The Childcare Business Coach
The Childcare Business Coach
Building a Resilient Centers: Strategies for Success and Navigating Challenges
This episode explores strategies for childcare center owners to enhance enrollment, improve quality, and withstand economic fluctuations. Evelyn shares insights on educating families about the value of quality childcare and emphasizes the need for intentional practices in management and marketing.
• Importance of intentionality in childcare management
• Strategies for overcoming enrollment obstacles
• Competing effectively against corporate childcare centers
• Marketing as an educational tool for family engagement
• Budgeting effectively amidst rising operational costs
• Enhancing staff loyalty and motivation through positive culture
• Creating a mission-driven environment for staff and children
If you are interested in getting the Replay of he free webinar series, Thriving Through Any Economic Time, please email: admin@childcarebusinessprofessional.com
Hello and welcome to the Child Care Business Coach podcast. My name is Evelyn Knight. Thank you so much for joining me. I realized you're trying to hear me over there. I have a microphone so interesting. I have to be on a couple different devices at once right now because Facebook decided to change how they do things and so, since I have different devices going, I have to have all these microphones right now. So I'm going to get my studio microphone back and hopefully get this all taken care of. But welcome, whether you're watching us on YouTube, listening to the podcast, or you're on Instagram or Facebook, we are streaming everywhere right now, so please help us share. I would really appreciate the shares of this podcast episode. Today I am answering your questions.
Speaker 1:Last week, many of you joined me for creating a business that can make it through any economic times. It doesn't matter what the economy is right. You can recession-proof your business. You can make a childcare center that is always thriving and not struggling, and, I'll confess, there are times where I forget right. These are intentional steps that we have to take, and I started last week talking about the importance of intentionality. You absolutely have to be intentional in order to make this work, and there are times where I get so busy, I get focused on this company and I forget and don't nurture this one right, and then I find myself in a position where I'm like, oh boy, what do I do now? And that's because I wasn't intentional. So we taught a lot last week, right? And all of it comes down to the fact that we have to be intentional. We absolutely. It is a must, non-negotiable, because that is when things like the first question I'm going to answer happens and I'm going to leave these anonymous. A few of you have asked me to leave these anonymous, so I'm just going to go through the questions and I am going to leave them anonymous. So, basically, the first question I have is I have a great staff. Enrollment is my problem and that's interesting because for most of you out there, it's recruiting right.
Speaker 1:Recruiting is not easy right now. It is really, really hard. So that is awesome that this person isn't having a hard time with that. I had a wait list for seven years but there was an internal sabotage from a trusted person. She was a director from the beginning and left to and went to a corporate center. No families followed her, but I learned that she's been was depleting or deleting and not responding to any of our inquiries, and she was starting to become rude to families when they toured Um.
Speaker 1:I am now trying to rebuild but it's not going well. I don't get the phone to ring. I can't get um, let's see. I'm sorry you guys, this is hard without my glasses on. I should have put my glasses on, especially since I'm reading this one off my phone. Um, I'm trying to rebuild and I can't get my phone to ring. I'm licensed for 121 and have 20 openings. Between that and the $25,000 that I found embezzled, I'm not sure I'm going to make it another six months.
Speaker 1:How do I get enrollment in the area where it's saturated by corporate schools? I'm a private school. Okay, the first thing I have to say about that is there's nothing to worry about with a corporate school. You guys, I know it feels incredibly scary, right, because what it feels like is they have all this power behind them and they can price us out in the market and there's a lot. However, most people don't want the corporations. What you need to do in this situation, if you feel like there's just so many of these big mega centers around you the corporations, whatever you need to basically educate your families on why you are so much better than they are. You have to educate your families on why they don't want to go to a corporate school.
Speaker 1:In some of my former trainings and if you are a member of my website you can find trainings I did about being a category of one. Why am I not afraid to collaborate with my what should be a competitor right? The two centers down the street from me. I'll coach them every day. One of my clients is her. Chakra center is a mile from mine Literally we're a mile apart and she's hired me to help her right, and I am her business coach and I want to see her center filled up and doing wonderful. But why is that? Because I've created an atmosphere where my center is a category of one and I'm going to make it so. Her center is a category of one also where you don't have to worry about competition, right? If you're worried about competition, it's because you haven't done a lot of the groundwork or you haven't been keeping up with the groundwork.
