217: How Can Strategic Partnerships Transform Your Childcare Center? with Ericca Saccoccio of The Child Care Directors Chair Podcast

In this episode of "Child Care Conversations," co-hosts Kate and Carrie sit down with Ericca Saccoccio, a childcare director with 25 years of experience and owner of three centers in Rhode Island. They dive into the importance of building strategic partnerships to boost enrollment and retain quality staff.

Ericca shares her wisdom on focusing on customer retention, fostering long-term relationships with families, and being actively involved in the community. She also talks about collaborating with other childcare centers and navigating challenges like universal pre-k initiatives. This episode is packed with practical tips to help childcare providers thrive. 🌟

Check out her podcast: 
https://www.instagram.com/ccdcpodcast/ 

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Transcript

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

Kate 00:00:05  Well, today we are so excited because we have a guest and sometimes we put people in some sort of chair. But today it's the director's chair, and we are so glad that Erica is joining us all the way from Rhode Island. And you know what a wonderful thing that came out of Covid and that is that everybody seems to be perfectly comfortable with doing zoom. So if you are watching the video of today's podcast, you will actually get to see our guest. If not, you do get to listen to her. And we are so excited to talk about building strategic partnerships and that role that plays in your child care program. So, Erica, why don't you introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about you and tell us a little bit about your podcast.

Ericca  00:00:52  Sure. so my name is Erica Saccoccia, and I have been in the field for 25 years. I absolutely love it. I have three childcare locations and I am proud to say I am an on site owner.

Ericca  00:01:07  I am very actively involved with my children and my families. I have amazing staff that support me and allow me to do things outside of the centre, like today when I want to do things that my heart follows and desires. Like my podcast. so I'm super excited to be here. the Childcare Director's Chair podcast is really we just talk about the real things in real life, of running a childcare centre like right now. Not theory, not practice. Like I got vomited on yesterday, just like you probably did too. So we keep it very real. And, we just try to help navigate, the challenges that we're all facing. And I don't pretend I know all the answers. I give you the best of what I got and try to bring on some, folks on our podcast that can also contribute to the conversation because I think, collaborating together is very, very important for our industry right now.

Kate 00:02:01  Absolutely. Thank you so much, Carrie. Where do you want us to start?

Ericca  00:02:05  So, I mean, in my head, because.

Kate 00:02:08  We're talking about.

Carrie 00:02:09  Building the collaborations and the two things that I'm hearing from directors the most right now are increasing enrollment and keeping or getting good quality staff. So those are the two places that I want to start with. We'll end up going into all the advocacy stuff about partnerships as well, but I want to start with whichever one you feel is most valid for leveraging those connections. Do you use it more for bringing clients into programs, or do you use it more for finding your ideal staff? connections?

Ericca  00:02:52  So that's a great question. I have been very lucky and blessed that I do not struggle with enrollment. However, everybody state is a little bit different. So here in my state we don't have as many of the universal pre-K spots that are open. It is continuing to grow in my in my state. But it I feel like many other states kind of were ahead of the game there. they also taking three year olds as well. That is not happening here. So we're just losing four year olds.

Ericca  00:03:25  and not at the same pace as other states, just in my conversation with other folks. I think that some of that I will attribute to not only partnerships, but I'm really focused on customer retention. I feel like there's a lot of conversation about how do I enroll new kids. How about take care of the ones you have right now?

Carrie 00:03:47  Oh my gosh.

Ericca  00:03:48  You are speaking.

Carrie 00:03:49  My love language. It is so much easier to keep the families you have then to go out and dig up new ones. Yeah.

Ericca  00:03:57  So, you know, I think right now, as people are putting together open houses for all these new prospective families. So I'm going to give you a real life story. So in the last three weeks, I've had probably 15 families that have come in to Torah Center. Of those 15, eight of them were already enrolled in another child care center, and they were looking to make a move. So make sure, like when you're doing things like open houses and, you know, any special, make sure that you are also equally taking care of your currently enrolled customers, because this is the time that they're going to jump ship.

Ericca  00:04:32  There's a couple times that they're going to do it the beginning of the school year, the end of the school year, or 30, 60, 90 days in. Right? We all know that. So pay attention to that. I'm sorry, I get I get very excited when I talk about talking about my kids.

Carrie 00:04:46  Yeah. It's it's the January it's the beginning of the school year and it's the end of the school year every year. Those are the three times that you get new clients in, and you get some of your clients wandering out the door.

