While our country is steadily hitting our “crush the curve” goals and starting to reopen, there’s no question that we must remain on our toes and continue to exercise proper health and safety precautions. Wash our hands, stay socially distant where possible, and wear a mask where that’s NOT possible. Look after each other, and pay particular attention where mental health is concerned.

This virus has not gone away and will continue to be a threat to our health - physical, emotional, and mental - and our economy, for the foreseeable future.

That said, I refuse to see obstacles as anything but an impetus that spurs us on toward different and often better outcomes.

Yes, I’m an unapologetic optimist (also, yes, I too have my moments!), and since the lockdowns and shelter in place orders began, my goal has always been to share stories of reinvention, fortitude, and positivity with you.

On that note, welcome back to our regularly scheduled programming, something I like to call “The COVID-19 miniseries.” This past month or so on “I’m a Millionaire. So Now What?” I’ve been reconnecting with some of my favourite past guests.

I’m curious to know how these entrepreneurs and business leaders have dealt with the incredible pace of change we’ve all experienced over the past five months or so due to the aforementioned Covid-19 outbreak. 

The Essential Service of Childcare During Covid-19

Currently, daycares and childcare centres across the country are operating at reduced capacity. Prior to that, regionally and provincially, measures were taken to provide emergency childcare for essential workers – medical staff, first responders, even grocery store clerks.

Mothers and fathers were suddenly at home with their kids, 24/7 - many trying to home-school and juggle the demands of their own jobs as they suddenly asked to “work from home.”

The dearth of affordable childcare in Canada has been a problem for years. Covid-19 has revealed an even bigger problem – how do we balance staggered school days or continued on-line learning with the need for both parents to return to work? The answer, it seems, is not well at all.

As Reuters reported recently, “Experts say a part-time return will exasperate an already uneven economic recovery and increase gender inequality, further hurting women who were harder hit by layoffs and reduced hours amid the coronavirus crisis.”

Access to high-quality childcare takes the stress off the shoulders of working parents. And it’s never been more important, if we’re going to keep our businesses thriving, drive innovation, and kick-start our economy.

Which brings me to my guest this week - Victoria Sopik, CEO at Kids and Company.

A serial entrepreneur with well over 35 years of experience in the childcare industry. A mother of eight, she juggled work-life balance, before work-life balance was even a thing, with being an active and devoted parent, and built her child-care centred company (which was ultimately featured as a Harvard Business School case study!).

Her mission is to innovate the lives of working families through high quality, flexible childcare; innovative early learning programs; and the development of a sense of community and support for families.

I wanted to find out how Victoria and her teams have evolved and adapted during Covid-19, and where she sees the future of childcare (hint: childcare really is an essential service), as our lives shift and settle into this “new normal.”

From Zero to Hero

“I really expected it would be serious, but brief. And we're just now, as of next week, fully open across Canada and the US. So that's been three and a half months that we were closed. Luckily, children don't appear to be particularly impacted [with the virus]. And our children have started to return to childcare in really significant numbers. We have probably a third of our group back right now, and we expect we’ll be at a half very soon. We're super happy about that, because we didn't know how parents would feel! One of the good things about the length of time, ironically, is that parents are really tired of parenting and working at home. They were sort of ready to come back. And case numbers have dropped, in many areas, out West, they're very minimal. So, a lot of our business is in British Columbia and Alberta. From that perspective, we will have a recovery, we think it will take the full year to be full. But we're optimistic. We've received a great amount of support from our Canadian government, which is terrific. We were doing childcare for essential workers - in this case, it was the female burden. So that was a terrific opportunity. We were really grateful to be asked, and the good news is we didn't have any issue in terms of people getting sick, families getting sick. We were able to provide a much-needed service for people for three months. And so now we're just transitioning those centers to the regular childcare.”

 

Mindset: From Lockdown to Today

 

“I was living this frenetic life, which was maybe too much. And then back to this very quiet life where I was sitting in the same bedroom for 80 something days! Normally I wouldn't go for two days in the same place. I didn't complain, many people have so much more to complain about. I was actually really happy about it because it was like a really nice forced slowdown that I ended up appreciating. So now, and I'm sure many others are imagining this new life and going ‘Okay, what will I change? Precisely? I've had this experience. [Now, what’s life] going to look like?’ I think it’s kind of interesting seeing how quickly this part of the world has, you know, popped back up into the ‘quote’ normal, and then maybe a bit of a new normal, but it's not that different, really, from what I'm seeing. I think that will be encouraging for people that were struggling with the change and anxious to get back.”

 

Are You Doubling Down?

 

“We were talking about an acquisition that we could look at, for $25 million. And they've come back to us and said we can buy it for 6 million, a huge drop. Do we take advantage of that or not? It’s not an easy decision because you still don't want to spend $6 million for something that's going to be a huge liability operationally, right? I think for companies that are pretty solid like ours, because of the fact that we are an essential service amenity, childcare, and because of the fact that we had lots of support from our government and our families and our corporate clients, we feel pretty strong. We're still cautiously optimistic about acquisitions and stuff like that. I've been in business for a long time, 40 years now. I’ve gone through three, maybe four recessions. Things will change. Things will get better. Instead of focusing on the negative, what’s lost, just put your head down and work hard. It's always a successful way to run a business, in my opinion.”

Take a break and have a listen to the entire episode. And whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to exit, or perhaps a business or start-up owner who has already exited, or an entrepreneur at the helm of a thriving business, I would love to talk with you about your stories! You can drop me a line here.

Plus, if you are craving like-minded conversation with growth-oriented business owners, consider joining me and eight other business owners, investors and entrepreneurs for our next two editions of Elevated Conversations are coming up in September – watch this space for more details!

“I’m a Millionaire. So Now What?” is brought to you by Double to Sell - Canada's Premier Invitation-ONLY workshop for business owners wanting a cash-rich exit in 10 years or less. For more information, or to register, please visit the “Double to Sell” website.