239: Ready to Open Your Own Childcare Center! With Shannon Black with SCORE

In this episode of "Child Care Conversations," Kate and Carrie chat with Shannon Black, Chair of the Austin SCORE chapter and a former Montessori school owner. Shannon shares her passion for supporting childcare entrepreneurs, especially women, and introduces an 11-part virtual series designed to help navigate the complexities of starting and running a childcare business.

SCORE offers free mentoring and workshops, making it a fantastic resource for both new and established childcare providers. Shannon's insights and the supportive community vibe make this episode a must-listen for anyone in the childcare field. 

Learn more and sign up for their Starting a Childcare Center Series at SCORE Austin: https://www.score.org/dallas/score-childcare-texas-series-spring-2025

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Transcript

Marie 00:00:01  Welcome to child care conversations with Kate and Carrie.

Carrie 00:00:05  Welcome to child care. Conversations with Kate and Carrie. And today's guest is actually pretty. Pretty impressive and important. So her name is Shannon Black, and she is the chair of the Austin score. so score is senior retired service score.

Kate 00:00:25  Of retired executives.

Carrie 00:00:27  There you go. And so they help people all around the country build their businesses up. And so she is the chair of the Austin region. And this region under her leadership, became the regional chapter of the year. Meaning she's doing a better job than almost everybody else at helping businesses get to the next level. So there's score chapters everywhere, and she's one of the she's chaired one of the seven best in the country. So welcome, Shannon. Thank you very much. I appreciate that introduction, and I apologize in advance if you guys hear random voices. The internet in my neighborhood went down, and I am at a food establishment that has free Wi-Fi. Well, as long as they give you chicken nuggets, it's okay.

Carrie 00:01:16  I'll ask later. Well, it was notorious for about ten years for taking minute meetings inside of McDonald's because they had free Wi-Fi. And Marie, her youngest child, could play on the playground. So that's why the McDonald's thing. Okay, so why is somebody who volunteers for score on a podcast about child care?

Kate 00:01:44  Oh, I know, I know.

Carrie 00:01:46  Okay, little miss so-and-so. Go ahead.

Kate 00:01:51  Well.

Kate 00:01:52  A mentor under Shannon's leadership, I have been very fortunate to watch Shannon in action. And Shannon actually used to own a montessori school and his opening another Montessori school this summer. But what's really, really exciting is that she is so passionate about helping predominantly women who want to enter childcare reach their goal, that she has this really awesome project that she has brought to the entire region. Of course, if you're listening to this anywhere in the United States, you can still grab a seat. So, Shannon, tell us a little bit about why you decided to go after this project, what the project's about, and most likely we'll probably ask you some other questions too.

Shannon 00:02:42  That sounds fabulous.

Carrie 00:02:46  okay. So I.

Shannon 00:02:49  almost 20 years ago, I started a.

Shannon 00:02:51  Montessori preschool, and I built it up to two locations. and I'm building another school right now. We're opening, and Gerald Gerald Montessori this June. In my spare time, I also volunteer for school. So for those who don't know what that is, we offer free business mentoring and educational workshops to business owners or startups. So as anyone who's in childcare knows, the pandemic was not our friend and a lot of childcare centers and home based home care. they went out of business. In fact, now it's at about 25% of all childcare businesses closed in the past three years. It's it's a bad statistic. So, in my role at Score, I wanted to help more people get into childcare. But of course, as a mentor, I work with a lot of people who want to, you know, either move their start, you know, home daycare or move that into a child care, you know, care center location.

Shannon 00:03:55  And or grow their child care center. And the issue with that is they they just there's so much information, so much information from licensing to where you select to financial projections to, oh, you need a loan. What's the bank going to ask for all these things? And it's a lot of information and it can be intimidating. So I wanted to make it easier for people to decide one that they wanted to try going into child care and starting a business to, to basically help them realize that that this is a supportive, business environment that we have here at school and in child care, and that we want to help you to succeed. And so maybe it's less intimidating. You'll feel more confident. So, with the help of, score mentors, across the state, I developed, we developed a an 11 part child care series. It starts. It's all virtual. It's free. It starts Tuesday, April 1st. It goes from 6:30 p.m. to eight every Tuesday through June. And each session has a completely different topic, like one on finances, and another is on business planning and others on how to pick the right location.

Shannon 00:05:17  And just the information is phenomenal. And Miss Carrie Casey, who was on the podcast. She is going to be our host. And so because she already does so much of what it is that we're going to be sharing in this series, that I thought it was like the best fit ever. When I asked her if she would help, host it, put it on, and she said yes. So, with the grant and a lot of volunteers working really hard and, and Carrie, we basically were able to create this series and bring it to you. And it's statewide. This is a little different. So usually score chapters just kind of focus on their own city. But this is statewide because the grant covers the entire state. So so that and we have up to a thousand seats through zoom with our zoom account. And we have over 100,000 people being notified by the way series. So a thousand seats sounds like a lot but may not be in the end. So if you are interested in participating, please, please, please sign up, to try out our series.