Ericca  00:04:59  Yeah. The other thing I really, I think is some of it is a mindset, too. When I like the other day, like I said, we had a lot of tours. I closed nine out of ten tours. Now I've been doing it a very long time. And before I was in childcare I was in sales. So I am very, very seasoned in understanding body language, understanding. When people ask questions, how to answer those correctly, make sure that I answer them correctly, make sure they don't have any more questions.

Ericca  00:05:23  But I think that I get really excited because when I enroll children, I don't go, oh my God, I just made my company another $100,000. I think, oh my God, I just enrolled five kids that I'm going to get to spend the next 5 to 10 years with. And, and yeah, and my program is built out that way. So we don't just have infant toddler pre-K. I also offer school age programming. So my program is one that kids grow into, not out of. So I made sure that my business was successful. I see Kate smiling in the corner. But yeah, I mean, I made sure I built my business to be for the long haul. Your kid is not a five minute on my spreadsheet. Your kid becomes part of my extended family and I truly mean that. I truly mean that. So I think, enrolling children into your program. Yes. Take some marketing, but it takes skill and focus on who you have because they will be raving fans for your business.

Ericca  00:06:25  They will tell their friends, I know, Kate, just jump on. I love you too. I love you too, but there will be raving fans for you. It's not about marketing tricks. And you know, I. I bought you the t shirt that has my look. It's not about that. Nobody is staying for those things. Those might be the little dangly thing at the end of the rope that might get real people in, but they don't stay if you don't take care of them. So absolutely taking care of them is tip number one. Take care of who you have okay.

Kate 00:06:54  What's great I'm.

Ericca  00:06:55  No I, I'm like I.

Carrie 00:06:56  Think we go down that route as far as the connections okay.

Kate 00:07:00  I just wanted to say that I think it's great that Erica A actually knows the lifetime value of her kids, because I would suspect that probably a third of the people listening don't even know what that means, let alone what is the lifetime value of your family. So yay! And I'm glad that you knew the number and talked about the longevity.

Kate 00:07:22  Because, you know, why do you only want a family for a year? You want that family for anywhere, like you said, five to 10 or 11 for 12. you know, keep those families as part of your program. You might have a Carey who, you know, is only gone for four years out of child care. Middle school when they kicked her out. Yes.

Ericca  00:07:44  Well, those are true stories. I mean, I have, I have children. Well, again, this happens when we're a little seasoned like ourselves. So I have children who work at my program. They're not children now, but teachers who work at my program that were my students. I also have children who were my students. Are my students kids like I mean, come on. So build your business around that. Forget about all these tricks and tips and all all the the crazy nonsense. Treat people right. It's good business sense. Treat people right and they will love you. They will write reviews.

Ericca  00:08:19  You don't have to have a contest for a new bike. They're going to write them organically. You don't have to. You don't have to do all those things. if you're struggling, I know right now my best advice would be, I know right now universal pre-K is taking a big part of students in many states, right? We have to acknowledge that. So you also have the ability in most states to decide two things whether you want to compete or you want to collaborate. Great. So you decide because you it doesn't have to be an either or. It could be both. You could have two preschool rooms, one that state funded and one that's not. And then if you have a child in your program that's already enrolled with you, that then gets picked for the lottery. They don't have to leave where they know and love, and the parents still can get that break, that financial assistance of not having to pay for childcare. There's so many things that so many opportunities right now that it's crazy to me that only people see the obstacles, so many opportunities.

Carrie 00:09:17  Yeah. I mean, the collaborating, the private public partnerships that pretty much every state has with the publicly funded pre-K. And people just go, oh, I don't want to have more paperwork, okay. If the paperwork comes with a $100,000 check attached to it, I will do the paperwork like I. Who who are you? That $100,000 isn't worth a little bit of paperwork. I don't know, you don't like it?

Kate 00:09:44  Hire somebody to do it I mean yeah I mean anyway.

Carrie 00:09:49  So like in Texas we've got three different kinds of partnership that you can do that can be part of the public pre-K. And then each school district may have something on top of that. And this is an easy way to instead of seeing that as a threat, see it as a way to have more stability in the finances of your school because governments have a tendency to pay their bills. you don't have to turn them over to collection agencies nearly as often as you have to turn families that are self-pay who are struggling financially.

Carrie 00:10:28  Right. so I 100% agree that there are ways to handle that, and we don't we have not done an episode on that. And that is.

Kate 00:10:38  I actually made myself a note because I, one of our, one of our directors actually just partnered with Fort Worth ISD and is currently promoting that preschool classroom. So I literally wrote my little pink note. Okay, it's.

