May 1, 2025 • 31 mins
Entrepreneurs, listen up. Amplify Your Voice 2025, the financial edition is where you need to be. Brought to you by Canadian Small Business Women, a place for entrepreneurs to find the resources to take their businesses to the next stage. You'll learn from incredible keynote speakers and leave feeling more confident about your financial future. From getting clarity on building your stock portfolio to real estate investment, this event will be the perfect place to get the tools to level up your finances And the perks? They're good. Every guest gets a free professional headshot, a swag bag, and lunch. And most importantly, endless connections with like-minded entrepreneurs. This event isn’t just for women, it’s for everyone. Get your tickets today.
Victoria Sopik shares her journey from founding Kids & Company to growing it into a childcare empire with over 150 locations across North America while disrupting corporate childcare services and raising eight children of her own.
Victoria Sopik is first and foremost the mother of eight children and grandmother of many. The CEO and Co-founder's experiences as a working mother and devoted parent have allowed her to disrupt corporate child care in Canada and the US. Victoria is a recognized expert in the field with over three decades of experience and a reputation for innovating through changing times. Her expertise provides strategic direction and leadership for the company. She has developed successful long-term partnerships with numerous private and public organizations, and is active with several charitable organizations.
You can connect with Julie on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Find Julie's writing at her blog or by ordering her book Big Gorgeous Goals and the brand new official companion workbook!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julie (00:04):
Welcome to Figure 8, where we feature inspiring
stories of women entrepreneurswho have grown their businesses
to seven and eight figuresrevenue.
If you're in the mix of growinga bigger business, these
stories are for you.
Join us as we explore where thetough spots are, how to
overcome them and how to prepareyourself for the next portion
(00:27):
of the climb.
I'm your host, Julie Ellis.
I'm an author, entrepreneur anda growth and leadership coach
who co-founded, grew and exitedan eight-figure business.
This led me to exploring whysome women achieve great things,
and that led to my book BigGorgeous Goals.
(00:47):
Let's explore the systems,processes and people that help
us grow our businesses to newheights.
If you're interested in growingyour business, this podcast
will help.
Now let's get going.
Hello and welcome to thisepisode of Figure 8.
Today I am in conversation withVictoria Sopik.
(01:10):
Victoria is the founder and CEO, mother of eight children,
grandmother of many children andkids, and company is her
business, so she has over 150daycares across North America.
She has disrupted corporatechildcare in the founding and
growing of her business andshe's a recognized expert in her
(01:30):
field, with over three decadesof experience and a reputation
as an innovator.
I'm excited to chat with hertoday.
Welcome Victoria.
Victoria (01:39):
Thank you, Julie.
Thank you for having me.
Julie (01:41):
Thanks so much for coming and chatting.
I'm so interested because, ofcourse, we started our
businesses around the same timeand met each other a long time
ago now and have seen so manygrowth opportunities and growth
things and changes in themarketplace, and I'm so curious
for you about whether youimagined you'd be here today
(02:03):
with over 150 centers acrossNorth America.
Victoria (02:07):
Oh, it's such a great question and it's something that
I actually reflect on a lot,mostly because of where I live.
So I live at the bottom ofMarkham Road and when I was
actually in child care, my son'sturning 40 this year and so
when I was pregnant andexpecting him 40 years ago, I
was also, you know, a young mom,uh, wanting to be a working mom
(02:29):
and trying to figure out how todo that.
So I mostly wanted to have 10babies.
He was obviously number one.
I did stop at eight because Idid realize that there are a lot
of work, um, but at the time is, and I I also say to people
often that Um, but at the timeis.
And I I also say to peopleoften that you know, having
babies is a young person's uh,job kind of thing and that it's
harder as you're older, justbecause you're tired or really.
(02:52):
So you know, I wanted to beyoung, wanted to have.
I had eight children in 11years.
So in my early thirties I wasdone Um, but I was driving down
Markham road and there reallywas not a lot of child care at
all, especially for babies, andI had never been to one.
I didn't have any experiencewith them at all.
I had been in the summer campbusiness and I'd had a summer
(03:12):
camp and the camp was somethingthat was in, like you know,
already built like schoolgymnasiums or churches or parks.
It wasn't purpose built.
And I remember seeing a purposebuilt child care that was, you
know, like from the ground up,designed to, you know, care for
children, with infiniteclassrooms and um toddler
classrooms, preschool classrooms, a kitchen, proper gross motor
(03:34):
rooms, proper playgrounds.
And I remember being like justfascinated and mesmerized by the
idea of a purpose-builtchildcare, even before I was in
childcare, just because I'dnever heard or seen it.
And so the fact now that youknow I've done that hundreds and
hundreds well, not hundreds, wehave, you know, I probably have
built more than 200 becausewe've closed down a number in
(03:54):
the years in the you know, 20,40 years I guess I've been doing
it.
But I just remember thinkinglike, kind of, like you know
people would think about cellphones back in the day, like
what is a cell phone?
How does it work?
For me it was childcare, so atthe time I never thought that I
could be in that kind ofbusiness.
That would be like developing,building, creating.
I more thought I would be inservice delivery, and so, you
(04:18):
know, I knew I was delivering aservice with camp and I thought
I could maybe do it withchildcare.
But there was this whole sortof purpose-built creation.
That was, again, reallyinteresting to me.
So what did I think was goingto happen?
I thought I would, you know,have one or two or three child
cares and run them and it wouldbe a great thing to do.
And meanwhile it seemed likethere was a huge need for
(04:40):
childcare, and you know more andmore across Canada, across the
US, and so it just shows youthat it's hard to know how your
story will unfold.
Julie (04:48):
It's true, and I think you know, I think you always had
big thoughts.
So you know, at first threeseemed like big ideas, right,
Like you needed one to have yourown kids go to and then from
there you think.
Oh well, you know the northpart of Toronto.
There's a lot of families withkids having babies, moms who
want to work Like.
(05:09):
It seems like it makes sense tothink you could have a handful
of them within a confined space100% yeah.
But at what point did you havethe idea that you could help
corporations with the daycarefor the parents who worked for
them?
Victoria (05:26):
So it's a great question.
So, yeah, so for many years,like almost 20 years, from sort
of being 20 to almost 40, I wasoffering childcare for families,
again not in purpose builtbuildings, but mostly in places
like churches or schools, and soI learned how to operate a
business, I learned how tooperate childcare.
And then I started to read andI would say, like the 1999, 2000
(05:49):
era, so still 25 years ago, Istarted to read about US.
Us is very different fromCanada, right, because they
don't typically have a mat leave.
Back then it was kind of twoweeks and you know.
But companies wanted, you know,at this time, 25 years ago,
companies were really thinkingabout women in the workforce.
You know, prior to that, lotsof moms had stayed home, but the
(06:10):
economy was changing.
Diversity was a big key issueHaving women successful in their
careers.
They needed child care.
Families started to look atsort of both moms and dads being
, you know, co-parenting andbeing interested in child care,
both.
So companies in the US werelooking at how can we have child
care for our families?
And they were building childcares on campuses.
(06:32):
So they'd have these bigcampuses with, you know,
hundreds thousands of employeesand they would put a child care
run by a US company.
