Latest / ChildCare Conversations / 363: The Secret to Recruiting College Students and Spouses Who Turn Into Lifelong Educators with Jennifer Clements

Transcript

363: The Secret to Recruiting College Students and Spouses Who Turn Into Lifelong Educators with Jennifer Clements · ChildCare Conversations

• 0:00
  Childcare Conversations: Welcome to Childcare Conversations, the podcast where early childhood leaders like you get real-world strategies, honest talk, and a whole lot of support.
• 0:10
  Childcare Conversations: Whether you're running one center or many, we're here to help you lead with confidence and clarity.
• 0:17
  Childcare Conversations: This episode is brought to you by this quarter's sponsor, Playground, the all-in-one child care management software.
• 0:25
  Childcare Conversations: We're all about managing monkeys and saving you time at your center.
• 0:30
  Childcare Conversations: With this platform, you can.
• 0:32
  Childcare Conversations: We're proud to partner with a team that's as committed to your success as we are.
• 0:37
  Childcare Conversations: Learn more at TryPlayground.com.
• 0:41
  Childcare Conversations: Now, let's get into today's conversation.
• 0:44
  Childcare Conversations: One we think you're really going to love.
• 0:47
  Kate Woodward Young: Welcome back to today's conversation.
• 0:49
  Kate Woodward Young: And I am so glad to have Jennifer Clements join us.
• 0:53
  Kate Woodward Young: And we are going to talk about, oh, I don't know, all those issues that business owners have as they try to scale.
• 1:00
  Kate Woodward Young: And so, Jennifer, welcome to the show and welcome to the conversation.
• 1:04
  Kate Woodward Young: And tell us a little bit about how you found yourself in early childcare, business experience, and even where you're located.
• 1:13
  Kate Woodward Young: Sure.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thanks for having me.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: So my my background started actually pretty early on.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: My mom had an in-home childcare.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: She started that when I was born, actually.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: So she had ended up having four girls and um then also took in some other children that she cared for for several years, actually.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so I like to say I grew up changing diapers.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: It was just a way of life.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: But I thought that I wanted to go to law school, actually.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I went on and I went to uh K-State and um with the intention of getting my undergrad degree and then moving on.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: And never quite happened that way.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: I started my uh first business while I was actually in undergrad.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: It was a nanny placement agency.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: I was working as a nanny and also working for a uh uh franchise um childcare, so kind of a one of the larger groups, and decided, you know what, I see a need and I have you know some great contacts with the families that I already work with.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so let's give it a go.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Didn't know what I was doing, but uh started a nanny placement agency and that rolled into hey, I got married, I had a child of my own.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted him to be a little bit more exposed, you know, to other children.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted quality, and just through some of my experience uh through undergrad um and the the different programs that I had experience with, I decided I didn't really like the options that were there.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I started my my own um and wanted quality, something quality that was focused on community, because that was really big for me.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's you know, um, where our our our locations are is heavy military population.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's so many um military families and just so many college students that are away from their families and all have, you know, someone they can call and be there within an hour, half hour.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: So that was really important to me to be the village, as we say, uh, for families.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's how we got started.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: So we started in 2012 with one location, and now we have three uh locations, all based in Kansas and um hoping to grow in the in the future.
• 3:35
  Kate Woodward Young: Well, as a military spouse, I can absolutely um confess that uh those villages, they not only are they different than what you grow up in, if you're like, oh, I've always lived here, I've grown up here, my kids are here, you know, like third generation.
• 3:53
  Kate Woodward Young: Uh sometimes you don't know what you're gonna get.
• 3:57
  Kate Woodward Young: Um I worked in programs in three different military towns, and sometimes folks would come in and go, Well, here's my emergency contact number, they're my neighbor.
• 4:06
  Kate Woodward Young: I've known them 24 hours, you know, or that kind of thing.
• 4:11
  Kate Woodward Young: So um that in itself I applaud because that just takes a whole different level of um openness and understanding and flexibility because um that it's a different life cycle when you are working in military towns than uh towns that are, you know, folks kind of come and live and stay for 12 years or 16 years.
• 4:35
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, so you said that, okay, so you have three locations in Kansas.
• 4:39
  Kate Woodward Young: Right.
• 4:40
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, and I heard you say college students, and you brought them into the family piece.