Ericca  00:10:51  Just another it's another stream of revenue, you know, tap into the food program, tap into, you know, tap into the universal pre-K. Again, the more revenue streams that you have come in, the less dependent you are on any one of them. So if something doesn't work there, you know, there's there's so many ways that you can bring other revenue into your center. Don't be 100% all in on just tuition pay, because that that could be the end of your business. You want to make sure that you really are bringing in these other things. And if you've got.

Carrie 00:11:20  If you've got some if you've got school age program having the summer what the summer school feeding program, I can't remember what it's called, but it's run by the USDA.

Ericca  00:11:30  The food program, federal food program.

Carrie 00:11:32  Yeah, yeah, but it's not it's not caspa. It's a different it's gotcha for neighborhood kids that can't get their free lunches at the school because the school is closed. Yeah, but being a resource where kids come by and they pick up their lunch bags from your school is another revenue source, and those kids can be playing out on your basketball court. And then their parents are like, well, how much would it cost for my kid to be inside the building instead of just playing hoops in your parking lot?

Ericca  00:12:04  I think to even bigger and more meaningful than that is, put the revenue aside for a minute. When you do things like that, the your investment in your community is very evident. And when you invest in your community, they invest back in you. They know who is there for the Louis Vuitton bag and who's there for the kids. So, you know, just make sure that when you're doing these things that you are thinking about your greater community.

Ericca  00:12:33  And we talked about, you know, before reciprocal relationships, you know, nobody supports your business more than your local community. Most of the kids that come to you live 5 to 10 streets. I'm in Rhode Island, so we're super small, but they live. They live really close to you. I can't go food shopping and not see 19 of my students. Right. Give back to your community.

Carrie 00:12:52  Yeah, and whether that means that you put up a free library in front of your school, whether you partner with a community food bank or clothing drive, like, there's so many ways that you can expand and reach out to more members of your community than just the kids that are bringing your school. We love the car seat rodeos again, we're from Texas. Rodeo is what we call it here. I don't know what you call it in Rhode Island, but where everybody brings their cars and their car seats and you have somebody who is qualified to make sure they're all installed. Correct?

Ericca  00:13:28  Right. Yeah.

Ericca  00:13:29  So, Erica.

Kate 00:13:30  If you were going to if you were having a conversation with a director who's been in the field for a couple of years and she's still struggling with the concept of a community partnership, or b her families are leaving. What would be the advice you'd give to her right now?

Ericca  00:13:48  we're going to.

Kate 00:13:49  Give them.

Ericca  00:13:50  Or him? Yeah. I would say you got to be visible. So you got to be present. You got to be visible. Talk with the families that are in your program now and see what what organizations? What groups? Where are they? Where are they? What are they doing? Right. Because you already have I don't I don't I don't want to say plants, but you already have people in those, those areas that already love you. Right? So ask them, say, hey, you know, I know that you go to this local church. would you mind getting my stuff in the bulletin? Or is are they having a bake sale that I can go there and help and set up and volunteer? Have all your staff come with the logo shirts? There's a million ways to do that.

Ericca  00:14:32  If you're still struggling, I, I would say, you know, do some homework, see what other people are doing. You don't have to do it alone. Reach out to other child care directors. They don't have to be your exact competitor. Although I also think working with your competitors sometimes works great for both of you. So I don't want to say Pooh Pooh on that, because there are many great directors that I know that are in my vicinity. If I don't have room, I refer the family to them and they do the same to me. So you can also do that talk with other centers that are that are close by, that maybe a fool that have a wait list. Because listen, wait lists can especially if you have an infant, forget it. That's a year long kid's going to be a toddler before they ever get to you. We are in the business to serve families. Stop being greedy and help serve the families. If your phone you can't help them, refer them to another small business and they'll do the same for you.

Ericca  00:15:23  You have to be reciprocal. It can't always be like this. Love that.

Kate 00:15:27  I think that's awesome. So if they aren't figuring out how to keep their families, what might be some a word of advice as far as a way to start believing that fans.

Carrie 00:15:39  Are getting those raving fans.

Ericca  00:15:41  Oh god, I don't know. I got a problem I really had. so, I mean, I think you're gosh, I don't know, I've always been like that, but I'm Italian and my culture is very much I'm very loving and very transparent. I make relationships right from the start and I cultivate them. I would say ask for feedback. Ask why families are leaving, see what's going on. Have you even done a market analysis? Who are you competing against? What do they do? These people are going somewhere. Is it your rate is too high? Is it? Your program stinks. Is it all of a sudden you're on a road where they're doing construction for two years? Why are parents leaving? Ask the question.

