We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Khiari McAlpin-Knox. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Khiari below.

Alright, Khiari thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Before becoming a daycare owner, I was a school teacher for 7 years. I taught Pre-K in LaGrange, GA, 2nd grade in Auburn, Al, and 1st grade in Charlotte, NC. I attended Auburn University where I received my bachelors and masters in Elementary Education. During both undergrad and grad school, I worked part time at a daycare which is where I found my true passion for working with young children. I would walk into work everyday dreaming of owning my own school one day. It was not until December of 2016 when I came home to Birmingham to visit my family and attend my friend’s grand opening of her bakery. While attending her grand opening, I met her Landlord who also was her contractor. I casually mentioned that I wanted to open a daycare one day and his eyes lit up. He shared with me that his best friend had a building for lease and it used to be a daycare. In fact, the daycare was called “The Perfect Place.” Talk about a coincidence. The next day I was able to visit the building and before leaving I prayed and asked God if this was the plan He had for my life to please make it crystal clear and known. I headed back to Charlotte to begin the spring semester of our school year, but this time, I had a goal in mind. I could not stop thinking about the building and following my dreams. I worked on getting my Director’s license, preparing all documents for a bank loan, met with several child care owners, and everything else in between. In May of 2017, I turned in my resignation letter at the school I was teaching at and told them I was moving to Alabama to open a daycare. Little did anyone know, I did not have a lease in place nor funding. I literally stepped out on faith and believed that God had me covered. On October 16, 2017, Vinehouse Nursery was officially in business.

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

Vinehouse Nursery offers parents child care that meets the needs of each child and family, giving families a home away from home feeling. Our mission is to provide a safe and developmentally appropriate learning environment, which fosters a child’s natural desire to explore, discover, create, and become a lifelong learner. At Vinehouse Nursery, we believe in the value and uniqueness of each child we serve. Our childcare experience is designed to promote each child’s own individual social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development.

At Vinehouse Nursery we ensure that exceptional growth is produced with each month of your child’s first year, as those months prove to be pivotal stages in their development. Our desire is to plant solid roots, with a quality teacher, that form a vine for our Vinehouse kids and families. We grow these roots by recycling 2 key beliefs from birth to 4 years old: Nurture Creativity, Expand Self Expression and Increased Independence.

Some of the things that set us apart from others are below:
-All Natural Child Care Center
-Small Classroom Sizes/Ratios
-Quality Star Rated by Alabama Quality Stars
-We Offer a Host of Programs: Jazzercise, Zumbini, Gardening, Spanish, Soccer Shots, Story-Telling Time, S.T.E.A.M., Music Therapy, and a host of other fun programs

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

Not knowing I was about to reach our largest challenge when we first got started. For 3 months, we had no customers. I immediately began to feel like I had just made the largest mistake of my life. But it was something about my faith that just would not let me give up. I would wake up, pray, and go to work as if we had a full house of children. I also continued to meet people in our community, advertise, and attend any and just about every event the Chamber was having. Around December of 2017 I attended a Christmas Event my Landlord was having outside of our building. The event allowed members of the community to bring their children to come and take pictures with Santa Claus. BINGO! I asked if I could pass out some flyers and candy canes. Right then, I met my first two customers and after that we took off.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

One thing I have learned about families and that they love social media (well most) and love to see the little ones in action. At first, I did not even have an Instagram, but my sister, who is a PR Major told me that is was a must. Therefore, I created a Facebook and Instagram account for my business. I first started off just sharing articles about childcare and then as I started to get customers, I started to share pictures of them (parent consent). I honestly can now say that Social Media drives almost 50% of my clientele and the other 50% are my families and teachers. I love when I get to share all the wonderful things my students are learning at school and the families and potential customers do too. Social Media has also helped my business when COVID-19 started because doing family tours, during school hours, for potential customers were really hard. However, with the help of Social Media I was able to showcase what a typical day would look like in their child’s class.

Contact Info:

• Website: vinehousenursery.com
• Instagram: Vinehousenursery
• Facebook: Vinehouse Nursery

Image Credits
All images are my personal own. I would love for you to add some pictures of my school that can be found on my website at vinehousenursery.com located under the ‘gallery’ tab. Thank you!