You know that was doing it wellin the US and so I started
reading about and looking at andthinking, well, this could be a
Canadian solution.
We could do something like thisin Canada.
Julie (06:50):
And so so really, what you're saying is, from the time
you founded the business, youhad this idea that that could be
a way that you servedcorporations.
Victoria (06:58):
Yeah, I didn't.
I mean, I honestly like Ididn't know that companies would
ever care or think about it.
From the time I founded Kidsand Company.
It was founded on the basis ofcorporate child care.
I went into companies to say,would you be interested in
corporate child care?
They said to me we don't tellour employees where to go to the
(07:18):
dentist, where to go to thedoctor.
We wouldn't tell them where togo for child care.
I said, yes, but they can getinto the dentist, they can get
into the doctor.
We wouldn't tell them where togo for child care.
And I said, yes, but they canget into the dentist, they can
get into the doctor, and rightnow there isn't a lot of child
care available.
So if we, if you, partneredwith us, we would build child
cares and they would beavailable to you.
And that was sort of thecompelling message and that made
them go.
Okay, yes, we will considerdoing that.
(07:40):
And our very first locationopened up at Commerce Court
downtown and we had one at theConcilium in Scarborough and you
know sort of off.
We went another one in the TDCenter downtown and we were
mostly servicing like law firms,accounting firms, other
businesses downtown.
That you know was veryimportant to them that you know
their employees could have childcare right there and they would
(08:01):
, you know, be close by.
And that's when we met, I thinkright around then, because you
guys were launching or hadlaunched and we were trying to
think what else could we do forour families that were coming to
childcare.
And, of course, labels was agreat thing, you know, labels
for childcare Perfect.
And so we would include themwith the registration fee, and
it was a great thing.
Julie (08:19):
Well, I think one of the things that Kids and Company and
you have done really well isthis idea of what are all the
services you can bring aroundthat help support the families
that are bringing their kidsinto your centers.
Victoria (08:33):
Yes, 100% and you know what, as we discovered and you
know, in Canada, I think thatyou know, there are a lot of
people obviously with youngchildren, but there are a lot of
people that have aging parents,obviously with young children,
but there are a lot of peoplethat have aging parents, and one
of the things we offer is eldercare, which is like in-home
personal support workers or, youknow, nurses coming into the
home, and that has been, for ourcorporate clients, something
(08:54):
that's been very well receivedbecause, again, they have
employees that need both ofthose things.
Julie (08:58):
Right, yeah, they've got.
I mean, so many people now arein that sandwich, right?
So many people now are in thatsandwich right, Caring on both
sides, and so I'd love to askyou a little bit more about the
elder care piece and how thatcame into.
You know, when did you decideto start adding offerings on
that sort of side?
Victoria (09:17):
You know we did is because as we went in to talk to
our corporate clients,especially at the start, they
were kind of reluctant to give abenefit that cost money that
was only going to serve like asmall part of their population,
so only a certain number ofpeople having kids.
And then some of the peoplethat were having kids didn't
(09:37):
need child care or want childcare, or their kids were older.
But everybody has some elderlyperson in their life that they
care about, whether it's theirgreat aunt or their husband's
mother or whomever.
There is no one that didn'tneed support and so it became
something that was moreuniversal and then it was a
bigger selling point, to behonest with you.
Julie (09:56):
Interesting.
That is interesting and, Iwould think, something that is
very rarely offered throughcorporations.
Victoria (10:03):
You know what I mean it's rarely offered as a benefit
.
Lots of companies, as you know,right now, I think, we partner
with Bayshore Health, but wejust so what we would do is
partner with a health carecompany that delivered, you know
that great high qualitycustomer service and also, you
know, personal support workers,or you know nurses that could go
in, and then the companies thatwere paying us to offer the you
(10:24):
know nurses that could go in,and then the companies that were
paying us to offer the you know, guaranteed childcare,
emergency or backup childcarecould also offer the elder care.
So that was a great thing.
Julie (10:32):
Yeah, and I do think that that emergency backup childcare
is so, you know, as acorporation.
It's so important because youknow suddenly you can have I
mean, we saw it in the pandemicright All the parents that were
suddenly educating, you know,very young children from home or
their kids couldn't go todaycare and you know, no matter
(10:54):
how hard you try, working ispretty difficult in those
circumstances, for sure, forsure.
So having that emergencyavailability is so critical.
Victoria (10:59):
For sure, yeah, for sure, absolutely yeah.
How did you decide that youwanted to enter the US?
Julie (11:04):
For sure, absolutely.
How did you decide that youwanted to enter the US market?
Victoria (11:07):
You know what?
It's kind of an interestingstory.
You know, at the beginning,when we started, I was traveling
all the time Jennifer, myco-founder and business partner,
as our CFO and she had smaller,younger children.
She did stay in the office, didnot travel so so much, but I
was traveling a lot, looking atnew locations, meeting with
corporate clients, looking atthe quality of the childcare
(11:29):
centers, and so we were, youknow, heavily in Ontario,
obviously, in Alberta, BC andthen Nova Scotia.
But we were looking for newlocations.
And I remember being in theairport in Kelowna Kelowna was
so beautiful and looking for alocation there and then looking,
it was going to be six hoursfor me to fly home Six hours is
(11:50):
such a long time and realizingthat Toronto was one hour flight
from Boston, Chicago, New York,Philadelphia, Washington there
are six cities that are an houraway and I was like why wouldn't
we go there?
It's more of a competitivemarket, I would say, and that's
been challenging for us.
But Harvard Business School dida case study of us as one of
(12:13):
the more successful Canadiancompanies entering the US market
, which we're very proud of,because a lot of times Canadian
companies are afraid to enterthe US market or they don't do
well.
So, you know, it was a bigchallenge for us and we started
in Chicago and we had about 10locations in Chicago, maybe up
to 13 at one time, and it was,you know, in our way it was sort
(12:34):
of very similar to operating inCanada, other than the fact
that, you know, all the advicethat we received from our PR
people and our consultants wasyou know, don't tell anyone,
you're Canadian.
You know people in the US willnot care, be interested in
dealing with a Canadian company.
You know you're incorporated inthe US, you're in a US company.
We were wholly owned by aCanadian company, but still be a
(12:57):
US company, and so we tried.
But, you know, and I would say,and now we have over 70
locations in the US, so we havegrown quite quickly in the last
few years.
So it's been interesting, a lotof good learning, that's for
sure.
Julie (13:11):
Yeah, no, it is interesting because I think
often we think that Americansare just like us and there are
some differences in businessthat you need to be aware of.
I would imagine you're alsogetting much younger children,
more infant, more infant.
Victoria (13:27):
Yeah, you're 100 percent right, and so, like, the
level of care and training isimportant.
I mean, you know the tiny, tinybabies that are two or three
weeks old.
You know you're so worriedabout things like SIDS that are
just other you know tiny babythings.
Typically in Canada thechildren are close to 18 months,
at least over a year.
So it's much different rightnow.
Julie (13:47):
Yep, what have been your biggest?
Like amazing things that havehappened to you out of this
journey.