Speaker 1:I recently went through something as well. We did a software. We moved from one software company to another and in the transition it wiped out my wait list wiped out my wait list. I went to zero, right? I had a 1300 child wait list and, moving from one software company to another, it disappeared and it's gone. So what do we do? We rebuild, and that's okay. That is okay, so don't worry about it. But what you need to do is start an educational campaign Instead of just advertising to people on like oh, look at me, come and enroll your child, which is one of the biggest mistakes we do in childcare. Don't post things like I have openings, I have this, I have that. Prove who you are. Show them that you are the expert and it's an honor to have their child at your childcare center, right?
Speaker 1:What do you stand for? I stand for the highest quality, research-based standards that will give the children the most love and nurturing environment. And so what do I do? I put educational information out that educates my families. So I want you to think about a lot of families do not understand what is quality, right? So they go to these gigantic centers and they think, because it's beautiful, it's the shiny new penny in town or it just looks rich and beautiful, they think that's quality.
Speaker 1:We need to educate families on what their children truly need, because they don't know. Our parents are doing the best they can, but the Americanization, or I should say basically the commercialization, of early childhood education has really filtered something that is not developmentally appropriate and is not best for the children. So what do I do? I educate my community. I tell them things like do you understand that the United States is 33rd in the world for quality education? That is pathetic. That is pathetic, and there is no excuse for the United States to be so low on education. We should be number one. We are the greatest nation in the world and one of the most wealthy nations in the world. There is no excuse for us being 33rd. There is no excuse for us being 33rd and I won't stand that for that. As an owner of a childcare center, I will not stand for my children who are coming to me and the parents that are paying for me to accept 33rd in the world. Not only that, but I live in Nevada. Nevada is the 49th state. Only New Mexico is behind us on quality. So I point that out too 49th state for quality. Do you really think I want my school to look like a public school? No, that is not good enough for our children. However, if you look at the best schools in the world, you're going to go to the Nordic countries like Finland and Sweden, those areas there. So I've really studied those areas and created a model, as best I can, that matches the best companies in the world. So I'm educating on. Why is that not the best place to put your child right?
Speaker 1:And if you guys watch some of the lives I did, if you go to my personal Facebook page if you're not on my personal Facebook page, they should be on Instagram as well. I created a few reels and I went live on TikTok as well. You're on TikTok, find me. I did some, really a lot of lives on TikTok. But I basically do the classroom setup and I educate parents when I'm on a tour. If a family comes and tours my center, I'll show them out. I'll actually say to them do you want to know within the first minute of walking into a program if it is a high quality program or if it is not? And I tell them there's two things you can look at and I can tell you in one minute if it's high quality or not when I walk in to evaluate a program.
Speaker 1:First thing, where is the artwork on the wall. Is it above four feet or below four feet? If it is above four feet, there is no displays on the wall for the children to see, no artwork, no posters, nothing. Then the teachers in the classrooms don't know how to handle children. They don't know how to handle behavior problems right and they don't know how to manage the children in their classroom because they're too afraid that the children are going to go and they're going to pick the art off the wall. And that's a problem because, if you think about it, children are looking straight on right. Most people don't walk around rooms and look like this. They're looking. So there's artwork on a wall.
Speaker 1:If there's a display that is for the children, it is going to be at the child's eye level and a good teacher knows how to control behaviors without having to be heavy handed in disciplining. So you can have low art. Now, it's okay if there's artwork above four feet, but be clear anything below four feet is specifically there for the children. Anything above four feet is there for the adults. So, yeah, my program is going to have both and it is going to be like this is what we display for you, the parents. We want you to see what your child is doing, so these beautiful artwork, that's for you guys, but down here that's for them.