Kate 00:06:28  Okay, so I have a question about that. I know I got a fry. I said it first. so do they sign up 11 times? Do they sign up once? How do they do this?

Shannon 00:06:40  So if you go to, if you go to score Dallas's website and you go to their workshop page, or you, you'll see it. Or if you To subscribe to scores newsletters.

Kate 00:06:54  and we'll have we'll have the link in the show notes.

Shannon 00:06:56  Oh, perfect. Okay. So basically you'll you'll be directed to the Score Dallas workshop page. And each of the 11 sessions is its own registration. So that way if there are topics that you don't feel like you need because maybe you're already experienced somewhat in child care, you only have to sign up for the nights that you're interested in, but if you are interested in all of them, please sign up for all of them.

Kate 00:07:18  Awesome. Okay, Carrie, what was your question?

Carrie 00:07:20  Do they have to be in Texas to come to our sessions? 

Shannon What a great question.

Shannon 00:07:27  No, they do not. So our grant was provided by Workforce Solutions in the state of Texas. However, we have other score chapters in other states who are also promoting this because they also have a lot of childcare clients trying to start businesses in childcare. So, you know, anyone around the world can sign up. It's free. Okay, so here's the thing. The idea is that we want people who want to come into childcare or who maybe they've worked as a teacher, a caregiver, a mentor in the field, and they're like, I want to be the boss. I want to own the program. You now have a series over a couple of months to walk you through. What are the things you need to do in order to successfully open your program? Now, you can open a program without going through this, but I've watched a lot of people miss some rather glaring steps like, I don't know, figuring out what zoning in their city they can have a child care center in or, I don't know, getting a health inspection or, you know, there's lots of different checking to see if there's anybody who has families with the appropriate age of children in that neighborhood.

Carrie 00:08:49  all kinds of things that you might skip if you don't go through a step by step. This is how you do it.

Kate 00:08:56  Okay, so we've told them that there's this 1111 week program. We've given them a little bit of the clues. What if they want more or need more? Shannon, what other options does score provide for them?

Shannon 00:09:10  So because we offer free business mentoring, we have over, 10,000 mentors across the country. And it doesn't matter what city you live in compared to where the mentor is, because we do all of our mentoring online. So when the series is over or during the series, if you would like to work with the score mentor, they can help you with your business plan. They can help you step by step. Go through okay. What's my next step? How do I do it? Or I'm experiencing this roadblock. How do I get around it? Right? you we obviously have other workshops that we provide. We have, right now about 1500 being offered every two months.

Shannon 00:09:52  on our web through our website. And it's again, it's volunteers, you know, basically talking about all sorts of different business topics that you may need help with, from digital marketing to financial planning. you know, for like, your projections, to how to start a trekking business, they vary widely, but we can help you get there. And then, of course, there's, you know, Kerry and Kate and their millions of businesses that they've got going on. but they also have different things, that can offer support to.

Kate 00:10:27  You were supposed to flip it back to us. They all know us.

Carrie 00:10:32  So all of these workshops, they're all online, right? And they're all in English, or are there some that are in other languages or that you can do in person? 

Shannon So some are in person. About 90% are virtual. and there if you sign up for our email, like, you know, when when you go to the website, like a little box will pop up, you know, join our email list kind of thing.

Shannon 00:10:58  Every Monday morning, we send out a list of all the in-person and virtual workshops that we're offering. So you can see those every Monday. but we so some are in person. most are online, but you don't have to limit yourself to Austin workshops. And my workshop chair would probably be telling me to be quiet right now. But but again, we have so many workshops across the country, on every topic to help you.

Kate 00:11:25  Which is great because we have listeners all over the US. So our listeners are not.

Carrie 00:11:31  To other countries.

Kate 00:11:32  There's other countries.

Carrie 00:11:33  Zealand and Australia, and for some reason, Seoul, and Germany in Australia and Seoul. 

Yes. Oh that's impressive. Oh, and we also offer them in Spanish. Some of our workshops are in Spanish as well. 

Carrie Yeah, I don't know why. On our little readout, it says Seoul. It doesn't say Korea. It's just like only in soul. Apparently, nobody else in Korea is allowed to listen. You have to be in Seoul.

Shannon 00:12:02  Oh, there's Seoul people if you're watching. 

Carrie Yeah. So why do people why would somebody want to use score if they've already set up their business? Now we're we're hoping you're going to tell people about coming to this 11 week series. But also if they've already got a business up and running, are there things that score can do to help businesses that are already up and running? 

Shannon Yes. So both the series and score were not just for startups. We're also for people who already have a business. So the series is not just about how to start a childcare business, it's also about how to run one successfully. We give you tips. So if you're interested in improving, that could be a good place for you to go check out. When it comes to score. We handle every aspect of your business journey from starting to qualifying for a loan because we help with business plans. to oh, you're having an employee problem. We can help with that. You are looking to sell your business or close your business.