Victoria (13:55):
So many things.
You know what I'm really allabout people, and I'm an extreme
extrovert.
I love to be around people andI've just met so many
interesting like entrepreneurslike yourself, and you know,
extreme extrovert, love to bearound people and I've just met
so many interesting likeentrepreneurs like yourself, and
you know many others as well,as you know interesting clients
that we've learned so much from.
But I think that the biggestreward for me is we have such a
great, strong, loyal teamleadership team in our head
(14:19):
office and you know we'reapproaching like so this year
we're 23 years old we did hadour 20th anniversary and
approaching 25.
We have so many people that haveworked for us for more than 20
years and you know what, in thesort of old days per se, as you
know, people would start attheir job and finish 20, 30
years later.
But you know, as even in thelast 20 years, things have
(14:40):
changed and there's so much moremovement.
And you know, with youngerpeople today, I think you know
they'll have a number ofdifferent iterations or chapters
of their careers they gothrough.
So just the fact that we havesuch strong relationships with
our team and you know they're soloyal to all of us and they've
really helped us build thisgreat Canadian business.
(15:00):
It's been a huge, huge win.
Julie (15:03):
I would say I think that is a huge win because I think
it's not the norm.
So I think it's been a huge,huge win.
I would say I think that is ahuge win because I think it's
not not the norm.
So I think it's really greatthat people feel loyal and I
would think, also because you'vebeen able to build a relatively
big company.
You've been able to give peoplepaths for progression.
Victoria (15:20):
It's a good point and you know what that that has been
, would I say the challenge, Ithink.
I think we've been prettysuccessful at it.
But what happens with a lot ofentrepreneurial organizations is
that you know, the people thatare there at the beginning are
not the right people to be thereif you grow right and I'm sure
over along the way, we have lostsome people that you know.
(15:42):
We, you know, wish things couldhave worked out, but they
weren't necessarily the rightfit.
But no one, not not too manylike, not no, you know we've
managed, I think, to accommodateand people have been
understanding.
And you know someone who mighthave been like our head of
marketing in the early days nowmight be, you know, our VP
marketing.
We had to bring in a new headof marketing just because they
weren't, as sort of you know,educated and trained on digital
(16:10):
and different things, but theywere cool with it.
They were like you know what,like this is not my space.
I don't want to be responsible.
Julie (16:13):
I'm happy to stay in my role and, yeah, and there's some
people that will be happy to dothat and others that go for
sure um, I think that's a normal, normal piece of the journey,
and people who liked it when youhad five locations or three
locations might not like ahundred locations and that yeah,
a hundred percent.
Victoria (16:27):
Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent.
Julie (16:30):
So what's next for?
What's next for you, what'snext for Kids and Company?
Victoria (16:35):
You know what we?
It's interesting because, asyou may know, you know, our
government has this greatCanadian.
It's called let's see well,canadian wide early learning and
then basically it's providingfunding for families to have
sort of low-cost childcare.
For us, you know, it's soimportant for us to maintain our
brand and our high quality andso and we're full because people
(16:56):
love the fact that it's lowcost, and so we're trying to do
everything we can to maintainthe high quality of customer
care, customer service, theeducational components, the
enrichment.
The challenge with this programis because it provides so much
funding for families, it's hardto grow.
They don't have endless dollarsto government, so it's hard to
(17:17):
open up new locations.
So we're opening in the US.
I mean, we have, as I say, tonsand tons.
We'd like to open more inCanada.
I don't know what will happen,whether things will change with
the government, like with theelection, but you know it's been
, as I say, interesting.
You know, just from, like,intellectual perspective or
learning perspective, it's sointeresting to see all these
iterations of you know how youcan offer the same business
(17:38):
under different you know.
So, like at one point, you know, during COVID, it was different
because parents were working athome and then they weren't
really going back to work, sothey didn't necessarily need
childcare and then they wouldcall back to work.
We were doing more part-timechildcare and even during COVID
we were fully open because youknow people, some people are
emergency workers, lots ofpeople needed to go to work and
(18:01):
some people couldn't work withtheir babies, and so you know,
there's been so many iterationsof how we've offered our
business that you know thingsare never dull.
Let's put it that way If we havea dull minute, then the next
thing there's another.
Julie (18:15):
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(18:36):
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(18:56):
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Most importantly, endlessconnections with like-minded
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The link to buy is in the shownotes.
Certainly at 70 locations in theUS.
You have lots of opportunitythere.
Victoria (19:18):
Yeah, it's huge.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we could havehundreds.
Yeah, 100%.
Julie (19:21):
What has the sort of you've obviously built purpose
built, you've acquired as well?
Your growth path has been bothsort of your own organic growth
as well as that sort ofacquisition path.
How did you decide, you know,to not only build your own
daycares but also to look at,you know, acquiring some
(19:42):
independence?
Victoria (19:44):
Yeah, you know what the problem with building is
just takes so long right.
And so at one point we werelike we wanted to grow and and
part of the cost and people thatare in the retail business
would understand this when youhave an infrastructure, you know
, like in calgary, if we hadlike a, you know a regional
manager and two centers, therereally wasn't anything for it to
(20:05):
do.
So we needed to either buy orbuild more centers.
It takes years to build them,but if we buy them, we can buy
them quickly.
So it was more about sort offilling up the footprint in
Canada.
And the other thing was when wewere going to corporate clients
and saying we want to be yourchild care provider, we want to
give guaranteed child care toyour employees, we needed to
have availability, we needed tohave childcare centers.
(20:26):
So then we had to buy them.
And that integration piece, Imean that's a huge you know hour
story, hours and hours oflearning.
So I mean the one that webought, you know, in Burlington.
I think that you're aware of thewoman who was lovely, that
owned it.
She would have all of her.
She'd owned it for 30 years.
She would have all of heremployees on their birthday for
(20:48):
lunch at her house, and sobecause she lived close by and
people looked forward to thatand they enjoyed that, all of
her teachers.
Well, I lived in EastScarborough.
I wasn't, you know.
No one wanted to come to EastScarborough to have lunch at my
house, not really even a cook.
So you know how do we, and howdo we do that with all the
brother centers.
So then we're not offering that, we're changing things.
(21:08):
It's hard for people.
It's hard for people whenthey're used to something, they
have expectations to see thingschange, and so that was a
challenge for sure.
Julie (21:15):
Yeah, for sure.
I think there's different, youknow obviously different
challenges.
But I can see that you know, ifyou think about a market like
you, go into Calgary, having onecenter in Calgary is a bit more
difficult to find any kind ofefficiencies and, you know, find
the suppliers you need for foodand all of the different parts
that go along with right.
(21:36):
If you have five locations it'sgoing to be easier, right.
Victoria (21:39):
Yeah, those economies of scale are important, those
economies of scale are important.
Yeah.
Julie (21:45):
Yeah, uh.
What other ideas do you havefor what are you going to do?
What are you going to do whenyou grow up?
Victoria?
Victoria (21:54):
Yeah.
Julie (21:54):
Yeah, so it was so great.
You know what?
Victoria (21:56):
I, I'm, you know, still learning, still growing.
I, I do thrive on chaos.
