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

Kaitlyn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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.

My background is in early childhood education and development. As a teacher I came to the unsettling realization that when I become a parent there would be very few childcare centers I would be comfortable sending my child to and even fewer that I could afford. As my husband (now co-owner) and I struggled through the concept of the importance of early childhood education but the lack of options for school with developmentally appropriate teaching techniques, we came to the conclusion that we had an insightful prospective of how to offer our community a quality education center that supported children and their families alike. The Reggio Emilia approach is the lens through which we operate. Each child deserves respect and loving guidance throughout their developmental journey and that has remained the central part of who we are at Grow Together. We are also incredibly economical at our school which has helped keep pricing relatively affordable for our clients.
This experience has been so rewarding for the staff, parents, and children alike.

Kaitlyn, 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?

Grow Together Learning Center is a childcare center who serves families with children 6 weeks to 5 years of age. We are built on the belief that learning is an active process and knowledge is constructed by the child through “hands-on” experiences. Our team’s core focus is that our students feel safe, cared for, and respected during their educational journey.
For the family’s support we offer QR check-in, daily communications app, diapers, wipes, snacks, and lunches for their child so caregivers can focus more on their child’s emotional needs during drop-off then logistics.
For our staff’s benefit we have created a communicative and healthy environment where they are respected and supported in their profession.
Grow Together has always been more than just a business. It is a passion project where we are actively changing the narrative on what it means to respect children and care for our community.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Starting and operating a business is a full-time job of pivoting. If you want business growth it is crucial to change the way you understand things, do things, and say things. Going from teacher to owner was an incredibly long jump for me. Managing a classroom of kids is nothing to me compared to calling zoning offices, vetting engineers, hiring plumbers, and being told “no, you can’t do this” 100 times. Being a young female professional also added to the trickiness of having people take me seriously and work with me. Through the process of creating a space that could actually be licensed by the state took immense personal growth and refinement on my part. It took about 2 years for me to save the funds needed to open, find a location, and get all paperwork and regulations in order. By this time it was March 2020 and nobody was leaving the house. We were told by our licensing agency That they had no way of knowing when they could inspect our school and issue and operating license and we may be waiting 6-12 months to open. This was not great news for someone who had quit their job to open their own business. Previous to the outbreak I had begun marketing on social media but could give my future clients no exact date of when I could begin my services. My first response was to support caregivers while they were home full-time with their children. I created a Facebook page to give ideas and inspiration for activities and ideas that could help make this new lifestyle as beneficial and smooth as possible. From a business perspective this was a way for me to advertise while added value to the lives of people with small children for free.
In a matter of weeks we went from not know when we would be open to having a license and permission from the state to offer childcare for “nonessential” professionals. We opened June 1st with 1 child and a whole list of people who were interested in coming but unsure if the world would shut down over night again or if sickness would enter their home with added out-of-home interactions. We continued to be diligent in maintaining a sanitary and COVID conscious environment. Now, 3 years later we have a 2 year waitlist and a strong caring community or families, staff, and children.

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

Once I had 5 children enrolled and attending I started offering families $200 off for one month when they referred us to another family and they enrolled their child. The new family was also given $200 off their first month of attendance. This allowed us to market through word of mouth as well as create a reputation for ourselves throughout the community. This meant that the community knew us for our hard work and dedication not through shiny advertising. This also meant that our original families were given the opportunity to feel actively apart of our schools success and growth. Throughout this time I maintained our business’ presence on Facebook, Instagram, and google. But the majority our brand’s loyalty and clientele came from the internal promotion and quality of care we offered.

Contact Info:

• Website: growtogetherlearning.com
• Instagram: @growtogetherlearning
• Facebook: growtogetherlearning