Speaker 1:The second thing I tell parents you want to look for is how is the furniture arranged? If you walk into a classroom and all the furniture is up against the wall, right, and it looks beautiful and clean and open and airy Again a sign that they don't know what they're doing. Because a child, that basically causes confusion for a child and it really doesn't guide them. Your classroom should be a third or fourth teacher, depending on how many teachers you have in the room. And a good classroom setup is going to actually kind of look like a cluttered mess. To an adult it doesn't mean it's dirty, but it is going to kind of be cluttered. You should actually have obstacles all over the place, because otherwise you're going to have children running, you're going to have children wrestling, you're going to have more behavior problems and each little center should almost be like a cubicle, right, and it should only fit three to four children in it.
Speaker 1:And I'll point out to the parents. I'll say do you realize that this classroom has 20 children in it right now? And most of the time they'll say something like no, are you kidding and like yeah, but because of how we have these little centers, it's like we created micro rooms within our bigger classroom and so, if you notice, you've got three kids here, four over here, two over here, and if you add it up there are 20. But they're naturally dispersed because of how well our classrooms are set up. So now, think about it, you're educating your parents on what to look for, what makes you better. So now they're going to go to that other center and tour. They're going to go to the mega center, and the mega centers and the corporate centers are more concerned about what I call parent pleasers.
Speaker 1:And I will straight up say it If there is a center trying to please parents more than they're doing what's best for the children, this is what you look for. I'll also show them the artwork on my wall and I'll say do you see, a three-year-old does not make a perfect penguin right, or the eyes don't go in the right place and the mouth, if you see that, perfect like your paper I always think of the paper plate lions right and it's all like the hair's on the right place, the eyes are correct. Your child didn't do that, I'm sorry, but a, two, three and most four-year-olds can start doing it right, but it's still not going to be perfect. And I'll actually point it out to the parents. And I love to find the Cyclops right, because every classroom has a Cyclops. If you're letting your children do developmentally appropriate art and you are a high quality program, I'm like do you see this? You can tell the child did this work of art right Because it's not perfect.
Speaker 1:And when the teacher goes and corrects a child's artwork, that's actually sending the child the message that they're not good enough, that their skills are lacking. So what does it do? It kills their confidence. And then we wonder at eight years old why a child still can't tie their shoes. So that's dramatic, right, but it's the truth. So I'm also just I'm going to get on my soapbox here and tell you guys, if you have a center that thinks you have to give your parents the perfect looking artwork, you're really doing your children a disservice and you're killing their self esteem and the and I know that you're trying to impress the parents, but just educate your parents. You can still impress the parents by showing them how knowledgeable and smart you are and how well-trained your staff is, because they know that it's better to give an imperfect art piece than it is to give them something perfect that is damaging to their problem solving, their selfless skill, their ability to take initiative and action on their own.
Speaker 1:And I tie it together all the time. I tie it all the time together. If your child puts their shoes on backwards, we're going to leave it that way because we have to celebrate the win right. Eventually we'll correct it, but in the beginning they accomplished that. Accomplish that. If you constantly tear them down for that, then they're never going to be independent thinkers and they're going to constantly look for the rest of their life. They are that adult who cannot make a decision without affirmations from other people. So I know I kind of went off on that answer, but it's a big deal and I think a lot of you have that where you need to know how to stand out right. You need to know how to stand out from the crowd. And also on that question, I would 100% put it out there under new management. I would put it all over social media. I would have a banner made. I would even though it's under the same ownership, I would have it under new management everywhere so that people know that that director who turned them off is no longer with you.
Speaker 1:As for the embezzlement, you could go after them. $25,000, honestly, if you're running a center of 120 children, probably isn't enough. I wouldn't do it. It's not worth my energy. If there's one of the most important life lessons I've learned, it's that protecting my energy is more important than most things, and it's definitely. I let $90,000 go last year that I was told by a lawyer I could sue for and I would 100% win and probably get more, not just 90,000, but I could probably get a lot more than that. But I had to really look and think about how is that going to affect my life? What is that going to do to my energy? Is it worth it? And bottom line was it wasn't worth it. My energy is way too important and the frequency I allow myself to be on is way too important than going after $90,000. So I don't know. It's really up to you. I mean, if you can balance your energy with that negativity around, then go for it, but to me it's not worth it. It'll come back. I mean, I'm a woman of faith and I know God. God tells us that um, vengeance is his. He'll, it'll, it'll be okay.