• 4:44
  Kate Woodward Young: So do you have a lot of college students then as staff?
• 4:47
  Kate Woodward Young: Is that part of um your role as building the village?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: So we have um several uh college students that work with us.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: We also have a lot of military spouses too, but yes, we work with the university pretty closely.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so they will send some of their early childhood students because they do have an early childhood ed program for your program.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: So they will send them to us um as an accredited school and they'll learn from our teachers.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: So uh we also use that as a great way to, you know, find our next grade teachers because you know, when you're college students and like you said, military, there is a cycle to that.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's every couple of years, and you know, we love them while they're there, and then we understand that they move on to the next.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: And that's certainly not everyone on our team, but there it's quite a few.
• 5:38
  Kate Woodward Young: So one of the things, and I don't know why we've never done this as an episode, but I'm gonna take the opportunity.
• 5:43
  Kate Woodward Young: I think one of the things that's really great about early childhood and military families is that it is an industry that you can find in every base.
• 5:51
  Kate Woodward Young: You can't build towards getting a CDA.
• 5:53
  Kate Woodward Young: If you're in school age care, you can even get the school age version of a CDA through the military.
• 5:59
  Kate Woodward Young: They actually have one there through the CDA council, but you've got to be military, so you gotta go work on base.
• 6:05
  Kate Woodward Young: So, but there's a lot of opportunity to build that skill and take it with you.
• 6:11
  Kate Woodward Young: Is that something that you guys have included in your staff recruiting, or is that just something you've kind of found by um gonna go with experience?
• 6:21
  Kate Woodward Young: Sure.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh a little bit of both.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, when we were first getting started, one of the licensing surveyors that um I was working with on designing the building and planning, um, she was actually a military spouse.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: So she helped introduce me to some of the programs that I knew were out there, but I didn't really know, okay, what's my contact point?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, so military um in your neighborhood um and um, you know, childcare were some of those programs.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, yes, we have um, we actually are just we just went through our reaccreditation.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's a huge piece.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: If you are offering care to military families, um, we serve as kind of their overflow that the military bases are, you know, they're usually very full.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so if they are full or the family lives off base, then we serve as um, you know, a quality option for them in the community.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, we make sure that we're meeting those NAC requirements.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes, yes, um, we will also send uh members of our team through different programs.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, some of our directors started as teachers, and to be able to, you know, continue to grow as leaders, we put them through some uh just different offerings, whether that's CDA or um just different courses that we actually had them take.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's something that we've done a lot of.
• 7:41
  Kate Woodward Young: Oh, that's great.
• 7:42
  Kate Woodward Young: I just I don't know why that had never popped into my head to have as an episode before, because it is one of the few professions that would be really very portable and very easy to um translate as a military spouse from base to base.
• 7:57
  Kate Woodward Young: So, well, how exciting! So I'm glad to hear that you've incorporated college students.
• 8:03
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, I would suspect that if you've got college students, um, you're used to the struggle of um, let's just call with uh Jenga version of staff scheduling.
• 8:15
  Kate Woodward Young: Uh, have you what are some tips you might have for somebody who is like, um, because we get folks all the time who are like, oh, I don't want college students because I want to know I've got people who can work Monday through Friday, the equivalent of nine to five, right?
• 8:28
  Kate Woodward Young: Like they want these, these um standard schedules.
• 8:33
  Kate Woodward Young: And of course, I love Jenga.
• 8:35
  Kate Woodward Young: Uh, maybe, maybe why I loved having everybody part-time.
• 8:39
  Kate Woodward Young: My preference was always um, the more part-time, the better.
• 8:43
  Kate Woodward Young: Uh so uh what are your thoughts on hiring college students, looking at them as a potential pipeline for quality educators?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, great question.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I would say about 50% of our team are college students, and then the rest are are uh full-time.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I think college students just bring a different energy, not to say that, you know, uh that can't come from, you know, full-time team member, because we certainly have fantastic full-time team members.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, don't get me wrong, but they just bring a different energy, you know, and they know, you know, where they want to go.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, one of our very first college students that um I personally hired, um, and this was back in the day, so 2012, um, but she's now a pediatrician.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so being able to, you know, help her, you know, gain that experience.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, we now stay in touch.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: She has, you know, little one of her own.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just so neat to be able to see that.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: I personally I find great reward out of that of seeing, okay, you know, we get to work with this person for two, three, sometimes four years, and then they go off.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, what are they doing?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's that's one of my favorite things.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, we also have some team members that they thought they would leave um the area when they graduated, but they enjoy it so much that they might switch, you know, their their profession.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: They might decide to teach.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: And that is something with early childhood, as long as you know, you have um certain requirements that you meet, that we we can take someone that, you know, has maybe a new nutrition background or, you know, maybe even business, music.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's great ways to incorporate all of that.