Shannon 00:13:06  We can help you with that too. And why? Because our volunteers and we are 100% volunteer based, are successful business owners and executives who donate their time, who have been around in business for, oh, a couple of decades. And so they have all this experience that they can share with you, and you can have more than one mentor. So let's say you need someone to give you advice and marketing and someone else. and financial, you know, being able to read your reports, your financial reports and things like that. You can have as many mentors as you want. So they're literally the sky's the limit. You can improve in your business however you want. We have people who own marketing agencies who donate their time, people who own HR firms who donate their time to helping others. So we have people who just retired from Dell after working for him for 30 years, who have a wealth of information. So really, it's why are you waiting? There's all this help that's free, that's available to you.

Kate 00:14:07  All right, so here's the real big question, though. Where do they go? You keep saying the website. What is the website?

Shannon 00:14:14  So that is well, I thank you, Kate. That is it's gorg. and basically when you get on the website, you'll immediately see near the top where it says, would you like to be matched to a mentor and you just click that? and then you fill out just a quick one page form. Just be as specific as possible. And if there's a particular mentor, like if you want to do a search for a mentor with a certain background or in a certain industry, You can do that. You can. If you scroll down, you'll see, the mentors that are in Austin, or if you do a search and you click on any location, then all the mentors open up in the entire country, and you can do a search and read their profiles of all the mentors that we have. And that way, if you're looking very specifically, let's say someone who's an e-commerce, who sells, who has a business that sells arts and crafts, let's say you can do a search for that and find a mentor with that background and request them by name.

Shannon 00:15:10  So I have clients from all over the country, because I'm one of only a couple people who has childcare center experience of owning one, of owning more than one. So, so it's definitely something that you can look up at scores and find the right person for where you're at today. Awesome, awesome. So I think that, you know, this gives everybody who's listening Some sort of in for some resources to help build your business for one of my two favorite prices. and I think everybody, you know, go on to the score website and see if you can get something for one of my two favorite prices and whether that's joining these 11 sessions or 1 or 2 of those sessions, or getting yourself a score mentor. I think you've got a to do item that you should do as soon as you're done listening to this podcast. And I'm not just saying that because Kate and Shannon are mentors and obviously they have free time or they wouldn't be here on the podcast. 

Carrie So you've got to fill up their calendar, obviously.

Carrie 00:16:19  But, I just think that score is a great organization. My mom used to volunteer there. people have occasionally asked me if I want to, and I'm like, I don't have time, but I will eventually. I'll get there. Kate, obviously you just don't have time right now. And if somebody who's listening, who used to run childcare centers and you're retired, you're just keeping a hand in, maybe you should be a mentor. Also, we're always looking for good people. Absolutely. And by the way.

Kate 00:16:54  If you know what to do, they will definitely train you and teach you. So don't feel like you have to know exactly what to do. And half of a role of a mentor is listening and helping them find the resources that score already has produced and made available. So even if you don't have an opportunity or you can't find the right class or the right mentor, there are a ton of resources on scores that are free that are great samples for you to use as a sample of a business plan, marketing plan, standard operating procedures.

Kate 00:17:33  And you know what? Sometimes the mentors even know people. when you ask for a referral for a potentially a banker or an accountant or lawyers in the community. So, you just never know what you're going to find. And so definitely reach out to your local score. Shannon, anything you'd like to say to wrap up this conversation before I throw it back to Carrie to kind of take us out. Out.

Shannon 00:18:04  I just hope that if you're interested in and basically not just starting a child care business because you love children, which is always a wonderful thing, but because you're looking for independence, financial independence, and freedom, you only have to have a high school diploma. The the entry is pretty low in terms of starting a childcare centre or a home based daycare. but there's obviously a lot of work that goes into it. So if you're if you are a hard worker and you have a dream of having your own business and working for yourself, of not having a boss telling you that you have to not do something a certain way because that you know, doesn't go with their, you know, company values or something, but you know it's the right thing.

Shannon 00:18:53  If you start one, if you start a home or base business or childcare center, you get to decide and you will be in charge of your own. Oh my gosh, this sounds so like kitschy, but destiny, like it's your life. Like you get to take charge. I absolutely love that was one of my favorite things about starting my own business. I didn't realize how empowering it would be and how I ended up being in control of my own finances. It's a wonderful thing. So if all that sounds like a it's something you're interested in, our series can also be applied to other businesses. If it ends up that maybe childcare is not quite the right fit when you're done with the sessions, but I hope that you'll try them and check it out. Let's see.

Kate 00:19:35  Sounds great. Well, Carrie, we have enjoyed having this conversation with Shannon, and I'm suspecting we might have Shannon back to tell us more about the whole process of opening a childcare centre from literally ground up, the whole building and construction and everything that goes into that.

Kate 00:19:50  We'd love to have her on for that. So, Carrie, what do we tell everybody.

Carrie 00:19:55  If you learned something from the show? Share it with someone else who needs to know. And of course, go in and let your fingers do the talking and give us a review. Let people know how you liked this episode. Shannon has never been on a podcast before. Let her know how she did. And we will talk to you next week.

Marie 00:20:16  Thank you for listening to Child Care Conversations with Kate and Carrie. Want to learn more? Check out our website at Texas Director. And if you've learned anything today. Leave us a comment below and share the show.