I always say Um, and so for me,um, you know, I have enough of
a challenge I'm not reallyinvolved in.
I was involved in the US forquite a bit and now they have,
you know, we've gotten so big,we have a whole leadership team
in the US, so I don't have toworry about them, which is great
Because you know it was as theybecame sort of you know more, I
(22:29):
was also having moregrandchildren and so now I have
almost 17 grandchildren the lastnumber, 17 to arrive soon, and
then I think I'm going to havesix or seven more, like it's
going to be, it's going to be alot, maybe maybe even nine or 10
.
So for me, you know, they're allsort of like a positive work.
Worry, you know that you like,you know you just they're there
and you think about them andneed to be with them and see
them.
So that takes up a lot of mysort of time and energy.
And it's nice to have abusiness that's mature, because
you can really work on making itthe best it could be.
(22:51):
We're also doing growth, we'reopening new locations, we have
acquisitions, and so I'm curiousabout you know, many people,
many of my friends, are sort ofin their mid to late sixties and
retiring.
I don't feel at all that I wantto retire.
I think it's probably, you know, five to 10 years away.
But you know things change allthe time, as you say.
(23:11):
So it's just we'll see whathappens.
Julie (23:13):
Well, and I think it's interesting now for you to see
have fresh eyes on what your ownkids go through as they want
their kids to go to daycare, andwhat that looks like and what
insights that might bring to youabout daycare?
Victoria (23:26):
and what that looks like and what insights that
might bring to you about Ahundred percent yeah, yeah A
hundred percent.
Julie (23:29):
Yeah, a lot, that's for sure.
Yeah, definitely, and I thinkit's true.
Like um, I see more and morepeople.
You know they don't retire, youknow it's not the big
production of like there's adate and that sort of thing.
Some people certainly do, butthere's also a lot of people who
want to, you know, plantthemselves and give back and use
that expertise.
Victoria (23:50):
Right, a hundred percent, yeah, but you're doing
that with entrepreneurs yourselfand you know, maybe that's what
I'll do, like I certainly couldbe, you know, a mentor and
support other entrepreneurs.
I have to learn so much.
I've been through everypossible sort of situation,
shall we say.
So I think there's lots ofopportunities for me to use my
brain power.
Julie (24:08):
Yeah, and I think it's been, you know, interesting too,
because a lot of women shy awayfrom kind of capital intensive
businesses and, and you have,you have very successfully
navigated that.
You know building centers isnot an expensive and and it's
all money, upfront money,whether you buy it or whether
you build it.
Victoria (24:26):
You're putting it all no 100%.
You have to be able to operatesuccessfully Like you have to
prove you can, and that was agood thing that we learned to do
.
Julie (24:36):
Yeah, Well, and it's that tension between yeah, the
quality of the programming andrunning a profitable business.
And being kind of I think.
I think a lot of times as womenwe get sort of apologetic about
running profitable businessessort of apologetic about running
(24:56):
profitable businesses.
Victoria (24:56):
Yeah, no, it's true, and I think that people will
respect and appreciate yourunning a profitable business as
long as you're delivering.
You know what they need highquality.
And for us, one of the biggestdifferences was we have a really
high level of customer care andwe never charge late fees.
We let parents be flexible withtheir child care and, you know,
(25:19):
I think the biggest messagewe've always had is you know,
we're grateful that you'resending your children to our
child care, whereas many of ourcompetitors would say, oh,
you're on the waiting list,we'll let you know when you have
a spot, you'll be lucky, youhave a spot.
And so people were like, oh,I'm so lucky to get a child care
spot at this location, whereasour message we wanted it to be
(25:40):
was you know really that, likewe're so thrilled you've chosen
us, we want your family to bepart of our kids, to come into
family, and so and you know, oneof the things that really um,
such a great positive reflectionof that is we started an alum
program.
So, remember, we, you know, hadbabies now for 23 years, so we
could conceivably have 23 yearold adults walking around.
That came to us when they werebabies.
And then, everything in between, we started an alum program.
We started emailing people thathad registered with us you know
(26:02):
up till probably 10, maybeyears ago say do you want to be
in our alum program?
And we had like a huge numberof people were responding yes,
yes, yes.
Parents, obviously, but still,it was really really such a
great, you know, feeling to knowthat people felt still
connected to it.
Julie (26:19):
well, and you'll be close to getting a big wave of the
next generation really you know,in the next, that's the next
decade will be another way yeahum, it is interesting because I
do feel, like you know, in thatin that daycare is commoditized
environment, people also don'tfeel like they can really give
you feedback and tell you whatthey think about it, because
(26:39):
they're so worried about beingturfed out or losing that.
So, you seem to have created anenvironment also where you're
going to be able to get feedbackto be better.
Victoria (26:49):
Yeah, and you know what I tell this story often
about.
Many years ago probably, Idon't know 15, maybe the CEO of
American Express, denise Pickens, I think was her name sent me a
letter to say, as an AmericanExpress cardholder, to say you
know, if I had any questions orconcerns about Amex my account
here was her cell phone number,here was her email.
Please reach out to her.
(27:09):
15,000 children in childcare.
(27:45):
Victoria cares about thesechildren and she wants to know
if there's something going onwith them, and so we need to
just make sure we handle thedetails.
We need to make sure we knowwhat's happening.
Julie (27:56):
And so I would imagine that something like that is a
lot of people have your cellnumber and not very many people
use it.
Is that true?
Victoria (28:04):
No, you know what, like honestly, like literally,
like one or two a year that callme and obviously or email me if
they do, I always look at it aswell Is this, you know, the one
in a hundred that has alegitimate concern?
Usually not, usually, it'ssomething very personal, I think
.
To be honest, unfortunately,people lose.
They lose it Like they lose theemail, they forget they have it
, they don't remember, and thenyou know they may be like
(28:24):
unhappy for a moment or two andthen they're like well, you know
they don't even realize that itcame to them when they
registered, but on the otherhand, I think it's more of a
culture message that is like weactually really do care and
therefore and the directors andthe area directors and the
teachers know that, and so youknow, if a parent is unhappy
(28:46):
with something, you know, soanother child bit their child in
the room or they didn't feelthat they were getting the right
attention, then they can go totheir director and their
director is not going to be likeoh sorry, like you know, we
don't care, like messaging thatthe director will be hopefully
very authentically caring,because that's what we want to
be.
Julie (29:04):
Yeah, well, and I think that you know, opening
communication is always helpfuland I'm sure that it helps you
with the position you have inthe marketplace and the
reputation you have.
100%, yeah, very good, verygood.
Well, I'm so excited and I'm soalso was noticing as I
(29:25):
researched for this you andJennifer are still together.
You're still both there, whichI also think is amazing because
you know that's, that's arelationship that's not unlike a
marriage after this long yes,you know what?
Victoria (29:34):
We're still friends, but she's just retired.
So she is retired, but we'restill friends.
Yeah, yeah, but she was with usfor most of the duration.
She is a little bit differentfrom me in that she loves to do
stuff.
Like you know, she had a lot ofhobbies and I, luckily, don't,
so my hobbies are my kids, whichI'm obsessed with, and my
grandchildren, and then working.