• 10:23
  Kate Woodward Young: Oh, I love that.
• 10:24
  Kate Woodward Young: And those are one of my favorite things, especially this time of year.
• 10:27
  Kate Woodward Young: So recording this during the summer, uh, one of the favorite things I had was incorporating my college students' hobbies or majors into the the summer camps uh that we offered.
• 10:39
  Kate Woodward Young: And so theater majors were always one of my favorite.
• 10:43
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, a lot of folks instinctively think, oh, I need to only hire ECE majors.
• 10:48
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, I'm gonna tell you right now, go find those musicians, go find those music majors, go find those theater majors because theater majors are a bit dramatic.
• 10:58
  Kate Woodward Young: And so you ought to see them do a story time.
• 11:01
  Kate Woodward Young: Like they can get the kids engaged and having a great time.
• 11:06
  Kate Woodward Young: And so um, I actually I like them better than the teachers.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: They bring like different energy, different, different things.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we've had some great puppet shows and you know things like that from bringing in um just uh students with different backgrounds.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's so fun to watch.
• 11:25
  Kate Woodward Young: Love that.
• 11:25
  Kate Woodward Young: So, what would be your one tip if you were gonna give somebody listening to this episode?
• 11:30
  Kate Woodward Young: We've got a lot of owners and directors across the country, well, really around the globe, 126 countries um listen to our show.
• 11:37
  Kate Woodward Young: So, if you were gonna give them a tip for hiring somebody who is in college, not just college age, but they're in college, what is the one thing that you've learned maybe the hard way uh about hiring that age group when it comes to um maybe scheduling or just uh team dynamics?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, lots of team building because when you're college students, every about six months your team's gonna shift a little bit.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's something we've we've gotten used to that we plan for, and we plan for even better now than what we used to, because that was something that we learned um probably the hard way a few too many times, and then realized, okay, this is a cycle.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: And even, you know, around holidays, if your college students, you know, they live in a dorm or they live in a sorority, you know, how can we be flexible about that?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: How are we planning ahead?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, always tell my team that, okay, if we think that we're fully staffed, let's go ahead and add one or two more, especially if we know it's August is gonna be around the corner or January, you know, those changes of semesters, you've got to be flexible.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you know, if you can try um your best to work with those team members, um, you're going to have dedicated um staff.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna have a dedicated team.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: Just take some flexibility and maybe a little bit more planning ahead.
• 12:59
  Kate Woodward Young: Oh, I love the planning ahead.
• 13:01
  Kate Woodward Young: And it's interesting.
• 13:01
  Kate Woodward Young: So the way you said that, I was like, oh, because I always do just the opposite.
• 13:05
  Kate Woodward Young: Most of the time when I'm hiring college students, I end up with them at Christmas and at spring break.
• 13:11
  Kate Woodward Young: And not the other way around.
• 13:12
  Kate Woodward Young: It's been a while.
• 13:13
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, I did work in some university towns that were had a lot of that, they were gone, right?
• 13:19
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, but it works the other direction, right?
• 13:20
  Kate Woodward Young: So if you've got the college student who is um around at Christmas, but not around in the fall, uh sometimes that's even better because now you've got folks who will uh give your staff that breather for six weeks and you're a little less stressed because you know that for four to six weeks they're home for um the holidays or for the break.
• 13:44
  Kate Woodward Young: And so you can um use them as substitutes, yes.
• 13:50
  Kate Woodward Young: Uh, and uh really get them to to kind of connect with some staff, uh, even if it's just Christmas, spring break.
• 13:57
  Kate Woodward Young: And then you got them for summer.
• 13:59
  Kate Woodward Young: So but it sounds like you've got the flip, which is which is just kind of a whole interesting like, oh yeah, I guess that does happen in you know, other places that have a different version of uh college town vibe.
