When a simple, fantastic idea for a business comes along, it’s always easy to say “how come I didn’t think of that.”  When Gary Bamesberger spoke recently about his company, I wasn’t the only one who mumbled those words.  Bamesberger’s company Good Clean Fun markets an innovative toy service called Something For Kids.  Instead of selling businesses toys and play structures, Bamesberger has distilled a huge collection of knowledge into one of the hottest new sales tools . . . which he rents.

            Something For Kids is indeed a service company which places toy stations into businesses, adds toys attached to lap-play boards and then maintains them on a scheduled basis, replacing the missing, broken and worn out toys.  The station features a hefty supply of disinfectant wipes so that concerned parents can clean the toys before their children use them.

            “I used to take my 2 year old down to a local coffee shop.  They had a box of toys there which used to dig in to.  One day, I took a look inside the bin and was aghast at what I found.”  Bamesberger recounts a laundry list of dreadful objects.  Toys were so greasy that paper was stuck to them, plastic pieces had broken edges and garbage had been dropped inside.”  Bamesberger goes on to describe how his older child was exposed to toys in his pediatricians office when he was there for a well-child visit.

            “I went home and typed ‘clean toys’ into Google and found all sorts of information about how to clean adult toys.  Not what I had in mind!   A couple of consumer toy groups and hospitals, had information about toys and infectious disease and product recalls, but no general body of knowledge about toys, especially in businesses existed.  So we spent a good solid year assembling research.  We found plenty of interest in what we were doing. 

            Bamesberger began to see that there was more to toys in businesses than infectious disease and safety issues.  “We began to ask business owners about the business experience when parents brought their children.   It was as if we had struck an open wound with a hot poker.  Business owners and managers are very quick to blame bad parenting when kids behave poorly.”

            “No matter what businesses have tried and are trying to negate a child’s impact on their parents shopping experience, we found that in all cases, they were treating symptoms and not the source problem.  Identifying the source was the key to building our program.”

            Bamesberger and his company have identified the core issue as the “parent/customer dynamic.”   This dynamic describes the demands put upon a person to be managing 2 distinct personas, one as the parent and the other as the customer.  Never, are the two congruent.   He says, “Either the parent ends of being a lousy customer or the customer ends up being a lousy parent.  Understanding this core idea lead us to the solution.”

             “We had to put a lot of noble ideas to rest.  Educational toys are not good for business environments.  Books are lousy.  Anything that encourages a child to interrupt their parent for help is detrimental to business.”   Indeed, Bamesberger’s company has become the clearing house for toy selection for business environments.  From big play structures to the smallest toy, Good Clean Fun has evaluated thousands of toys and games.  Surprisingly play rooms and play structures rate poorly.  Good Clean Fun literature sites several problems associated with the two.  "WWW.SOMETHINGFORKIDS.COM  has many information pages with tips, insights and surprises regarding peoples perceptions of toys in businesses, from waiting rooms to show rooms," says Bamesberger

            Qualifying toys, modifying them to work in business environments is all part of the patent pending process.  “Originally I was thinking about the health care industry and the need to combat infectious disease, everyday I realize new business categories have an interest and need for this service.  Business owners and managers continue to amaze me with how Something For Kids will do wonders for their business.  That’s the most gratifying part of the job.”

            Their website at www.somethingforkids.com features many best practices tips and a best practices handbook all for free. 

For more information, press only:

gary@somethingforkids.com, 425-488-7210

For more information on Something For Kids:

http://www.somethingforkids.com