living by playing with toys – and thinking outside the box
Jennifer Sieg speaks with Amanda Gummer, the former child psychologist and British entrepreneur who found out how to make a living by playing with toys. Now, she tells Ambition A.M. how she did it.
As any entrepreneur will tell you, free time isn’t something that comes with the job.
Whether it’s taking calls on the beach or hoping the signal holds on a busy train between meetings, entrepreneurs rarely have any downtime.
When I managed to get hold of Amanda Gummer, the founder of toy consultancy and research firm Good Play Guide, she was on the way back to Leighton Buzzard from a day’s work at the Children’s Media Summit in London.
The 50-year-old entrepreneur is living the dream we all once shared as children, having built a career out of playing with toys.
While the rest of us have left the bells and whistles of our favourite trinkets in the past, or at the very best within our distant memories, the sounds of ‘play’ follow Gummer into each and every new endeavour.
“Everything I did really just kept showing me how powerful play was,” Gummer tells me while attempting to paint a picture of her rather lengthy CV.
Now, after receiving a PhD in psychology and having a few decades of charity work and university lecturing under her belt, she quite literally tests and rates toys for a living. But it wasn’t until just a few years ago that she found the keys to long-term success for her business.
Good Play Guide, which started out as a way for Gummer to provide free resource guides to toy manufacturers using her psychological expertise, now rates toys and learning products—both in the UK and the US—on a five-star scale based on “fun, skill development, and ease of use” criteria.
The power of asking ‘why’
As I speak with the former child psychologist on how her business has gradually changed and grown since it was founded in 2012, I cannot help but think about the time when my brother and I fought over our Christmas presents 17 years ago.
Gummer, who admits the average parent would assume this kind of scenario is just kids being kids, tells me the psychological matter of the art of play is where the real interest (and money) lies – the art of play is more than the colour or shape of the toys.
My academic background has made me a stickler for methodology.
Amanda Gummer
“We are very particular about making sure that when we do research with kids, we are observing natural behaviour,” Gummer says.
Indeed, Good Play Guide-certified products are tested by children, parents, and childcare professionals themselves – thanks to Gummer’s expertise in knowing how to ask questions when examining research or surveys.
She says it’s not “if” the child likes a toy. It’s “why” they like it — and the answer will help the toy sell later on.
Thinking outside the (toy) box
Three years ago, Gummer started to think outside the box (that is, in this case, outside of the UK) and as a result, revenue tripled.
“The international response to what we do was just 10 times about what it is in the UK,” Gummer tells me.
“The toy market was just hungry for research and insight from credible sources,” she adds.
Now, Good Play Guide exports its services to the Toy Association in the US, which has been a “game-changer” for the business.
“If we get it right, the global sales could explode our growth. About 40 per cent of the business is export now, and I’m hoping that this year we hit seven figures,” Gummer says.
She adds: “Most of our export business is currently in the US, and we have a centre in New Jersey that we use as a base.
“I’ve had lots of help from the Department for Business and Trade with attending shows over in the States, and the connections and introductions they have made have been really helpful.”
Does entrepreneurship run in the family?
Gummer spent her childhood testing toys for her dad, who at the time was a self-employed toy salesman.
Surely she had some sort of entrepreneurial influence? If not, at the very least, an early introduction to the business side of all things toys.
Laughing as she tells me she instead “accidentally” followed in his footsteps, she wouldn’t trade her entrepreneurial journey for the world.
“I would do it for free if someone paid my mortgage,” she chuckles, even though she’s lived a nomadic lifestyle ever since her children set off to university.
Indeed, eight years is a long time to wait until a pivotal business moment.
Even still, with international expansion continuing, Gummer plans to stay true to the “heart” of the Good Play Guide’s goals.
“The US market is huge. It’s at least five times the size of the UK, so five times the business,” she says.
“A lot of the toy companies are also European, so that is a big market for us. I’m really proud of the fact that we’re growing fast without losing our heart.”