• 14:12
  Kate Woodward Young: So I love that.
• 14:14
  Kate Woodward Young: I love that.
• 14:15
  Kate Woodward Young: So now as you've grown, I'm sure like most folks, you've had um, well, you've embraced technology.
• 14:22
  Kate Woodward Young: So you've been in childcare for, you know, 15 years.
• 14:26
  Kate Woodward Young: Uh, so um, you're not doing it all with post-it notes, I would suspect.
• 14:31
  Kate Woodward Young: So um let's talk a little bit about what your tech stack looked like way back when, how that's evolved.
• 14:40
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, like I said, I I've had a stint at Microsoft.
• 14:43
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, I was a file maker developer um um a really long time ago.
• 14:49
  Kate Woodward Young: I was like, oh wait, I'm not gonna put a date on that one.
• 14:52
  Kate Woodward Young: We'll just say a long time ago.
• 14:54
  Kate Woodward Young: And um, you know, so I love talking about technology, and I know that for a lot of business owners, this is a pain point.
• 15:01
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, and so sometimes we use, you know, off-the-shelf, um, you know, big name, um, not industry-specific software.
• 15:13
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, but what are some of the things that you guys have used your tech stack for, uh, maybe struggled with, and then we'll just keep going from there?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, it's funny that you mention um, you know, post-its or sticky notes because I used to be the queen of that back in the day when we, you know, had all of our tours.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, all of the same colors.
• 15:38
  Kate Woodward Young: I I knew you were my people.
• 15:39
  Kate Woodward Young: I just knew it.
• 15:40
  Kate Woodward Young: Okay.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: But you we used to have all of our tours on a paper calendar.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, we had a team member who again was not early childhood, but had said, Hey, you know, you guys already use Google for your email.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you use a Google Calendar?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: And at this point, you know, we had more than one location.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: So we'd be, you know, like calling back and forth, like this just doesn't make sense.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: So implemented that, and that's really what kind of started that trickle effect of, okay, what can we keep making?
• 16:12
  Kate Woodward Young: Okay, wait, wait, wait.
• 16:13
  Kate Woodward Young: When did you start putting your tours on a Google Calendar?
• 16:16
  Kate Woodward Young: I just, I'm just curious, how long ago was that?
• 16:18
  Kate Woodward Young: Because that's, I mean, there are folks I still know who don't do that.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: So Oh yeah, that was probably 2018.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: 2019.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I wouldn't say we're early adopters, but we definitely look for ways to improve.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: It might depend on the industry.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:39
  Kate Woodward Young: Yeah.
• 16:39
  Kate Woodward Young: Okay.
• 16:40
  Kate Woodward Young: So you started by putting your tours on Google Calendar, and that prompted the, hey, there's got to be a better way than a post-it note in a paper calendar.
• 16:47
  Kate Woodward Young: Love that.
• 16:48
  Kate Woodward Young: Now, currently we know, right?
• 16:51
  Kate Woodward Young: Like we're in 2026.
• 16:53
  Kate Woodward Young: There are, I swear every time I turn around, somebody else is creating a new app, a new something, right?
• 16:58
  Kate Woodward Young: And so um an AI um has made that even more come about.
• 17:03
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, I think just in the last probably six months with the develop, you know, with the popularity of Claud Code and OpenAI and those kinds, base 44.
• 17:15
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, we're seeing more and more folks create um in-house um custom resources that then they want to share, right?
• 17:24
  Kate Woodward Young: And so um I know that you mentioned earlier when we were kind of doing some pre-talk, that one of the things you guys actually explored was the possibility of creating your own.
• 17:34
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, because you wanted something that could grow with you that did what you needed it to do.
• 17:39
  Kate Woodward Young: So talk to me a little bit about what your major pain point was.
• 17:43
  Kate Woodward Young: Um and because I think you even mentioned that somebody else on staff brought you kind of some options.
