Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brandi Robertson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brandi , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

How I came up with this business idea was that, I had been working with kids for over 25 years and I started working in my local city as a preschool teacher. The thing I loved about that was it wasn’t daycare, it was just teaching preschool age kids so they can get ready for kindergarten., so my work hours were from 8am to 3pm. ( not crazy daycare hours). That still gave me time to be a mom to my kids in the evening. I worked in the same location for about 10 years, through those 10 years a met some amazing families and friends. That also resulted into reoccurring families coming back to me with every child they had. I’m so grateful for those families that had faith in me and believed in me as a teacher. After 10 years of being at the same location, I truly desired progress and to keep moving forward and that next goal would be to have my own preschool, It definitely was one of the most scariest choices in my life to make because that meant I would leave something that was very comfortable and guaranteed income to a lot of uncertainties, but once I announced my new preschool opening, I can’t even tell you how much support I got from so many people beyond anything I could have ever imagined. People donated almost everything I needed to open my preschool from play structure for my back yard, school supplies, dress up clothes, paper towels, toilet paper, Clorox wipes, tissue, and so much more. I had so much donated I didn’t have room in my house to store it all. I had to organize a system in my garage. I love what I do, teaching preschool is my passion. I love making children feel that they are important and that they are loved. My #1 motto is be the teacher you wish you had as a teacher.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Once I became a parent, my goal was to always be available to my family. Their health and happiness was my top priority but that doesn’t pay the bills so I decided to work as a preschool teacher so my children would benefit and get educated and I could make money as well to help support my family. Eventually, I went to ASU to get a substitute teaching certificate because my children would be going to elementary school soon and I still wanted to be available to them if they needed me. For few years I substitute taught at my kids school. Then I moved on to teaching preschool.
Working with children has taught me so much, and how amazing kids are.. All children want is to feel loved and heard and feel special. Once you do that, they will never forget you. I still have kids today that tell me what difference I made in their lives and some of them are 16 years old now.
Getting to this part in my life wasn’t easy, I went to school, while I worked a full time job and being a full time mom but I pushed through and got my teaching certificate. It was a great accomplishment.
I think the one thing that may have set me apart from other people is that I genuinely cared for my students and their families. Once they were my students, they would always be my student. For example: the summer of my first year I opened my Preschool I had a summer camp for all my past students so they could come back a see me and see their old class mates. It was really fun and amazing to spend a little more time with them even if they were already in 1st and 2nd grade.
A lot of times kindergartens biggest fear is starting kindergarten and not being prepared for all that’s to come. What I try to do is prepare them for what’s to come and to not be afraid of what to come. My goal is to teach children to love school and to love themselves, to be strong and use their voice when they need to speak up and it’s ok to make a mistake and no one is perfect.
It takes a village to raise a child and my goal is to apart of that village, to work with my families to have a great outcome of success in their child.
My heart is dedicated to see the growth and the success in my students.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think what helped me build a reputation within my market was developing relationships with my Preschool parents, some of my parents were with me for 4 years straight because I had multiple children in my class from the same families, So these families were and are a big deal in my life, I’ve been there through a lot of their tough trials in life and I’ve supported them through them.

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

I think my most effective strategy for growing my business is other parents referring me to other families with preschool age children. Also Facebook has been helpful because if someone is looking for a preschool a lot of my past parents will tag me in the comments so that has been so helpful.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: Ms. Brandi’s Preschool

Image Credits
Jaleesa Cothran is who I give the credits to my professional pictures.