We recently connected with Kayla Opperman and have shared our conversation below.

Kayla, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

My goal every year is to double the revenue from the year before, and that is always on my mind with every move I make! It might sound like common knowledge, but my strategy has always been to do whatever I can to get the customers first. I’ll worry about the staffing, the materials, the details of my program, where I’m going to find the time to complete it, etc, later. I always get it done and at 100%, even if it means I didn’t sleep, and at times, it might even mean I didn’t make money because it cost me so many resources to get it done. That’s OK, because I have the customer now, so we’ll make up for any loss later! The customer will never know the stress I endured behind the scenes or what it took to make it happen, and they shouldn’t. That’s my job. There have been random weeks where my teacher called in sick and no one else can cover. I’ll go through the craziest extremes to make sure that class still runs, and it always does, and from the customer’s end, they always get what they should get from me.

Kayla, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was an Electrical Engineer for six years before starting my business. I own five Snapology territories, from Longmont down to Castle Rock, and Boulder and Evergreen over to Denver and Parker. I bought Snapology of Golden in 2018, expanded to Littleton in 2019, and expanded to the rest in 2021. We go by Snapology of Golden-Littleton, and we teach STEM/STEAM concepts to children through hands-on, interactive play. We make learning fun, using LEGO bricks and other fun tools! I would have loved this growing up. I always wondered why I was so different from everyone else, and it took until I was an adult to understand that I was an introverted child who was wired the STEM way, and I didn’t have something like Snapology to enjoy and bring up my confidence. My family’s idea of extracurricular activities was only sports, and they didn’t understand me, either! Snapology is enjoyed by all children, those who were more like me, as well as those who were completely different. Those kids might have shied away from STEM/STEAM later, thinking it’s not for them. However, I believe every child was born a natural Scientist or Engineer, and it’s so exciting and rewarding to bring that out. As a woman, I’m especially proud to bring this opportunity to so many little girls! STEM/STEAM is not HARD, it’s FUN, and if you can experience that first-hand, you’ve gained that confidence and will have a much more successful future and achieve that much easier than those who don’t get to experience Snapology programs.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

For me, I’ve realized I need to focus on the big picture with clientele. That would be the recreation centers, school districts, library systems, and other major partners. Of course I focus on great customer service with families as it comes up, and I do add myself to parent groups and other smaller organizations to get my name out there, but focusing on these partners are my number one priority. The families come from the partners, and the children come from the families! I’m always looking for more partners to impress. It would be difficult to grow my business and bring my programs to a lot of kids if I’m focused on a small neighborhood I can do a one-time holiday workshop for or on birthday parties that are for one small group at a time. I put my time and energy into partners who then give me those workshops and party opportunities, providing me with the opportunity to influence far more kids in far less time and with far less money than I could have ever done on my own. Plus, working directly with community partners is so much fun! Every one of them has become a friend to me, and I genuinely love working together. As everyone knows, people who put children first rock!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think most business owners these days would agree that surviving the pandemic, and pivoting as needed, best illustrates our resilience! I did whatever I possibly could to stay in business, because I knew kids needed Snapology now more than ever. They need to rebuild their love of learning after all they’ve been through! I also have so much passion in what I do and had already given so much to this business, that I wasn’t going to let anything happen to it. I did this all while raising tiny kids myself (a daughter born in 2017 and son born in 2019). We did so well in 2021, that my husband, who was always the breadwinner, quit his job to also focus on Snapology. I’m really proud of this and proud I pulled through and kept trucking! I think (hope) we’ve endured the worst, and if we haven’t, we’ll handle the next obstacles with the same perseverance!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.snapology.com/location/golden
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snapologyofgoldenlittleton/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SnapologyGolden
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayla-snapology/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/snapology-of-golden-littleton-denver

Image Credits
Snapology