• 17:50
  Kate Woodward Young: So talk to me a little bit about what your major pain point was, and then we'll talk about that process of bringing options.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, yeah.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: So we were using so many different systems, you know.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: When you start to adopt, we're like, well, this app or this system does this one thing really well.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then, you know, this app over here does this one thing really well.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_02: We don't really use it for other, you know, things that it um other services that maybe are available because we have all these others.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I would say it really started with uh our team coming to me um and saying, uh we have so we have parent-teacher conferences um every six months, and we track um every child's developmental progress in a portfolio and realized that the the software we're using at the time went from us being able to track their portfolio or their um their portfolio from one classroom to the next to less than six months.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: It was almost like the cloud base got super full.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so uh I said, what do you what do you mean that you know, after three to six months, we we lose their developmental progress?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like our goal is zero to five.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like we want to track all of this.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought that this was the software partner that was wanting to do that with us.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so that's when it started uh of us looking into some different options, trying to scale back some of you know the different systems we're using of, you know, Word and um, you know, Excel to track wait list.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then you have, you know, QuickBooks for this and you know, all these different different things.
• 19:33
  Kate Woodward Young: Yeah, so yeah, and like and you've got companies gobbling companies up.
• 19:37
  Kate Woodward Young: And so what you hired them for all of a sudden now they do five other things, and you're paying for the five other things, but you're also paying for a tech stack of five separate things.
• 19:46
  Kate Woodward Young: So you brought up QuickBooks, and I know all the things into it has gobbled up in the last 10 years, and some of them I used at different points in time, and now they're all in um one tech stack.
• 19:58
  Kate Woodward Young: And I know for me, um, a two years ago, we updated our tech stack um professionally, and um it was painful.
• 20:08
  Kate Woodward Young: I hate absolutely even with the tech background, I hate the whole concept of importing a whole new list and making every like, oh no, like I don't even like to update my phone.
• 20:19
  Kate Woodward Young: Like same, yes, yes.
• 20:22
  Kate Woodward Young: I'm like, so you had a staff person who came to you and said, hey, here's four options.
• 20:27
  Kate Woodward Young: And were all of the options industry specific, or did she kind of, or did they bring you some some off-the-shelf tailor, but maybe not industry specific?
• 20:39
  Kate Woodward Young: What kind of resources did she bring you?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: So uh we did explore kind of all across the board of what you know, what's going to be the best option for us, looking at some opportunities that were non-specific to the industry, um, then really we're narrowing down of like, well, then we would just be adding more to our tech stack, you know, if we were looking at adding just bits and pieces of, you know, um software that's outside of our industry.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Because I mean, really, technology is great, but there's there wasn't at the time a solution that could offer us more than really one or two, um, one or two services that would meet our needs.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: So uh we narrowed it down to, I believe it was three or four, um, even including our existing software.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, is there ways that we could update this, change it?
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and she created a table that just showed, you know, what each one was known for and then what the other capabilities were.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then when we looked at it, it was kind of a no brainer of okay, they can actually do what they're saying that they are able to do, which is not something that we've found um other companies have done very well.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they keep wanting to add to their services and uh
• 22:00
  Kate Woodward Young: What was what was the major pain point for you?
• 22:02
  Kate Woodward Young: What was the issue that you went and found, you know, you went on that hunt for a solution for?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh, so we had yes, the the tracking the the children's progress in their photos, you know, that's becoming a bigger, bigger thing to use an app to keep in in touch with parents throughout the day.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: So that was a big part of that.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: And then through the process of, you know, looking at other solutions, other tech solutions, uh, the payment processor that we were using, um, that was part of our existing software.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's almost like something just happened and payments weren't going through.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: You couldn't track them.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so that was when I said, okay, guys, like we have to make a decision.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and we've got to figure this out because we can't not have revenue or not be able to track it.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: That should be the easiest part of our job, right?
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like we have software for that.
• 22:53
  Kate Woodward Young: Right.
• 22:53
  Kate Woodward Young: And so, and then we were talking, and you mentioned that I thought, and I thought it was key because it is absolutely something that makes a big difference when you're looking at revenue is also knowing where are your openings going to be and when.
• 23:05
  Kate Woodward Young: Yes.
• 23:06
  Kate Woodward Young: And so that was the kind of the the clincher for you guys to choose playground, correct?
• 23:12
  Kate Woodward Young: Isn't that the the, I won't say the key, but the the the differentiator for y'all because again, everybody who has a tech stack, we all we we we love our tech stack for something, right?
• 23:25
  Kate Woodward Young: It could be the parent engagement, it could be, but I've been doing everything in MailChimp and I'm gonna just stay here and I'm gonna adopt everything that's into it because I don't want to leave here and I don't want to have to put those emails in three more systems, right?
