We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leora Cowart. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leora below.

Leora, appreciate you joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

Most businesses faced challenges due to Covid 19, but the world of childcare was hit tremendously hard. I thought I was closing my childcare business for two weeks, but I was forced to permanently close my center due to lack of funding. I was completely devastated! I have been an educator for more than fifteen years and there is nothing I’m more passionate about than educating young minds, I understand a great educational foundation can change the direction of a person life. I wanted to quit, but I took time to reevaluate my business plan, educational values, work life balance and stresses. I decided to reopen my center but as a family home center. on August of 2020. I am super excited to be back in business and serving!

Leora, 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?

While teaching third grade I discovered many students could not read on grade level. I always wondered why that was, until I taught kindergarten. I discovered many kindergartners struggled with social and emotional issues, language delays, and basic math knowledge. I did some research and discovered that early education centers did not have a universal academic state standard. So, I decided to open a child care center that would be small teacher-student ratio to improve school readiness.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

In the beginning of my business I did not have enough enrollments to cover expenses and payroll. I had to take out of my own personal saving to cover payroll to ensure my staff was paid.

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

I opened my childcare business six years ago and I have had many challenges. My first challenge was Covid 19 and my second one was Texas winter storm that flooded my center. These two incidents happen with in two years of each other that both resulted in the closing in my childcare centers. I could have easily went back to the classroom, but I understood my assignment was to reach children young to impact their lives. My resilience come from knowing I was called to educate, but do it on my terms. Education is a stressful profession with a lot of moving parts and it is very important to have work life balance. I was focused on providing a great environment for students but also providing myself with a great working environment. I got extremely focus on creating a great environment, budgeting, marketing, and systems. These things help me stay focus and gave me hope that I could continue my business of education young minds.

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