Speaker 1:So the next question I had is I'm barely breaking even and I'm scared to raise tuition. I really feel like it's not an option for me. How can I improve my quality, uh, and profitability without increasing rates? So we talked about that a lot last week. If you didn't join our live, please go back and watch the replay. I think it was day three that Christina did the three R's on really learning how to reduce, remove and, um, oh my gosh, I always forget reduce, remove and replace Right, and so if you didn't watch, we really dive into that a lot and I have to say that you guys, many of you think you can't raise your rates, but you can. Many of you think and you're really scared, but understand and know that I want you to think about it this way If your gym raised rates, what would you do?
Speaker 1:I mean, at this point in our lives, everybody's raising rates on this right. I mean, our economy has been so bad over the last two to three years that everything has just become outrageous. I was talking to someone the other day who showed me a picture from I think it was at the very end of 2020, beginning of 2021. In my area, gas was only $1.80 a gallon and now it's almost $5, right. So, yeah, since 2021, the prices have become astronomical for things. Cost of living is ridiculous right now. Parents understand that they do and they're used to it and fortunately we've become kind of conditioned to it, which is kind of unfortunate, but it's also a good thing.
Speaker 1:When we need to raise our rates, so what I do at my center, I actually put a letter out explaining exactly what I'm doing with the money. And, by the way, you guys, you should know your KPIs, you should know your financials enough when you're doing next year's projections to know this is exactly how much money I need to raise my rates by right. I raise my rates every August and I have to sit down budget and know, okay, if I'm going to be giving raises, I'm going to be doing this, I'm going to be doing that, this is what I need to raise my rates to, and so I'm taking actual numbers no longer. During the training last week, we actually looked at what has the rate of inflation been and between I'm doing this from memory. So 22, 23, and 24, we've gone up.
Speaker 1:What was it? 16%, I believe, between 2022, 23, and 24. That is insane. The normal rate of inflation is normally 3%. It used to be historically so, yeah, it was 16%. Because I was thinking to myself wow, if you did a 5% increase every year, it wasn't enough to keep up with the rate of inflation, right? And so that's why you have to know your actuals. You have to know how much do I actually need. Don't base it on oh, every year I do 3%, every year I do 5%. I used to do that and then I realized nope, it doesn't work that way. You have to know your actual numbers, and if that's something you need help with, we are more than happy to help.
Speaker 1:But I would dare to say you could probably raise your rates and don't be afraid of what the people around you are charging. One year I raised my rates by $30 a week and nobody left. Everyone stayed with me. I at one point was almost $50 a week, more than every other child care center in my town, and I was fine. I was just fine when my enrollment slips is when I stop reaching out to the public and I'm not putting my brand out there.
Speaker 1:And also what I have to say about that, and something we touched on last week, is you can never stop marketing. I don't care if you have a 1300 child wait list. Marketing never stops, never stops. You have to educate your parents on who you are, why you're the best, and that's educating right. It doesn't mean I'm always out there saying, hey guys, look at me, come and roll in my center. It's more. I am the expert. This is what I know. Let me help serve you by teaching you what is best for your child, because then you've created yourself as the expert in the field and people will want to come to you right and you're serving I don't know. I have a really big belief that when you come from a place of service first and you give, it comes back right. People want to work with you, okay.
Speaker 1:Next question how do I handle the rising costs of running a center? Well, we kind of talked about that. How do I advise on budgeting effectively? Kind of touched on that too. Those are pretty big questions. Like budgeting effectively, you really need to create a budget, but projections are huge. I think one of the biggest problems financially is that you're looking backwards and trying to figure out, okay, what bills can I pay today, instead of backwards and trying to figure out, okay, what bills can I pay today, instead of creating a plan, moving forward and in, we need to always be thinking about our finances from an annual perspective, right? I think that's.
