Ellen Gruzien is the founder, executive director, accountant and landscaper of Let’s Grow Outside, a preschool program with classrooms in Amherst and an outdoor-based program in Bedford. In that respect, Gruzien is not unusual among child care providers across the state, some of whom are teachers.
“I’m willing to do anything … and I’ve been doing it for a long time,” said Gruzien, whose center serves about 100 families, “but I realized I couldn’t sustain it, especially as we grew.”
So Gruzien was one of about 50 child-care providers who quickly 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 the other providers, Gruzien said she appreciated the money, but the coaching has been life-changing.
“Every day in childcare is different, so as an administrator it’s really hard to plan because we’re pulled in so many different directions,” she says. “If I worked in business or finance, I’d probably do it on the weekends.”
The most helpful advice she received from her coach was that she needed to spend less time in the business and more time on the business.
With the mid-July application deadline fast approaching, child care providers are encouraging more of their colleagues to apply for Child Care Accelerate, a program open to licensed and license-exempt child care providers and Head Start/Early Head Start center-based programs.
“It takes the strain off them and it makes them business ready,” said Dawn Curtis, who, along with her sister, owns and operates Colorful Apples Learning Centers in Manchester and Hooksett, which serve about 80 kids. “It would be a real shame if people didn’t sign up.”
New Hampshire child care centers and the families they serve have received nearly $160 million in state and federal aid since the pandemic began. With that money, the state has made more families eligible for tuition assistance and provided child care centers with training and bonuses for staff, compensation for lost tuition revenue and funding for facility upgrades.
Most of that money is one-time funding that ends in September. The $5 million Child Care Acceleration Program is intended to help providers sustain and grow their programs into the future.
“We know there’s a need for more than $5 million,” said Adrienne Haynes, the program’s lead business coach. She said the eight-week program matches providers with experts in a variety of fields, including law, taxes, insurance, marketing and budgeting, with a single goal: “Make sure the quality of your business is as high as the quality of your child care.”
The provider will conduct an assessment of their business to help the coach identify their biggest business needs. The coach will visit the facility and set short and long term goals with the provider.
The two meet virtually every week for about 30 minutes to discuss what’s going well, what needs improvement, and where to go next. The program also provides regular training sessions on issues like recruiting challenges and strategic planning.
Jennifer Hosmer, executive director of Upper Valley Children’s Centers, wanted to gain a better understanding of topics not covered in child care training, like how to market her center and the financial side of running a business. “A lot of the time, you have to pick up the learning pieces yourself and pray that you’re doing it right,” she says.
Hosmer realized she may be the only person in her organization who knows who to call for legal advice or where important documents are kept, so she’s creating an operations manual to ensure her staff can continue running the business if she retires or something happens to her.
The center is licensed to serve 95 students, but due to a teacher shortage, it currently serves only 70 to 80. Hosmer has spent most of the $25,000 grant on marketing.
Her center is famous in the Upper Valley for a large pirate ship in its playground, but the floor has rotted and children can no longer play in it, so she’s spending $21,000 to replace the ship.
Curtis, who also teaches at Colorful Apples Learning Center, said she wouldn’t have been forced to find time each week to work on business planning if she didn’t have scheduled coaching sessions. She worked on succession planning with her coach, but she didn’t do it because there were always more pressing commitments.
“This wasn’t just about funding. This was value added,” Curtis said. “Would I be doing this without the ($25,000) grant? Absolutely.”
But the money is helping. Curtis is using it to replace a fence and renovate and expand rooms to accommodate more young children, at the parents’ request. “I’m trying to meet the needs of the community,” she said.
Gurgien used the coaching sessions to identify goals for growing and sustaining her business, something she wanted to accomplish before her daughter joined her in the fall. She especially appreciated the coaches visiting her center to understand the providers’ specific needs and goals.
Gurgien has spent the money on estate planning legal advice, a laptop for a recently hired operations manager and renovating her own home, which she rents from the church. She didn’t have the budget for painting, carpeting, a new oven or other things that would help sell the home to a family.
“My coach gave me homework, but he was like, ‘I don’t want you to study at home,'” Gurzien said. “It never felt like a burden. It just made me want to have more time to focus on what I need to focus on, which is to be financially stable and last for years to come.”
