Category childcare

Here we are, almost fifteen years after establishing a business that we had no idea had so much potential. My college friends and I wanted to start a summer camp of our own to keep us busy while not teaching in the summer months. One opportunity led to another and I, personally, was suddenly at a crossroads. Leave teaching or pursue my own business endeavors? Be a cog in a system designed by others, or build my own machine? The latter choice won out.

I knew after leaving teaching that the childcare business had to be more than a single summer camp and an after school program. Little did I know, it probably didn’t need to be. But any rate, because of my hyperactive style of engagement and need to keep pushing boundaries as CEO, one location became two, then three, then four….a decade and a half later we host four daycares, over a dozen after school locations partnered with churches, schools…eleven annual summer camp locations. We have even expanded beyond the local county borders. Great, right? Be careful what you wish for.

Here is the problem. I am guessing it is a problem all businesses that continually expand have to rise above. Controlling the quality of the product while growing. Is it even possible? I haven’t figured it out yet.

We offer a service, so being able to grow while also being able to maintain the quality of the product has been a huge problem because there are so many factors. Most of them have to do with charging others to implement your product because let’s face it, nobody cares as much as the owners about the product. Especially in the childcare industry, where many of the jobs are only stepping stones, or a convenient way for people to fill gaps in their employment record.

So what do you do? Grow? Not grow? If you can ensure quality with a few sites, should you simply keep it minimalistic or try to figure out the puzzle of growing while being able to guarantee product quality?

Franchise businesses may not have to worry so much, as they sell their brand to others and collect a percentage of the profit for each franchise, regardless if their brand is represented well or not with the individual franchise. So, I guess in this case as long as the money flows…who cares.

But, that is not the way a private business with a real mission operates. It’s not just about the money, but about the reputation. What are we selling and is the product of the same quality everywhere we offer those services? If not, how do we reconcile this?

The awful truth is, maybe if you are an individual with a dream, you start small, stay small. Control the product by offering it personally and call it a day!

I decided to explore my thirty year career in today’s entry. Mostly because I want there to be some context when I write about education, children, business, capitalism, parents, and every other topic I have experience with resulting from my professional journey.

I started teaching in 1997. To give you some perspective…it was the year that the movie Titanic graced the big screen. While Jack was courting Rose (up until the point he froze to death in the Atlantic) I was in my initial year of classroom teaching, getting my butt kicked by a bunch urban fourth graders. Titanic actually ended up being an ironic metaphor for the type of year I expected, verse the type of year it ended up being. Yet, all these years later I can look back and have an adult perspective on the situation and realize it was a valuable experience in my life for so many reasons. As not only did it give me a chance to learn about myself as a teacher, but the experience also gave me my first glimpse at a grossly flawed educational system at a local and state level, and an interesting look at how social politics in a place of employment outweighs everything else, including the education of children.

I taught eleven more years at the elementary level…every grade from first grade all the way up to eighth grade math. Private, public, rural, urban, and suburban. I also taught adult education classes at night where wannabe nurses would come back to master basic algebra in order to qualify for the nursing program. Though children are my stronger suit, the adults were pretty fun as well.

After fully realizing that our educational system is akin to kid prison, and that the most enlightened teachers in the field are isolated and ostracized for striving to rise above mediocrity, I left and started my own business, TSL Adventures, which, fourteen years later still thrives with multiple daycares, school-age programs, and summer camps throughout capital region New York.

Of course, there are a billion and one stories to be told along with much commentary about the experiences I have had, and you can sure bet I’ll be telling each one in random order in upcoming entries because as much as my experiences with various bureaucracies, co-workers, and traditionalism have only half-impressed me over the years, one thing that has always impressed me was the nature of children and child development. I have always put this at the forefront of all my endeavors and have met thousands of amazing kids over the years through business, teaching, and other means. So, to find something to be consistently amazed by year after year has been a great pleasure…like writing stories!

So when you see upcoming entries in the areas of all things children, education, childcare, families and business you will have some perspective as to where all of my wisdom and knowledge in these areas stems from.

For now, go watch Titanic and think of me teaching about cells by having children make cell cakes (yeah) just as the boat hits the iceberg. (The cakes did taste good, especially the candy nucleus).