(29:55):
I'm a big working woman and soI think that makes a difference.
And she was, you know, she was.
She worked very hard obviouslyfor you know, 30 plus years, and
then she really wants to havetime now to do stuff she's
passionate about.
But we're still good friendsand we see each other all the
time.
Julie (30:09):
I love it.
I love it.
Well, what a journey you've had.
Victoria (30:12):
Thank you.
Julie (30:13):
Thanks so much for chatting with me today.
I can't wait to see Kid andCompany continue to grow.
Victoria (30:19):
We'll have your grandbabies with us.
Julie (30:20):
Thank, you, thank you, take care.
Victoria (30:24):
Bye.
Julie (30:26):
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(31:08):
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Join us as we explore where thetough spots are, how to
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(00:27):
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and that led to my book BigGorgeous Goals.
(00:47):
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Hello and welcome to thisepisode of Figure 8.
Today I am in conversation withVictoria Sopik.
(01:10):
Victoria is the founder and CEO, mother of eight children,
grandmother of many children andkids, and company is her
business, so she has over 150daycares across North America.
She has disrupted corporatechildcare in the founding and
growing of her business andshe's a recognized expert in her
(01:30):
field, with over three decadesof experience and a reputation
as an innovator.
I'm excited to chat with hertoday.
Welcome Victoria.
Victoria (01:39):
Thank you, Julie.
Thank you for having me.
Julie (01:41):
Thanks so much for coming and chatting.
I'm so interested because, ofcourse, we started our
businesses around the same timeand met each other a long time
ago now and have seen so manygrowth opportunities and growth
things and changes in themarketplace, and I'm so curious
for you about whether youimagined you'd be here today
(02:03):
with over 150 centers acrossNorth America.
Victoria (02:07):
Oh, it's such a great question and it's something that
I actually reflect on a lot,mostly because of where I live.
So I live at the bottom ofMarkham Road and when I was
actually in child care, my son'sturning 40 this year and so
when I was pregnant andexpecting him 40 years ago, I
was also, you know, a young mom,uh, wanting to be a working mom
(02:29):
and trying to figure out how todo that.
So I mostly wanted to have 10babies.
He was obviously number one.
I did stop at eight because Idid realize that there are a lot
of work, um, but at the time is, and I I also say to people
often that Um, but at the timeis.
And I I also say to peopleoften that you know, having
babies is a young person's uh,job kind of thing and that it's
harder as you're older, justbecause you're tired or really.
(02:52):
So you know, I wanted to beyoung, wanted to have.
I had eight children in 11years.
So in my early thirties I wasdone Um, but I was driving down
Markham road and there reallywas not a lot of child care at
all, especially for babies, andI had never been to one.
I didn't have any experiencewith them at all.
I had been in the summer campbusiness and I'd had a summer
(03:12):
camp and the camp was somethingthat was in, like you know,
already built like schoolgymnasiums or churches or parks.
It wasn't purpose built.
And I remember seeing a purposebuilt child care that was, you
know, like from the ground up,designed to, you know, care for
children, with infiniteclassrooms and um toddler
classrooms, preschool classrooms, a kitchen, proper gross motor
(03:34):
rooms, proper playgrounds.
And I remember being like justfascinated and mesmerized by the
idea of a purpose-builtchildcare, even before I was in
childcare, just because I'dnever heard or seen it.
And so the fact now that youknow I've done that hundreds and
hundreds well, not hundreds, wehave, you know, I probably have
built more than 200 becausewe've closed down a number in
(03:54):
the years in the you know, 20,40 years I guess I've been doing
it.
But I just remember thinkinglike, kind of, like you know
people would think about cellphones back in the day, like
what is a cell phone?
How does it work?
For me it was childcare, so atthe time I never thought that I
could be in that kind ofbusiness.
That would be like developing,building, creating.
I more thought I would be inservice delivery, and so, you
(04:18):
know, I knew I was delivering aservice with camp and I thought
I could maybe do it withchildcare.
But there was this whole sortof purpose-built creation.
That was, again, reallyinteresting to me.
So what did I think was goingto happen?
I thought I would, you know,have one or two or three child
cares and run them and it wouldbe a great thing to do.
And meanwhile it seemed likethere was a huge need for
(04:40):
childcare, and you know more andmore across Canada, across the
US, and so it just shows youthat it's hard to know how your
story will unfold.
Julie (04:48):
It's true, and I think you know, I think you always had
big thoughts.
So you know, at first threeseemed like big ideas, right,
Like you needed one to have yourown kids go to and then from
there you think.
Oh well, you know the northpart of Toronto.
There's a lot of families withkids having babies, moms who
want to work Like.
(05:09):
It seems like it makes sense tothink you could have a handful
of them within a confined space100% yeah.
But at what point did you havethe idea that you could help
corporations with the daycarefor the parents who worked for
them?
Victoria (05:26):
So it's a great question.
So, yeah, so for many years,like almost 20 years, from sort
of being 20 to almost 40, I wasoffering childcare for families,
again not in purpose builtbuildings, but mostly in places
like churches or schools, and soI learned how to operate a
business, I learned how tooperate childcare.
And then I started to read andI would say, like the 1999, 2000
(05:49):
era, so still 25 years ago, Istarted to read about US.
Us is very different fromCanada, right, because they
don't typically have a mat leave.
Back then it was kind of twoweeks and you know.
But companies wanted, you know,at this time, 25 years ago,
companies were really thinkingabout women in the workforce.
You know, prior to that, lotsof moms had stayed home, but the
(06:10):
economy was changing.
Diversity was a big key issueHaving women successful in their
careers.
They needed child care.
Families started to look atsort of both moms and dads being
, you know, co-parenting andbeing interested in child care,
both.
So companies in the US werelooking at how can we have child
care for our families?
And they were building childcares on campuses.
(06:32):
So they'd have these bigcampuses with, you know,
hundreds thousands of employeesand they would put a child care
run by a US company.
You know that was doing it wellin the US and so I started
reading about and looking at andthinking, well, this could be a
Canadian solution.
We could do something like thisin Canada.
Julie (06:50):
And so so really, what you're saying is, from the time
you founded the business, youhad this idea that that could be
a way that you servedcorporations.
Victoria (06:58):
Yeah, I didn't.
I mean, I honestly like Ididn't know that companies would
ever care or think about it.
From the time I founded Kidsand Company.
It was founded on the basis ofcorporate child care.
I went into companies to say,would you be interested in
corporate child care?
They said to me we don't tellour employees where to go to the
(07:18):
dentist, where to go to thedoctor.
We wouldn't tell them where togo for child care.
I said, yes, but they can getinto the dentist, they can get
into the doctor.
We wouldn't tell them where togo for child care.
And I said, yes, but they canget into the dentist, they can
get into the doctor, and rightnow there isn't a lot of child
care available.
So if we, if you, partneredwith us, we would build child
cares and they would beavailable to you.
And that was sort of thecompelling message and that made
them go.
Okay, yes, we will considerdoing that.
(07:40):
And our very first locationopened up at Commerce Court
downtown and we had one at theConcilium in Scarborough and you
know sort of off.
