The financial demands of buying toys for three young children caused Stephanie Loberg to start her unique, online business, ToyTradersClub.com.

Loberg, a dental hygienist, came up with the ToyTradersClub.com concept because she found a good deal on a used Barbie doll house for her daughter’s third birthday. The lucky find set her off on a search for dollhouse furniture. She found the furniture on eBay, but by the time shipping costs were added, it was more costly than buying new furniture from a local discount store. Loberg shopped thrift stores, consignment stores, and www.Craigslist.org unsuccessfully before deciding to buy from a retail store. This struggle led to Loberg’s “a-ha” moment and a new business.

ToyTradersClub.com has a different kind of business model than most e-commerce sites. For a 30-day subscription that costs only eight dollars, members can post photos, descriptions, and prices of toys they have for sale. Shoppers can look at the merchandise without subscribing, but if they want to contact the seller, they must subscribe. They can then contact the seller directly and make arrangements to finalize the purchase, sale, or trade in person.

Loberg had excellent credit but did not want to go deeply in debt, therefore, start-up expenses were a problem. One way around this was to skimp on advertising, initially marketing the concept to her network of friends, which included many young mothers. Loberg soon began making presentations at mom group meetings and enticing women to join with a two-month free trial offer. This marketing strategy had limited early subscription growth but allowed Loberg to hit her more conservative sales targets. She needed help to grow her business.

Loberg heard about Al Beach and the Kirkwood Small Business Development Center from a friend and former client of the center. The Kirkwood center assisted Loberg by helping her develop a five-year revenue projection, discussing target markets, providing a list of guerilla marketing tactics, guiding the web site design for easier use by clients, providing strategies for business launch, and giving detailed feedback on her initial press release. Because Loberg was concerned about copyright and trademark issues, additional assistance was provided in these areas as well. Beach also helped her determine that the main users of her web site were merely search engines.

So far, ToyTradersClub.com is no threat to eBay. It has about 13 members, selling everything from dolls to computer games, and currently serves the Cedar Rapids metro area. Loberg expects membership to grow as more people learn about the company’s advantages, especially the elimination of consignment fees and shipping costs.

Loberg decided to start advertising in the Kansas City Kid’s Directory and the Cedar Rapids Kernel’s weekly e-mail blast, to increase awareness of her web site. She hopes this will help her membership reach more than 50 by the end of the year. She says, “Since this was my first attempt at a business of my own, I was afraid I would make a big mistake starting it up. Al was so patient and helpful. I have since told others about the Small Business Development Center and encouraged them to go there.”