Ericca  00:16:23  And sometimes it's hard. You got to be reflective, you know, ask your staff. A lot of times your staff know why parents are leaving. Ask your staff. Talk to your staff. Like a lot of times it's you know either the pricing, they can't afford the pricing. There's too much turnover in your program. Look inside, you know, look inside. Do some do some surveys and see what's going on in your program. Because I, I don't know I mean here almost all the centers are have waitlists. we don't really have a huge issue with, a lot of empty spots. But again, we're probably a year or two behind where you are. Folks are all in Texas with this, you know, all these private, private or state funded classes. Yeah. Well, I've.

Carrie 00:17:06  Known of at least one program that people were leaving because the rates were too low. and so they were going because they were like, I can't believe you can provide quality childcare for this lower rate.

Carrie 00:17:18  Because even than in some, home based programs and they're like, how are you, how are you going to keep good staff at that rate.

Ericca  00:17:27  Yeah I believe that.

Carrie 00:17:29  Both ends of the spectrum.

Ericca  00:17:31  Yeah I'm right smack dab in the middle. So I believe that statement is probably very, very accurate. And I think that too, because, when people look around in my area, I'm not the highest and I'm not the lowest, and I actually do have the highest bright stars rating in my area on top of that. So awesome. yeah. So, I mean, I've already proven that I continually, have quality.

Carrie 00:17:54  Her school age program is a five star.

Ericca  00:17:57  Yes, ma'am.

Kate 00:18:00  So I have a question. Erica. So here we have a lot of people and I call it the recycling of buildings. Right. So like, somebody retires, you know, somebody's been around for over 20 years. They retire and they may retire for a couple of different reasons. But your traffic cone example is perfect here in Texas because we're always building something new.

Kate 00:18:20  Apparently we don't like anything we ever had. So roads, buildings, businesses, everything's moving. And Carrie and I, one of the things that we did was we took over a program to basically save it. But it was as a result of one of those situations where the major employer, i.e. the the airport, right, like it totally moved by 15 miles and the child care center did not respond to the community in a way it needed to. And so it lost a lot of folks, a lot of staff. And how do you suggest to somebody who has found themselves and what I call that recycled building? Yes. It's always been a child care center, but really it shouldn't be. how would you encourage them to. Oh, I don't know. Maybe not be there.

Ericca  00:19:10  But if they.

Kate 00:19:11  Signed a lease, what do they do? How can they fix that?

Ericca  00:19:16  so actually, two of my three buildings actually were recycled buildings that I bought off my previous boss. So I have lived that life, so that's good.

Ericca  00:19:26  I think I would have definitely been proactive the minute that I found out that the airport was moving, I probably would have reached out to other businesses and collaborated with. Can I be your child care center of choice? so I would first look for what other resources are available. Right. And this is why I also said don't have all of your income coming in from one stream, right? Because if you were a state funded class, that wouldn't matter if the airport moved because you would still have that coming in. So don't put all your eggs in one basket for sure. If there is a point where you really, really, really it's time to move the buildings, just not savable, well then you have to you have to move, you have to move. You have to make that decision. honestly, I do love the thought of turnkey operations, and I think that there's so much opportunity right now to get into a center that's operating. There are lots of folks that are retiring. I always think that's a great strategy.

Ericca  00:20:24  You're not paying for build out. You've already got some staff. You've already got children, so you already have income coming in. make sure you do your due diligence. Take a look and see what the backstory is behind it, what their reputation is, all of those things, but even those things depending on how severe. But even those things can be overcome with the right leadership.

Kate 00:20:45  Absolutely. Any last pieces of advice before we wrap up or carry? Do you have one final question?

Carrie 00:20:52  I mean, my my question is, what is the one relationship you've had that has been the most valuable over the 20 years of running your schools?

Ericca  00:21:04  With my staff, the most valuable is my staff. I could not do. I couldn't do anything without my team. And I do have teachers that have been with me for 20 years, 15 years. I had a teacher who literally just gave me her two weeks notice. Well, probably about four weeks ago, but literally just gave me her two weeks notice after 20 years because she was going to try working at a charter charter school.

Ericca  00:21:28  Exactly. True story. I.

Carrie 00:21:32  I might be stalking you a little bit.