We went another one in the TDCenter downtown and we were
mostly servicing like law firms,accounting firms, other
businesses downtown.
That you know was veryimportant to them that you know
their employees could have childcare right there and they would
(08:01):
, you know, be close by.
And that's when we met, I thinkright around then, because you
guys were launching or hadlaunched and we were trying to
think what else could we do forour families that were coming to
childcare.
And, of course, labels was agreat thing, you know, labels
for childcare Perfect.
And so we would include themwith the registration fee, and
it was a great thing.
Julie (08:19):
Well, I think one of the things that Kids and Company and
you have done really well isthis idea of what are all the
services you can bring aroundthat help support the families
that are bringing their kidsinto your centers.
Victoria (08:33):
Yes, 100% and you know what, as we discovered and you
know, in Canada, I think thatyou know, there are a lot of
people obviously with youngchildren, but there are a lot of
people that have aging parents,obviously with young children,
but there are a lot of peoplethat have aging parents, and one
of the things we offer is eldercare, which is like in-home
personal support workers or, youknow, nurses coming into the
home, and that has been, for ourcorporate clients, something
(08:54):
that's been very well receivedbecause, again, they have
employees that need both ofthose things.
Julie (08:58):
Right, yeah, they've got.
I mean, so many people now arein that sandwich, right?
So many people now are in thatsandwich right, Caring on both
sides, and so I'd love to askyou a little bit more about the
elder care piece and how thatcame into.
You know, when did you decideto start adding offerings on
that sort of side?
Victoria (09:17):
You know we did is because as we went in to talk to
our corporate clients,especially at the start, they
were kind of reluctant to give abenefit that cost money that
was only going to serve like asmall part of their population,
so only a certain number ofpeople having kids.
And then some of the peoplethat were having kids didn't
(09:37):
need child care or want childcare, or their kids were older.
But everybody has some elderlyperson in their life that they
care about, whether it's theirgreat aunt or their husband's
mother or whomever.
There is no one that didn'tneed support and so it became
something that was moreuniversal and then it was a
bigger selling point, to behonest with you.
Julie (09:56):
Interesting.
That is interesting and, Iwould think, something that is
very rarely offered throughcorporations.
Victoria (10:03):
You know what I mean it's rarely offered as a benefit
.
Lots of companies, as you know,right now, I think, we partner
with Bayshore Health, but wejust so what we would do is
partner with a health carecompany that delivered, you know
that great high qualitycustomer service and also, you
know, personal support workers,or you know nurses that could go
in, and then the companies thatwere paying us to offer the you
(10:24):
know nurses that could go in,and then the companies that were
paying us to offer the you know, guaranteed childcare,
emergency or backup childcarecould also offer the elder care.
So that was a great thing.
Julie (10:32):
Yeah, and I do think that that emergency backup childcare
is so, you know, as acorporation.
It's so important because youknow suddenly you can have I
mean, we saw it in the pandemicright All the parents that were
suddenly educating, you know,very young children from home or
their kids couldn't go todaycare and you know, no matter
(10:54):
how hard you try, working ispretty difficult in those
circumstances, for sure, forsure.
So having that emergencyavailability is so critical.
Victoria (10:59):
For sure, yeah, for sure, absolutely yeah.
How did you decide that youwanted to enter the US?
Julie (11:04):
For sure, absolutely.
How did you decide that youwanted to enter the US market?
Victoria (11:07):
You know what?
It's kind of an interestingstory.
You know, at the beginning,when we started, I was traveling
all the time Jennifer, myco-founder and business partner,
as our CFO and she had smaller,younger children.
She did stay in the office, didnot travel so so much, but I
was traveling a lot, looking atnew locations, meeting with
corporate clients, looking atthe quality of the childcare
(11:29):
centers, and so we were, youknow, heavily in Ontario,
obviously, in Alberta, BC andthen Nova Scotia.
But we were looking for newlocations.
And I remember being in theairport in Kelowna Kelowna was
so beautiful and looking for alocation there and then looking,
it was going to be six hoursfor me to fly home Six hours is
(11:50):
such a long time and realizingthat Toronto was one hour flight
from Boston, Chicago, New York,Philadelphia, Washington there
are six cities that are an houraway and I was like why wouldn't
we go there?
It's more of a competitivemarket, I would say, and that's
been challenging for us.
But Harvard Business School dida case study of us as one of
(12:13):
the more successful Canadiancompanies entering the US market
, which we're very proud of,because a lot of times Canadian
companies are afraid to enterthe US market or they don't do
well.
So, you know, it was a bigchallenge for us and we started
in Chicago and we had about 10locations in Chicago, maybe up
to 13 at one time, and it was,you know, in our way it was sort
(12:34):
of very similar to operating inCanada, other than the fact
that, you know, all the advicethat we received from our PR
people and our consultants wasyou know, don't tell anyone,
you're Canadian.
You know people in the US willnot care, be interested in
dealing with a Canadian company.
You know you're incorporated inthe US, you're in a US company.
We were wholly owned by aCanadian company, but still be a
(12:57):
US company, and so we tried.
But, you know, and I would say,and now we have over 70
locations in the US, so we havegrown quite quickly in the last
few years.
So it's been interesting, a lotof good learning, that's for
sure.
Julie (13:11):
Yeah, no, it is interesting because I think
often we think that Americansare just like us and there are
some differences in businessthat you need to be aware of.
I would imagine you're alsogetting much younger children,
more infant, more infant.
Victoria (13:27):
Yeah, you're 100 percent right, and so, like, the
level of care and training isimportant.
I mean, you know the tiny, tinybabies that are two or three
weeks old.
You know you're so worriedabout things like SIDS that are
just other you know tiny babythings.
Typically in Canada thechildren are close to 18 months,
at least over a year.
So it's much different rightnow.
Julie (13:47):
Yep, what have been your biggest?
Like amazing things that havehappened to you out of this
journey.
Victoria (13:55):
So many things.
You know what I'm really allabout people, and I'm an extreme
extrovert.
I love to be around people andI've just met so many
interesting like entrepreneurslike yourself, and you know,
extreme extrovert, love to bearound people and I've just met
so many interesting likeentrepreneurs like yourself, and
you know many others as well,as you know interesting clients
that we've learned so much from.
But I think that the biggestreward for me is we have such a
great, strong, loyal teamleadership team in our head
(14:19):
office and you know we'reapproaching like so this year
we're 23 years old we did hadour 20th anniversary and
approaching 25.
We have so many people that haveworked for us for more than 20
years and you know what, in thesort of old days per se, as you
know, people would start attheir job and finish 20, 30
years later.
But you know, as even in thelast 20 years, things have
(14:40):
changed and there's so much moremovement.
And you know, with youngerpeople today, I think you know
they'll have a number ofdifferent iterations or chapters
of their careers they gothrough.
So just the fact that we havesuch strong relationships with
our team and you know they're soloyal to all of us and they've
really helped us build thisgreat Canadian business.
(15:00):
It's been a huge, huge win.
Julie (15:03):
I would say I think that is a huge win because I think
it's not the norm.
So I think it's been a huge,huge win.
