NH childcare receives a $25,000 grant and free coaching on running a business

On By Vaseline

Annamarie Timmins
| New Hampshire Bulletin

Ellen Grudzien is the founder, executive director, accountant and landscaper of Let’s Grow Outside, a preschool program with classrooms in Amherst and an outdoor program in Bedford. In this, Grudzien is not unique among child care providers across the state. Some also teach.

“I do everything… and I have been doing it for a long time,” said Grudzien, whose center serves about 100 families. “But I realized, especially now that we are growing, that I cannot keep that up.”

So Grudzien was one of nearly 50 child care providers who immediately signed up for Child Care Accelerate, a free program that includes eight weeks of business coaching and a $25,000 grant for business expenses. Like other providers, Grudzien said the money was welcome, but the coaching was life-changing.

“I think every day in childcare is different, so it’s very difficult to plan as administrators because we’re pulled in many directions,” she said. “If I were working on business and finance, I would do it on the weekend.”

One of the most helpful pieces of advice from her coach was this: “You should work less on your business and more on your business.”

As the mid-July application deadline approaches, providers are encouraging more of their colleagues to sign up for Child Care Accelerate, which is open to licensed and licensed child care providers and Head Start/Early Head Start center-based programs.

“It takes the pressure off you and makes you better prepared for your business,” says Dawn Curtis, who, with her sister, owns and runs the Colorful Apples Learning Center in Manchester and Hooksett. They serve approximately 80 children. “If people don’t sign up, that’s a real shame.”

New Hampshire child care providers and the families who depend on them have received nearly $160 million in state and federal aid since the pandemic began. With that money, the state made more families eligible for tuition and gave child care centers money for staff training and bonuses, compensation for lost tuition and facility upgrades.

Much of this is one-off financing that expires in September. The $5 million Child Care Accelerate program is intended to help providers maintain and expand their programs in the future.

“We know there is more than $5 million in needs,” said Adrienne Haynes, the program’s lead business coach. She said the eight-week program pairs providers with experts in a variety of areas, such as legal and tax issues, insurance, marketing and budgeting, with a single goal: “To ensure that business quality is as high as the quality of their childcare . ”

Providers complete an assessment of their business, allowing coaches to identify their greatest business needs. A coach visits the institution and sets short and long-term goals together with the provider.

The pair meet almost every week for about half an hour to discuss what is going well, what needs to be worked on and where we should go next. The program also offers regular training sessions on topics such as recruitment challenges and strategic planning.

Jennifer Hosmer, executive director of the Children’s Center of the Upper Valley, wanted to better understand how to market her center and the financial aspects of running a business, topics not covered in her childcare training. “A lot of times you have to pick up that piece of learning yourself and hope and pray that you do it right,” she said.

Hosmer realized that she may be the only one in the organization who knows who she is using for legal advice or where crucial documents are stored. She is writing a business manual so that the staff can keep the business running if she retires or if something happens to her.

Although the center is licensed for 95 students, only 70 to 80 are now needed because it has too few teachers. Hosmer put much of her $25,000 grant into marketing.

Her center is known in the Upper Valley for its large pirate ship in the playground. However, the floors are so rotten that children can no longer play on them. She uses $21,000 to replace the pirate ship.

Curtis, whose job at Colorful Apples Learning Center included teaching, said she wouldn’t have pushed herself to set aside time for business planning each week if she hadn’t had the scheduled coaching sessions. Curtis worked with her coach on succession planning, something she hadn’t done because there’s always something more pressing.

“It’s not just about financing. This was an added value,” said Curtis. “Would I have done it without the grant ($25,000)? Absolute.”

But the money helped. Curtis is using it to replace a fence and renovate a room to expand and accommodate more younger children, something parents have requested. “I try to meet the … needs in my community,” she said.

Grudzien used her coaching sessions to identify goals for growing and sustaining her business, something she wanted to do before her daughter joined her in the fall. She especially appreciated that coaches visit the centers to understand a caregiver’s specific needs and goals.

Grudzien uses her money for legal advice on estate planning, a laptop for an operations manager she recently hired, and to spruce up her space, which she rents from a church. There was no money in her budget for painting, carpeting or a new furnace, all of the things that help sell a home to families.

“My coach (gave me) homework, but said, ‘I don’t want you to work from home,’” Grudzien said. “It never felt burdensome. It motivated me to take some extra time to focus on the things I needed to focus on, to ensure this is financially sound and lasts for years to come.”

This story was originally published by the New Hampshire Bulletin.