Ericca  00:21:34  It's okay. I it's okay. But I, you know, because I, I quit telling her punchline. It's okay. I tell the truth. The most important relationship to me is with my staff because I don't have a business without them. They are the ones that work with the children. They, always have my back. They always help me, both personally and professionally. I can remember a time. Okay, I'm going to share a story. I remember a time that we were not doing so great money wise. Money was really tight, and I had to pay a lot of taxes on a building. And I remember I didn't have enough money spending money to go out to eat lunch. And one of my staff bought me lunch, and I remember crying saying, I will never, ever be in this position again. So how weird is that? Because I always made sure they got paid before I did and I and so people might be like, why? Well, if you were that broke.

Ericca  00:22:26  So let me tell you a little backstory about that. So the state of Rhode Island, because this way you can't put all your eggs in one box. In the state of Rhode Island under Gina Raimondo had a problem with their payout system. So childcare providers were not getting paid their tuition that they were owed. They pay us a month behind their system crashed. It wasn't just childcare, it was all benefits crashed. It took about three months to get that money back. I was floating the state over $100,000 when all was said and done. So that's how I ended up in that position. I said, never again will I allow any center to be over a certain amount, because the particular one of our particular such is really high in childcare subsidy. Children. and I never, I never ever will do that again to my business. but yeah. So that's you know, that's what happens. So kind of like your airport story. Mine was the state of Rhode Island. I laughed, and when Kerry said, well, the state usually always pays you.

Ericca  00:23:28  And that's true. They do. Without a doubt. Their system crashed, the system crashed, and they were trying to figure out.

Kate 00:23:34  Right now we've got Missouri's got some of that. Missouri's the state of Missouri is about five months behind. Yeah. They've got programs closing right and left. And then the programs are like so when they do pay her, they actually going to pay us back because a lot of them are breaking, you know, commercial leases, which comes with a fine. And yeah. Yeah. So it's it's been an interesting. Yeah. I mean unfortunately, you know, all 50 states don't do things the same. And you'd think that if one of them figured something out that maybe they'd share.

Ericca  00:24:04  But so that's my key takeaway from all of this build your relationships. So that way you don't are you are not dependent on any one revenue stream. And, you know, keep the faith and be present. be authentic, be transparent with your with your families. Be transparent with you.

Ericca  00:24:21  Stop. It's okay to tell your parents. Hey, you know, we lost five students to XYZ, and, you know, be transparent. People really do admire that.

Kate 00:24:31  I think what's great about the transparency, and I'm going to wrap us up here, is if you tell them, not only did I lose five kids, so if you know anybody at your church or your kids Little League or any of the playgroups you're in, I have some openings that I need to fill so I can keep my staff. I mean, sometimes you have to actually ask for them to refer because especially if you've had a waitlist, they mean it doesn't always click right, like if you had a waitlist at one point in time, even if it was the toddler classroom and they're now four, unless you ask, I don't know.

Carrie 00:25:03  So, yeah. And I mean, I've definitely seen a lot of those kinds of situations over the years. I was kind of thinking through when, there was a restructuring of, one of the big Nonprofits that sponsored a lot of child care centers.

Carrie 00:25:22  And like I've seen lots of times when people had too high a percentage of their eggs in one basket and it has bitten them in the fanny. and so I just think you have dropped truth bomb and knowledge bomb after bomb after bomb in this episode. So I hope people were taking notes. If you feel like you didn't get at least five big takeaways from this episode, go back and listen to it again, because Erica was just dropping it. throughout here. we're going to put ways to connect to Erica, in the show notes. But if the if people wanted to get Ahold of you, what is your favorite way for them to reach out to you? Erica. Is it the podcast? Is it one of your socials or.

Ericca  00:26:10  yeah, you can, you can message me on any one of my socials. I answer them and I answer them quick. yeah. I'm always I'm always ready to help anybody. So, it is, childcare director's chair on Facebook and ccdc, podcast on, Instagram.

Ericca  00:26:28  Okay, awesome. Well, if.

Kate 00:26:29  You guys loved listening to Erica, don't forget to listen to us because we're going to join Erica the end of September. So it'll probably post sometime in October. And we're really excited because we have got some secrets that we're going to share on Erica's episode about, a new book about monkeys.

Ericca  00:26:47  Nice. Thank you guys so much. This is super fun.

Carrie 00:26:53  Okay, guys, so share the show with somebody you think needs to know what you learned today.

Marie 00:26:59  Thank you for listening to child care conversations with Kate and Carrie. Want to learn more? Check out our website at Texas Director. Org and if you've learned anything today, leave us a comment below and share the show.