• 23:38
  Kate Woodward Young: Like so.
• 23:40
  Kate Woodward Young: Um, so but for y'all, it was knowing that when um and being able to look at it in in a in a dashboard format, right?
• 23:48
  Kate Woodward Young: Like being able to have that um bird's eye view for your three locations, because that makes a big difference too, right?
• 23:53
  Kate Woodward Young: Like what you're doing, you can track that on paper and pencil for one location.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, so in my husband, who is um now my business partner is a CFO and he remember looking at you know some of our reports together, he's like, what do you mean you you don't have a good way to project what you know revenue is gonna be, what what your openings are gonna be.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: We know what the cycle of that is.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, it's something we had tried to build in um like Excel, but it's not great.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's only as great as you know, if if we keep it updated, and that was one more system.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so that was a huge component to us um switching to playground of being able to actually have something that, you know, tracks our current enrollment, tracks upcoming openings.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and you know, what what is our income?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: What is our revenue gonna be in, you know, a month from now, three months from now?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it was just it's so important to be able to have that, especially, you know, as you you grow and you're trying to run a business, you've you've got to have those insights.
• 25:00
  Kate Woodward Young: I love that.
• 25:00
  Kate Woodward Young: So, Jennifer, real quick, for people listening, you guys have three locations.
• 25:04
  Kate Woodward Young: What are the sizes of your locations?
• 25:07
  Kate Woodward Young: And then in our show notes, we'll have ways for you to contact Jennifer if you're like, oh, this is so something we've been struggling with.
• 25:14
  Kate Woodward Young: I also had a business partner or a significant other who tried to help me because um I do hear that frequently.
• 25:22
  Kate Woodward Young: So sometimes there is that disconnect.
• 25:24
  Kate Woodward Young: So you planted that little seed.
• 25:26
  Kate Woodward Young: I'm just gonna let people know that they can reach out to you possibly for that.
• 25:29
  Kate Woodward Young: But um tell us a little bit about the size of your programs.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so our original uh program um is uh Crush Grandmere, and that one is just over 100.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, 100 enrollees, children we do offer part-time.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I it wouldn't be an exact, you know, FTE versus actual number of children enrolled.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then our um our second location is considered the cradle.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um so that's purely infants and toddlers, and that is right about 50.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh we also have um Heritage Square location, which is just under a hundred.
• 26:07
  Kate Woodward Young: Okay.
• 26:07
  Kate Woodward Young: All right.
• 26:08
  Kate Woodward Young: So if folks are listening and they've got multiple locations that have somewhere between 50 and 100 uh students, uh you definitely would be open to having a conversation, even if it's through something like LinkedIn or via email.
• 26:21
  Kate Woodward Young: So uh, like I said, in the show notes, we'll have that uh those contact informations for Jennifer.
• 26:27
  Kate Woodward Young: And Jennifer, thank you so much for for sharing your story.
• 26:31
  Kate Woodward Young: And uh I loved the direction we went and I love the fact that we got to talk about college students and well, military spouses, because well, yeah, both of those are a little little closer to home than I generally get to talk about uh in a in an average conversation.
• 26:46
  Kate Woodward Young: So yeah, all right.
• 26:47
  Kate Woodward Young: Well, Jennifer, thank you so much.
• 26:49
  Kate Woodward Young: And if you are new to our show, please make sure you go and subscribe.
• 26:54
  Kate Woodward Young: Join us at childcareconversations.com and join our newsletter.
• 26:58
  Kate Woodward Young: And with that, we will talk to you in a few days.
• 27:02
  Childcare Conversations: Thanks for tuning in.
• 27:03
  Childcare Conversations: We love bringing you real talk and fresh insight from the world of early childhood education.
• 27:09
  Childcare Conversations: Be sure to follow us on social media to stay connected and catch all of the latest episodes.
• 27:15
  Childcare Conversations: And if you're planning a conference, training, or special event, Kate and Carrie would love to speak to your audience.
• 27:22
  Childcare Conversations: You can learn more about their keynote sessions and workshops at kateandcary.com.
• 27:28
  Childcare Conversations: If you learned something today, share the show and leave us a review below.
• 27:33
  Childcare Conversations: We'll see you next time on Childcare Conversations.