Starting a small business is a dream for many. It’s a way to fulfill your purpose. Build security for one’s family. Create a generational asset.
Yet the process can often be daunting. Noelia “Nelly” O’Leary, owner of Nelly’s Nest Early Learning Home, provides a case in point. While she had experience as a three-time parent, starting her own business was a new adventure. “I literally typed ‘how to open your own day care’ in my Google search engine,” explains Nelly.
Harnessing her entrepreneurial spirit, Nelly opened her Congers, New York child care business seven years ago in the warm and inviting family room of her Hudson River Valley Colonial-style home. She is licensed for eight little ones as young as 12 weeks.
Notes Nelly, “Opening a child care facility was always in the back of my mind. When I was looking for day care for my third child, I was seeking a place that felt like a second home for my son. When it was a challenge to find such a place, I decided to open up my own.”
To drive long-term sustainability of ventures such as Nelly’s, there is a critical need for family child care homes to be assisted so they not just survive but thrive. Such support of these in-home child care small businesses falls into many buckets, with technical assistance toward the top of the list. That’s where the Family Child Care Small Business Accelerator comes into play. This program’s technical assistance is earmarked for strengthening in-home child care providers’ business skills.
From July 2023 to June 2024, a cohort of 30 selected participants met virtually each month for 90 minutes to learn about best business practices. Topics ranged from fiscal management to marketing to being an employer. To complement these trainings, LIIF’s Amy Shea and Yari Gonzalez conducted many on-site assessments — via trains, planes and automobiles — traveling to 28 programs across New York State. LIIF’s FCC Small Business Accelerator created its tailored curriculum and culturally responsive trainings based on the Business Administration Scale (BAS) Community of Practice, which is the first reliable instrument for measuring and improving the overall quality of professional practices in family child care settings. Being the only certified assessors in BAS in the state, Amy and Yari’s expertise proved invaluable.
Providers applied via an open process and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a commitment to attend 10 to 12 sessions over the course of one year. An assessment was done by measuring quality on a seven-point scale, with 10 items including qualifications, risk management, family support and engagement, and other gauges of success. Providers reviewed their LIIF-produced report — think of it as their blueprint for success — by then meeting with a coach from a partner agency to create goals in their Quality Improvement Plans.
In Nelly’s case, she had been referred to the FCC Small Business Accelerator cohort via QUALITYstarsNY, which offers continuous quality improvement for early childhood programs. Nelly, who in 2018 relocated her home and business to New City, New York, then received 18 hours of professional development credit verified by the state’s Professional Development tracker, the Aspire Registry.
Nelly sees The Accelerator as a “fantastic resource.” She states, “I had been learning as I go. It’s not an easy business model. While I had a firm grasp of contracts and policies, accounting and insurance were another matter.”
Through the technical training, Nelly has gained the knowledge needed to create a comprehensive profit-and-loss statement, now with the categories for items such as what can be deducted as an expense. While she had liability insurance in place, Nelly learned disability insurance was also needed to cover any possible personal injuries to herself. A determined Nelly has completed five action steps and is now set up to follow better business practices. She is still actively working on an improvement plan, currently putting together a risk-management binder.
LIIF forges partnerships to make our child care efforts possible not just in New York, but in places as diverse as Georgia and Oregon. The mission alignment with the New York Life Foundation around helping people achieve generational wealth has been synergistic. To support LIIF’s work, their latest investment was a $500,000 two-year award to support our Early Care and Education (ECE) team, thereby helping child care providers to grow their businesses into sustainable assets.
States New York Life Foundation President Heather Nesle, “LIIF’s ECE program is helping small-business owners sharpen their skills and secure their futures. The success of child care providers has the added benefit of helping other families by providing safe, affordable care that allows them to pursue jobs that support their own economic growth. It’s a win-win!”
Thanks to the ongoing partnership of the New York Life Foundation and LIIF, Nelly has been set up for the long-term viability of her small business. She can better serve the community, putting young ones on the pathway to success. Her own family will achieve success, too.
“My business offers me a strong connection with parents and their children. Many still send me family pictures years later and even send referrals. It’s very sweet. I know I am now in the right place, plus The Accelerator workbook and tools — and Amy herself! — are always there to help,” concludes a thankful Nelly.
Photo credit: All photos courtesy of Noelia O’Leary, Nelly’s Nest Early Learning Home.
I literally typed ‘how to open your own day care’ in my Google search engine.
Nelly’s Nest Early Learning Home Owner Noelia O’Leary