Make no mistake, Davidson mom successfully launches board game

Aimee Symington's new board game, "Blunders," which she launched at the New York International Toy Fair in February, has been recognized by one of the leading toy industry publications as a top new product for 2008.

Blunders helps children learn manners and values, according to Symington, a 40-year-old mother of two in Davidson. Symington herself gained a quick education in raising capital, marketing and foreign manufacturing on the way to launching Blunders.

She and her husband raised $60,000 in investment capital to fund the design and fabrication of 5,000 board games. They went to a manufacturer in China, who eschewed lead and sweat labor, Symington says.

"I knew nothing about the toy industry," she says, having worked for Bank of America as a senior vice president of change culture.

She had a successful small business teaching kids etiquette at local country clubs, giving her a glimpse of what she could do with a broader audience.

The Blunders game is about four children in the Blunder family who learn to improve their manners in order to get invited to the "Mannerly" family's annual pool party extravaganza.

There are some 300 questions associated with a trip around the board, featuring multiple choice and even charades.

Symington decided she wanted to bring the board game to the 2008 show in New York a scant 11 months ago, meaning it's been an all-out push to get it past prototype and into production. Manufacturing costs ran $20 a game in the U.S., hence the plan to fabricate them in China for considerably less. That allowed monies for marketing, and a toy rep who successfully placed Blunders in a department store in Washington State.

Blunders lists for $24.95. So far, she has sold about 800 games.

The game is available now in local stores, including the Author Squad, Jewel Box and Amazing Pottery. All told, around 60 stores around the country carry Blunders.

Breakeven will come when all 5,000 games in the initial run are sold; the profits come in the re-ordering. Symington forecasts revenue of about $100,000 in 2009, with sales coming from the internet and retail locations, plus international customers in Canada and Australia.

Next up is a video that she will send to Oprah Winfrey and Good Morning America to promote Blunders. "My primary job right now is a public relations campaign," she says.