I would say I think that is ahuge win because I think it's
not not the norm.
So I think it's really greatthat people feel loyal and I
would think, also because you'vebeen able to build a relatively
big company.
You've been able to give peoplepaths for progression.
Victoria (15:20):
It's a good point and you know what that that has been
, would I say the challenge, Ithink.
I think we've been prettysuccessful at it.
But what happens with a lot ofentrepreneurial organizations is
that you know, the people thatare there at the beginning are
not the right people to be thereif you grow right and I'm sure
over along the way, we have lostsome people that you know.
(15:42):
We, you know, wish things couldhave worked out, but they
weren't necessarily the rightfit.
But no one, not not too manylike, not no, you know we've
managed, I think, to accommodateand people have been
understanding.
And you know someone who mighthave been like our head of
marketing in the early days nowmight be, you know, our VP
marketing.
We had to bring in a new headof marketing just because they
weren't, as sort of you know,educated and trained on digital
(16:10):
and different things, but theywere cool with it.
They were like you know what,like this is not my space.
I don't want to be responsible.
Julie (16:13):
I'm happy to stay in my role and, yeah, and there's some
people that will be happy to dothat and others that go for
sure um, I think that's a normal, normal piece of the journey,
and people who liked it when youhad five locations or three
locations might not like ahundred locations and that yeah,
a hundred percent.
Victoria (16:27):
Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent.
Julie (16:30):
So what's next for?
What's next for you, what'snext for Kids and Company?
Victoria (16:35):
You know what we?
It's interesting because, asyou may know, you know, our
government has this greatCanadian.
It's called let's see well,canadian wide early learning and
then basically it's providingfunding for families to have
sort of low-cost childcare.
For us, you know, it's soimportant for us to maintain our
brand and our high quality andso and we're full because people
(16:56):
love the fact that it's lowcost, and so we're trying to do
everything we can to maintainthe high quality of customer
care, customer service, theeducational components, the
enrichment.
The challenge with this programis because it provides so much
funding for families, it's hardto grow.
They don't have endless dollarsto government, so it's hard to
(17:17):
open up new locations.
So we're opening in the US.
I mean, we have, as I say, tonsand tons.
We'd like to open more inCanada.
I don't know what will happen,whether things will change with
the government, like with theelection, but you know it's been
, as I say, interesting.
You know, just from, like,intellectual perspective or
learning perspective, it's sointeresting to see all these
iterations of you know how youcan offer the same business
(17:38):
under different you know.
So, like at one point, you know, during COVID, it was different
because parents were working athome and then they weren't
really going back to work, sothey didn't necessarily need
childcare and then they wouldcall back to work.
We were doing more part-timechildcare and even during COVID
we were fully open because youknow people, some people are
emergency workers, lots ofpeople needed to go to work and
(18:01):
some people couldn't work withtheir babies, and so you know,
there's been so many iterationsof how we've offered our
business that you know thingsare never dull.
Let's put it that way If we havea dull minute, then the next
thing there's another.
Julie (18:15):
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Certainly at 70 locations in theUS.
You have lots of opportunitythere.
Victoria (19:18):
Yeah, it's huge.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we could havehundreds.
Yeah, 100%.
Julie (19:21):
What has the sort of you've obviously built purpose
built, you've acquired as well?
Your growth path has been bothsort of your own organic growth
as well as that sort ofacquisition path.
How did you decide, you know,to not only build your own
daycares but also to look at,you know, acquiring some
(19:42):
independence?
Victoria (19:44):
Yeah, you know what the problem with building is
just takes so long right.
And so at one point we werelike we wanted to grow and and
part of the cost and people thatare in the retail business
would understand this when youhave an infrastructure, you know
, like in calgary, if we hadlike a, you know a regional
manager and two centers, therereally wasn't anything for it to
(20:05):
do.
So we needed to either buy orbuild more centers.
It takes years to build them,but if we buy them, we can buy
them quickly.
So it was more about sort offilling up the footprint in
Canada.
And the other thing was when wewere going to corporate clients
and saying we want to be yourchild care provider, we want to
give guaranteed child care toyour employees, we needed to
have availability, we needed tohave childcare centers.
(20:26):
So then we had to buy them.
And that integration piece, Imean that's a huge you know hour
story, hours and hours oflearning.
So I mean the one that webought, you know, in Burlington.
I think that you're aware of thewoman who was lovely, that
owned it.
She would have all of her.
She'd owned it for 30 years.
She would have all of heremployees on their birthday for
(20:48):
lunch at her house, and sobecause she lived close by and
people looked forward to thatand they enjoyed that, all of
her teachers.
Well, I lived in EastScarborough.
I wasn't, you know.
No one wanted to come to EastScarborough to have lunch at my
house, not really even a cook.
So you know how do we, and howdo we do that with all the
brother centers.
So then we're not offering that, we're changing things.
(21:08):
It's hard for people.
It's hard for people whenthey're used to something, they
have expectations to see thingschange, and so that was a
challenge for sure.
Julie (21:15):
Yeah, for sure.
I think there's different, youknow obviously different
challenges.
But I can see that you know, ifyou think about a market like
you, go into Calgary, having onecenter in Calgary is a bit more
difficult to find any kind ofefficiencies and, you know, find
the suppliers you need for foodand all of the different parts
that go along with right.
(21:36):
If you have five locations it'sgoing to be easier, right.
Victoria (21:39):
Yeah, those economies of scale are important, those
economies of scale are important.
Yeah.
Julie (21:45):
Yeah, uh.
What other ideas do you havefor what are you going to do?
What are you going to do whenyou grow up?
Victoria?
Victoria (21:54):
Yeah.
Julie (21:54):
Yeah, so it was so great.
You know what?
Victoria (21:56):
I, I'm, you know, still learning, still growing.
I, I do thrive on chaos.
I always say Um, and so for me,um, you know, I have enough of
a challenge I'm not reallyinvolved in.
I was involved in the US forquite a bit and now they have,
you know, we've gotten so big,we have a whole leadership team
in the US, so I don't have toworry about them, which is great
Because you know it was as theybecame sort of you know more, I
(22:29):
was also having moregrandchildren and so now I have
almost 17 grandchildren the lastnumber, 17 to arrive soon, and
then I think I'm going to havesix or seven more, like it's
going to be, it's going to be alot, maybe maybe even nine or 10
.
So for me, you know, they're allsort of like a positive work.
Worry, you know that you like,you know you just they're there
and you think about them andneed to be with them and see
them.
So that takes up a lot of mysort of time and energy.
And it's nice to have abusiness that's mature, because
you can really work on making itthe best it could be.
(22:51):
We're also doing growth, we'reopening new locations, we have
acquisitions, and so I'm curiousabout you know, many people,
many of my friends, are sort ofin their mid to late sixties and
retiring.
I don't feel at all that I wantto retire.
I think it's probably, you know, five to 10 years away.
But you know things change allthe time, as you say.
(23:11):
So it's just we'll see whathappens.
Julie (23:13):
Well, and I think it's interesting now for you to see
have fresh eyes on what your ownkids go through as they want
their kids to go to daycare, andwhat that looks like and what
insights that might bring to youabout daycare?
