We recently connected with Assia Mahmood and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Assia, thanks for joining us today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

When I first bought my childcare center, it was an existing center that had a full staff of close to 20 women. Unfortunately, the childcare center that I bought was not in line with what my ideal center was. It was a good business opportunity but I knew that there was going to be a lot of work put in to turn it around. So I don’t have any of the staff members that I had when I first started, and that’s intentional. I needed to bring in people who were like-minded and who were buying into my mission, and unfortunately, the original staff members were pretty set in the ways of the previous ownership, and that was not going to work for me. So, I technically did not start alone, but I had to create a whole new team, which is now over 30 people!

One of the things that I prioritize in hiring is making the interview process a conversation. I know that there are certain questions that you want to hit on, but I like to tailor them to the conversation that I’m having. This is similar to how I would do in a conversation where I’m networking or with a potential client. I want to get to know the person, and while I don’t have a 100% success rate, I feel like this practice has served me really well. By having a conversation, you are more able to tell whether someone is a genuine person, whether someone is a caring person, whether someone might have a temper or have difficulty dealing with other team members. A 20 to 30-minute conversation can usually give you a lot of insight into who they are as a person, and that’s a big priority for me because, at the end of the day, my staff is caring for people’s children!

I am very particular about making sure that every child in my facility is cared for like my own children, and so I hire based on who I would want to take care of my own children and for what reasons. Sometimes people ask if our staff is certified or degreed, but truly I don’t even look for that as something to hire for. I know a lot of people who have credentials that don’t have the personality, the patience, the empathy, or the love to be able to take on a position like this and do it well. Instead, I look for people who exhibit the qualities I’m looking for, and I feel like you can gauge a lot of that in an interview.

This can be an unconventional way of hiring, but I believe it has taken me farther in my business, because at the end of the day, my staff is going to determine how far my business can go. Keeping the interview process as a genuine conversation with another human being has really helped me, not only hiring, but also building my team. I continue those genuine conversations throughout their tenure in my business and I think that that encourages a positive working culture.

Assia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m the owner of Windhaven Academy,an independently owned, premier childcare center in West Plano, offering care for children from 6 weeks to 8 years old. The school provides infant, toddler, preschool, pre-kindergarten, after-school, and summer programs. The facility is open year-round to allow working parents to have reliable childcare.

After welcoming my baby girl in 2017, I quickly realized that childcare is something you don’t think about until you have to. My husband and I considered our options, including a nanny (and/or my mom), but in the end, we decided to send her to a daycare next door to my office building at the time.

At 6 weeks old we dropped off our precious baby girl. The experience we had from there brought me to where I am today.

When I took over Windhaven Academy at the end of 2019, I was pregnant with my second child, my baby boy. While I don’t recommend starting a business with a toddler and a baby on the way, I knew I had to jump at this opportunity! Windhaven Academy is a daycare and preschool FOR parents of young children, FROM a parent of young children. As a parent myself, I knew the kind of space I wanted to create: A loving environment of learning focused on the health, happiness, and safety of the children and an experience that eases the lives and guilt of parents through our unwavering commitment to customer service and communication. Windhaven is not just the daycare I chose for my children, it’s the one that I created for them!

Windhaven is redefining the childcare experience with our approach to the customer experience through parent partnerships and our focus on modern learning, and children’s health and security.

Now after 4 years in business, I am blessed to say that Windhaven is thriving thanks to our amazing families and my incredible staff! I am now able to shift from the day-to-day to focus on the bigger picture for my business.

This year I published a children’s book to help parents prepare their children for starting daycare. I also started a podcast to support fellow ambitious moms and will be releasing an online course to help busy moms potty train their toddlers.

I was chosen as one of the 50 Leading Women of Plano by the Plano Chamber of Commerce.

I love what I do and am excited for the direction my business is heading in!

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

The Friday before Labor Day, I was headed out of town with my husband, my sister, and my brother-in-law to celebrate my husband’s birthday in Mexico City. We were all looking forward to the break. As we were waiting in the lounge to board our 8am flight, my Director texted me: “So far the morning staff hasn’t received their paycheck and they are freaking out.”

It was payday. It was a holiday weekend and it was the first of the month. The perfect combination.

My payroll company had started a new option to submit payroll and despite getting to the confirmation page on Wednesday when I submitted, somehow it hadn’t gone through.

30+ employees were waiting for their paycheck on the first of the month.

We had to head to the gate to board our flight while I waited on line listening to their stupid elevator music. As I found my seat on the plane, someone came on the line. I told her what happened and said “I NEED TO GET MY EMPLOYEES PAID TODAY”.

She proceeded to tell me that they’d never had this happen before and I probably submitted it wrong and gave me the option of doing an emergency wire, which would cost almost $300 and would get my employees paid by Tuesday…

I didn’t have until Tuesday! Thankfully, my brain works well under pressure. I suppose being a business owner for years has trained it to do so. I asked the lady about paper checks. She told me that would be my best bet.

Well then why not offer that as an option?!

Either way, I had to get online and submit the payroll again in order to even do the paper checks. Thankfully, my dad is my business partner and he was in town that weekend and was able to sign checks for the business.

I turned on my hot spot, got on my laptop and submitted the payroll just seconds before they made me put my laptop away.

All is well that ends well, but that was a pretty bumpy start to a vacation.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

In business, whether you care or you don’t, it shows. I actually talk about that in one of my podcast episodes.

When getting into the childcare business, I was doing it because I wanted to create a place that I considered worthy of my own children. Using that barometer helped me identify with my clientele – other moms of young children!

My babies were my inspiration and I truly care about providing the same experience I wanted for my own family to everyone I serve. I try to let that shine through in every conversation, in my hiring and onboarding, and in my processes and procedures. So that whether families are interacting with me or anyone else in my company, they are feeling the same empathy, enthusiasm, and level of care that Windhaven is known for. And providing a great service can do wonders for building your reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: windhavenacademy.com and assiamahmood.com
• Instagram: @assia.mahmood and @windhavenacademy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/assia.mahmood and https://www.facebook.com/WindhavenAcademyPlano
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/assia-mahmood/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/windhaven-academy-plano
• Other: Podcast: She Busy Link to purchase my children’s book: https://www.amazon.com/First-Day-Daycare-Assia-Mahmood/dp/B0C5PGBW92