Starting a Business with a Young Child: How to Test an Idea and Plan a Launch

Start with one offer for a specific customer, gauge interest without accepting payment, and work out how much you can do in a week. This will help you decide whether to prepare for a launch, scale back, or save the idea for a more suitable time.

For parents of a young child, it is important to match orders to the hours available and the childcare help you can count on. Write down who can look after your child while you work, which tasks you can interrupt, and which require uninterrupted attention. Factor this in before buying stock or materials.

Choose a customer and one offer

Describe your idea in one sentence: what you offer, to whom, and at what approximate price. For example: “I sew fabric organisers in one size for people who want to tidy small items at home.” One sample and a clear description are enough for an initial test.

Compare the formats by the day-to-day work they involve:

If you are considering baking or activities with children, calculate the costs of premises, equipment and organising safe work before launching. Plan who will look after your child while you work. Check official sources for the requirements that apply to your chosen format, premises and qualifications. Only then decide whether you can start this work.

Gauge interest without accepting payment

Talk, for example, to five to ten people who resemble your target customer. This is an illustrative number for an initial test. Ask what they already buy to meet this need, where they look for the product, how much they are willing to spend, and what makes it hard to choose.

Show a sample or photo, give an approximate price and preparation time, and ask whether the person would like to hear when sales begin. Explain that you are testing the idea: you are not accepting payment or confirming orders yet.

Write down specific answers: who needs the product, whether the price is acceptable, and what sizes or features people ask for. A compliment does not show that someone is ready to buy. If everyone asks for different products, choose one recurring request and test it separately.

Plan your working week with a time buffer

For a week, track the hours you can actually devote to work. Account for childcare, household tasks and rest. Do not plan to use every possible free moment: your day may change if your child is unwell or help is unavailable.

Suppose you have 12 hours a week. A preliminary allocation might look like this:

If one item takes 30 minutes, you can make eight items in four hours. This is an estimate assuming the entire process fits into that half-hour. Eight finished items do not mean eight guaranteed sales.

This schedule has no time buffer. If you set aside one hour for unexpected tasks and reduce production to three hours, the plan becomes six items. Test it with a trial batch and record the actual time. Agree on shipping days and response hours that you can sustain.

Calculate what remains after a sale

For each product, record its price, materials or purchase cost, packaging, and other per-unit costs. Add payment or sales fees and delivery costs if you pay them. Separately calculate costs that arise regardless of the number of sales.

Illustrative example: the product price is UAH 450, materials cost UAH 220, and packaging and other variable costs are UAH 40. After the sale, UAH 450 − 220 − 40 = UAH 190 remains to cover fixed costs, before taxes and the owner’s pay.

If the stated monthly fixed costs are UAH 3,800, you need to sell 3,800 ÷ 190 = 20 items to cover those UAH 3,800. This is not full recovery of the business’s costs or your earnings. The calculation assumes every item sells for UAH 450 and per-item costs stay the same.

Assess your own time separately: choose your desired hourly rate and multiply it by all work hours, including customer communication and shipping. Add taxes, advertising, equipment, and possible costs from defects and returns if you have not already included them. Compare the sales needed with demand and the number of items you can realistically prepare.

Prepare the business for sales

Before making sales as a business, register your business activity. State registration is a condition for carrying out business activity under Article 50 of the Civil Code of Ukraine. You can apply online through Diia to register as an individual entrepreneur (FOP) and choose the general or simplified tax system.

Before accepting payment, find out the requirements for your specific product or service. Discuss the tax system, payment methods, whether you need an RRO/PRRO—a cash register or software for issuing fiscal receipts—and the required bookkeeping with an accountant. Check premises and safe-work requirements if your format calls for them.

Evaluate advertising by purchases

Once you are ready to sell, set a small budget that you can afford without affecting family needs. Decide the amount and duration of the test in advance. Advertise one specific offer with its price, fulfilment terms and a clear way to get in touch.

Record advertising costs, enquiries and paid orders. To track enquiries from a particular ad, use a separate link or ask customers where they saw the offer. For example, you spend UAH 600 on advertising and receive three paid orders for which you recorded an enquiry from that ad. The cost is then 600 ÷ 3 = UAH 200 per such order. This does not prove the advertising caused three additional purchases. If each order contained one item with UAH 190 remaining after variable costs, those sales brought in UAH 570 towards fixed costs, before taxes and the owner’s pay. Advertising cost UAH 30 more than that amount. Review the offer and the calculation before spending more.

Managing a small product range in Torgsoft

For a product business, open “Склад → Стан складу” (“Warehouse → Stock status”) in Torgsoft. Here you can review product availability, quantity, size, selling price and cost price. Before replying to a customer, check the specific product variant so you can confirm availability according to your records.

Count shelf stock regularly and compare the actual quantity with the software. If you find a discrepancy, check receipts, sales and returns. In this mode, you can review the movement of a selected product and add it to an inventory sheet to verify the balance.

For this process, it is important to enter transactions in the records on time. An overview of the features is on the Torgsoft inventory management page, and the steps are in the “Стан складу” (“Stock status”) instructions.

A four-week preparation plan

1. Week 1: choose a customer and offer, hold conversations, record your available hours and childcare arrangements.
2. Week 2: prepare a sample, measure the work time, calculate costs and add a time buffer.
3. Week 3: check the business requirements and prepare registration, payment, bookkeeping and product fulfilment arrangements.
4. Week 4: compare demand, costs and capacity. If you are ready, set the size of the first batch and an advertising budget after registration and checking the requirements.

Launch when you can deliver the promised amount with a time buffer and understand the costs. Reduce the range or number of orders if the work does not fit into the hours available. Postpone the launch if childcare, safe working arrangements or business requirements are still unresolved.

Official sources and instructions

• Дія (Diia): automatic FOP registration and tax system selection.
• Torgsoft: instructions for “Стан складу” (“Stock status”).