Speaker 1:Another big issue I see is people aren't looking at it from an annual. What are your annual expenses? What are your annual costs and what are your annual costs and what are your annual tuition? Is it matching up? What are you going to be giving raises? All of those things, right? You should be looking at it from an annual, not a monthly, perspective, especially if, like for my center, december we take a huge dip and then I still give out a lot to my staff. So I know and in the summer as well, I like to actually have low numbers in the summer. So I take a hit because I want to right, I want it to be quiet, I want my center to my staff, to be able to get lots of vacations and I personally don't like working summers. So I know that every single month I have to save 5% for summer, right, and so if all of my tuition coming in, I put 5% into savings by the summertime, I can take that hit. It's not a big deal, we're good, but you need to have an annual budget and really look at your financials from an annual perspective for that to work. Okay, ooh, here's another one.
Speaker 1:Hiring and retaining staff is so hard right now. How can I do? What can I do to keep my team motivated and loyal? So my COO always says that you are the cheerleader. You have to remain positive, right, but you also have to be a good employer. I mean, you set the tone. So if you're stressed out and you're like, oh my gosh, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? Then naturally they will too. Right, so watch your attitude, your energy. What are you bringing when your staff is at the center, what is their experience? Right, if you can create and maintain a positive experience all the time, you're going to retain.
Speaker 1:The other and most important thing, though, is do you understand why you were put on this earth? Mark Twain said he's no longer alive, so he once said that the two greatest days of your life are the day you're born and the day you understand why you were born. Right, and let me tell you from my past experience in my career. I know why I was born, I know why God put me on this earth, and I have an incredibly loyal staff and loyal following, and it's because I am so, so sure of my conviction that people want to follow. My vision and my purpose are so clear and I shout it to the world all the time and I practice what I preach that people follow me. There have been times in my past where I've had to ask employees to hold their paychecks, and they're still with me 15 years later. They are still with me because they believe in what I'm doing. I have an employee that took an almost $30,000 a year pay cut to work with me because she believes so strongly in my mission and what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:Gallup did a study and there's several studies, but the one in particular that I like is the one that Gallup did in 2022. And it showed that the number one reason people take and stay with a job is because they want to be a part of something bigger. They want to know they're making differences in the world. Most of us assume that it's wages right Is our problem, but did you know that wages aren't even in the top five reasons people take a job or stay with a job? They want to know they're making a difference. So if you can make sure that your employees know why your center exists. You make them part of so much bigger.
Speaker 1:It is this mission that you're on right, and you also, though, have to look at what is their experience like every day. Is it miserable, working for me? One of the questions I love to ask myself is would I want to work for me? How would I feel if I was my boss, right? Or how would I feel if I had to be a teacher in my center? If the experience is awful, then you're not going to retain. If it's a great experience, then you're going to be great, you're going to be fine. So you got to give them a purpose, a mission, something that is like contagious, that people want to jump on, and you have to make sure they have a positive experience. Right and for me, my purpose is I was put on this earth to bring more love to children, and I do that by bringing the highest quality. I teach you that are listening to me right now to be better childcare center owners and directors, because I know if I can do that, then I'm bringing more love to more children around the world. I'm bringing love to children who aren't getting the love they deserve right, some of them do but a lot of them don't.
Speaker 1:And if you guys have heard my story, I was the daughter of an alcoholic and my mom was an immigrant from Honduras and when she was a young mom and in Honduras you, just like my mom, was taught that you listen to what your man says regardless. So my, my dad was really abusive and not a great person and, um, but we were wealthy. We were wealthy and so when I look at the young pictures of me, I realized until I was in the eighth grade and I finally went and told somebody and I still wasn't believed. Everyone assumed that we had the perfect life and the perfect family because we looked perfect. Right, my parents trained me very well to be quiet and make it look like we had the perfect family life, but nobody knew that behind closed doors I was living a really bad, like just a horrific lifestyle. Right, I've seen my dad break my mom's ribs. I've seen her break mirrors, break mirrors with her face. I've seen him just, really just doing awful things to my brother and, um, it was just normal Friday night antics at my house and it was just normal Friday night antics at my house. So a lot of times I talk to owners and directors and they're like oh you know, I don't work with low-income children, so my kids are fine. I'm here to tell you that's not true. My dad used to dine with senators and he was a pretty wealthy man and it's. You have no idea. You have no idea. I was a really good kid, right, and it looked like we had the perfect life. So don't judge a book by its cover. The work that you are doing is the most important work in the world. You guys.