Victoria (23:26):
and what that looks like and what insights that
might bring to you about Ahundred percent yeah, yeah A
hundred percent.
Julie (23:29):
Yeah, a lot, that's for sure.
Yeah, definitely, and I thinkit's true.
Like um, I see more and morepeople.
You know they don't retire, youknow it's not the big
production of like there's adate and that sort of thing.
Some people certainly do, butthere's also a lot of people who
want to, you know, plantthemselves and give back and use
that expertise.
Victoria (23:50):
Right, a hundred percent, yeah, but you're doing
that with entrepreneurs yourselfand you know, maybe that's what
I'll do, like I certainly couldbe, you know, a mentor and
support other entrepreneurs.
I have to learn so much.
I've been through everypossible sort of situation,
shall we say.
So I think there's lots ofopportunities for me to use my
brain power.
Julie (24:08):
Yeah, and I think it's been, you know, interesting too,
because a lot of women shy awayfrom kind of capital intensive
businesses and, and you have,you have very successfully
navigated that.
You know building centers isnot an expensive and and it's
all money, upfront money,whether you buy it or whether
you build it.
Victoria (24:26):
You're putting it all no 100%.
You have to be able to operatesuccessfully Like you have to
prove you can, and that was agood thing that we learned to do
.
Julie (24:36):
Yeah, Well, and it's that tension between yeah, the
quality of the programming andrunning a profitable business.
And being kind of I think.
I think a lot of times as womenwe get sort of apologetic about
running profitable businessessort of apologetic about running
(24:56):
profitable businesses.
Victoria (24:56):
Yeah, no, it's true, and I think that people will
respect and appreciate yourunning a profitable business as
long as you're delivering.
You know what they need highquality.
And for us, one of the biggestdifferences was we have a really
high level of customer care andwe never charge late fees.
We let parents be flexible withtheir child care and, you know,
(25:19):
I think the biggest messagewe've always had is you know,
we're grateful that you'resending your children to our
child care, whereas many of ourcompetitors would say, oh,
you're on the waiting list,we'll let you know when you have
a spot, you'll be lucky, youhave a spot.
And so people were like, oh,I'm so lucky to get a child care
spot at this location, whereasour message we wanted it to be
(25:40):
was you know really that, likewe're so thrilled you've chosen
us, we want your family to bepart of our kids, to come into
family, and so and you know, oneof the things that really um,
such a great positive reflectionof that is we started an alum
program.
So, remember, we, you know, hadbabies now for 23 years, so we
could conceivably have 23 yearold adults walking around.
That came to us when they werebabies.
And then, everything in between, we started an alum program.
We started emailing people thathad registered with us you know
(26:02):
up till probably 10, maybeyears ago say do you want to be
in our alum program?
And we had like a huge numberof people were responding yes,
yes, yes.
Parents, obviously, but still,it was really really such a
great, you know, feeling to knowthat people felt still
connected to it.
Julie (26:19):
well, and you'll be close to getting a big wave of the
next generation really you know,in the next, that's the next
decade will be another way yeahum, it is interesting because I
do feel, like you know, in thatin that daycare is commoditized
environment, people also don'tfeel like they can really give
you feedback and tell you whatthey think about it, because
(26:39):
they're so worried about beingturfed out or losing that.
So, you seem to have created anenvironment also where you're
going to be able to get feedbackto be better.
Victoria (26:49):
Yeah, and you know what I tell this story often
about.
Many years ago probably, Idon't know 15, maybe the CEO of
American Express, denise Pickens, I think was her name sent me a
letter to say, as an AmericanExpress cardholder, to say you
know, if I had any questions orconcerns about Amex my account
here was her cell phone number,here was her email.
Please reach out to her.
(27:09):
15,000 children in childcare.
(27:45):
Victoria cares about thesechildren and she wants to know
if there's something going onwith them, and so we need to
just make sure we handle thedetails.
We need to make sure we knowwhat's happening.
Julie (27:56):
And so I would imagine that something like that is a
lot of people have your cellnumber and not very many people
use it.
Is that true?
Victoria (28:04):
No, you know what, like honestly, like literally,
like one or two a year that callme and obviously or email me if
they do, I always look at it aswell Is this, you know, the one
in a hundred that has alegitimate concern?
Usually not, usually, it'ssomething very personal, I think
.
To be honest, unfortunately,people lose.
They lose it Like they lose theemail, they forget they have it
, they don't remember, and thenyou know they may be like
(28:24):
unhappy for a moment or two andthen they're like well, you know
they don't even realize that itcame to them when they
registered, but on the otherhand, I think it's more of a
culture message that is like weactually really do care and
therefore and the directors andthe area directors and the
teachers know that, and so youknow, if a parent is unhappy
(28:46):
with something, you know, soanother child bit their child in
the room or they didn't feelthat they were getting the right
attention, then they can go totheir director and their
director is not going to be likeoh sorry, like you know, we
don't care, like messaging thatthe director will be hopefully
very authentically caring,because that's what we want to
be.
Julie (29:04):
Yeah, well, and I think that you know, opening
communication is always helpfuland I'm sure that it helps you
with the position you have inthe marketplace and the
reputation you have.
100%, yeah, very good, verygood.
Well, I'm so excited and I'm soalso was noticing as I
(29:25):
researched for this you andJennifer are still together.
You're still both there, whichI also think is amazing because
you know that's, that's arelationship that's not unlike a
marriage after this long yes,you know what?
Victoria (29:34):
We're still friends, but she's just retired.
So she is retired, but we'restill friends.
Yeah, yeah, but she was with usfor most of the duration.
She is a little bit differentfrom me in that she loves to do
stuff.
Like you know, she had a lot ofhobbies and I, luckily, don't,
so my hobbies are my kids, whichI'm obsessed with, and my
grandchildren, and then working.
(29:55):
I'm a big working woman and soI think that makes a difference.
And she was, you know, she was.
She worked very hard obviouslyfor you know, 30 plus years, and
then she really wants to havetime now to do stuff she's
passionate about.
But we're still good friendsand we see each other all the
time.
Julie (30:09):
I love it.
I love it.
Well, what a journey you've had.
Victoria (30:12):
Thank you.
Julie (30:13):
Thanks so much for chatting with me today.
I can't wait to see Kid andCompany continue to grow.
Victoria (30:19):
We'll have your grandbabies with us.
Julie (30:20):
Thank, you, thank you, take care.
Victoria (30:24):
Bye.
Julie (30:26):
I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
Please remember to hitsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform so you won'tmiss any episodes.
Figure 8 isn't just a podcast.
It's a way of seeing the big,gorgeous goals of women
entrepreneurs coming to life.
If you're interested inlearning more, you can find my
(30:47):
book Big Gorgeous Goals onAmazon.
Anywhere you might live.
For more about my growth andleadership training programs,
visit www.
julieellis.
ca to see how we might worktogether.
Read my blog or sign up to getyour free diagnostic.
Are you ready for growth?
(31:08):
Once again, that's www.
julieellis.
ca.
When we work together, we allwin.
See you again soon for anotherepisode of Figure 8.
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