Novel business idea sees NEW jigsaw puzzle stock available for HIRE - mad or a stroke of genius?

With SMEs facing especially tough economic times, why is one UK business owner risking his well established online jigsaw puzzle by making stock available for HIRE! Is it a gamble too far or could this type of business model actual prove the saving grace for many SMEs?

[UKPRwire, Thu Jun 09 2011] When 86 year old Jean Mitchell decided the time was right to move from her Norfolk home to a residential home to be closer to her daughter in Hertfordshire, there was one hobby she knew she just had to take with her - jigsaw puzzles.

A great sense of satisfaction was felt by all the residents when a jigsaw puzzle had been completed. But soon Mrs Mitchell and her friends had done the small collection of jigsaws their care home had, and several times over. The residents did buy new puzzles but it was often hard to find those ones which would suit everyone, Mrs Mitchell always said. What they wanted was an easy way to hire jigsaw puzzles just like you would with books and videos.

250,OOOth ORDER

The other side of the M25, Alan Maclachlan based in Redhill, Surrey, was quietly building up his business based on his own jigsaw hobby. What started in his back bedroom over 10 years ago as a way to earn some extra money was rapidly developing to become the largest online website selling jigsaw puzzles in the UK - AllJigsawPuzzles.co.uk. Last month Alan took his 250,000th order.

"We have a huge selection of jigsaw puzzles and we understand that not everyone is able to purchase a jigsaw every time they've completed one. So hearing about Mrs Mitchell and other folks’ stories inspired me to work on how we could hire our range out - that's currently nearly 2000 jigsaws.”

"It would have been easy to say to customers ok you've hired the puzzle but you need to send it back to us at your cost. I didn't want customers to have the hassle of standing in a post office queue or even paying for the return postage. So what I have done is to include with every hired puzzle a paid for pre-addressed return envelope which can simply be posted in a post box,".

NEW PUZZLES

For residents, such as Mrs Mitchell in care homes, nursing homes etc.,they can now enjoy a vast range of new puzzles by hiring on a regular basis.

So far Alan's novel business gamble is beginning to pay off:

"Rather than our online shoppers actually stopping buying jigsaws and only hiring puzzles from us, we found that we are actually keeping more customers who might have gone to other sites in this competive market. They are hiring but they often going on to buy - regularly."

Alan is hoping to especially target residents and patients in care homes/nursing homes who may like doing jigsaws. He is also planning to introduce a monthly subscription service as a way of building up more of his customer base.

"What's great is that we can reach new markets. It's also something that stores like Amazon can't do. Hiring, I believe, could be the answer for some SME's selling stock - it just makes you different."

More details of Alan's novel jigsaw puzzle hire scheme can be found at www.alljigsawpuzzles.co.uk

ENDS