Speaker 1:Early childhood education literally sets the foundation for a child's entire life. The things you struggle with today, right now, you struggle with because something was missed during your early years right, I have terrible time management skills. That happened to me during the first five years of life. If you have a really hard time getting along with others, that happened to you in the first five years of life. If you have a hard time coping, problem solving we all know that person who is just always so rude and passive, aggressive right, that happened the first five years of life. A person's future success can be determined on their preschool experience, how they were raised in the first five years. And, yes, there's therapy and things that will help us, but we're learning tools to help us.
Speaker 1:If you want to program a child's brain correctly from the start so that they have a chance at a good life, that's what we do. That's the power of early childhood education, and I believe so deeply in it that I have a staff that will follow me Because they want to change the world through early childhood education. And how many of my clients the same thing want to work with me Because I'm going to help you to change early childhood education in your community. God called me to touch 1 million children's lives. And how am I going to do that? I'm going to do it by helping you. I'll probably never own enough centers to have a million children in my own programs, but I can help enough owners out there to increase their quality, to really bring the children the love and reduce your stress. Because if I can come in and coach you and teach you things to make your center flow easier, to make it less stressful and to make you more profitable, then I know you're pouring more into the children and I'm spreading that joy that those children so desperately deserve, and in so many communities across the United States and the world. And I have an international, my customer base is international, and so we can make a difference. You guys, together we can literally change the world. So now imagine, if I can, if you get on my bandwagon right and you really start believing what I just said as much as I do and you go to your staff do you think they're going to leave? And sometimes they do, and I'm okay with that too. Sometimes they get degrees, they go on, they do other things, and that's okay, right, and that's the other thing too, is you got to be happy for your staff and proud of them when they up-level their lives? Now, I don't like to see them going down, but I love seeing them up-level, and you will have people who are loyal to you for life. So I hope that was helpful for you guys.
Speaker 1:Just a couple of questions that we went through today, and again we are. We would love to have you join our group. You guys asked and we listened. For a long time you guys have been asking us to come up with a more affordable membership plan, which we have done. We do have now a six month plan and we are taking payments on it, and for most of you guys who tried to come into our ecosystem. You know my mastermind is $12,000 a year and we do allow for monthly payments on that as well. But we did listen. We know EC. It can be difficult for you guys to afford $12,000 a year. So we do have a new entry level plan that is only $2,000. And we will allow $500, four $500 monthly payments on that.
Speaker 1:So if you want to come in and start getting working with us, we will help you get there. Most everybody wants to be in our mastermind. I understand some of you. $1,000 a month is hard, but we'll help you. One of the biggest commitments I have is to make sure that I earn my keep right. So our company is set up to help you find the money. I am literally here to help you and we go through and help you increase so that it's really not affecting your bottom line. So if that's something you need help with, please let us know and I will have Christina put in the chat our contact info and if you're on YouTube or I think what am I on Instagram, linkedin, youtube you can see on the screen.
Speaker 1:Our email address is admin at childcarebusinessprofessionalscom. Email us and we would be happy to help you figure it out, because we are going to bring more people in. We heard you guys and we listened. We are making it more affordable for you. So reach out to us. And if you missed the free workshop last week, we will. We are emailing out the replay. So please either say in the comments I need the replay, it is a hundred percent free. There is no cost for our five day workshop we did last week. That helps with. We go deep. We go deep into enrollment, how to become more financially savvy and, most importantly, how do you diversify your income, because sometimes we can't charge anymore, right? So let's bring more income streams into your childcare center. You don't have to just rely on tuition. We can bring more streams of income into your program. So make sure you email us. We would love to work with you. Have a great rest of your day, everybody.