Angela Smith
Tee-Riffic Kids Daycare, Worthington
Opened September 2019
When my husband and I found out we were going to have a daughter, Chloe, I decided to change jobs because I was traveling a lot doing sales for a veterinary clinic. I worked for Nobles County while I was pregnant with her. When we were finally going to start looking for day care around the area, I was 22 weeks pregnant. We couldn’t find anything. The closest we could find was probably 20 miles out of town, which would make no sense for us.
We kicked the idea around of opening a day care. I’d always kind of thought about it growing up in Jackson. The idea always piqued my interest. I applied for my license and was talking to my husband, Joe, about how we would do it. We decided to go for it. We bought a bigger house with a basement that’s all finished, so we could have it separated but still in our home. Joe is obsessed with golfing, and we moved three houses down the street from where we lived prior just because it was on the golf course still. I named it Tee-Riffic Kids to incorporate that in the name because I thought it would be cute. I have a few fun items with golf-related themes. I come up with crafts and stuff. And of course, Chloe already has her first set of clubs.
We moved into our new house in August, only two weeks before Chloe was born. That’s where I started working with Berny Berger with Small Business Development Center, and she’s the one who originally introduced me to Southwest Initiative Foundation. I needed money to get all the toys and all the supplies for the kitchen. Joe and my dad put a kitchen in downstairs because there wasn’t one. We had to get all the equipment for that. And there are a lot of startup costs with getting licensed; you have to take all these classes and get through all these hoops.
SWIF has helped me a lot. It’s amazing how many resources they’ve put out there for me. Just to name a few – they gave me QuickBooks for free, reimbursed me for classes I’m required to take to hold onto my license, kept me in the know for grant opportunities during the COVID pandemic.
They’re just always reaching out and asking if I need anything, how it’s going. I love working with Jackie (Turner). She’s awesome.
When I first started, it was really tough to get kids in the door initially. I had no problem getting calls for people looking for infant spots or any child under the age of 2. All the older kids, I was like omigosh do they already have daycare? Am I going to have two wait a few years to get my spots filled?
SWIF helped me a lot with that, providing technical assistance through Jessica Byer at First Children’s Finance. She helped me develop marketing strategies, short-term and long-term goals, set up some analyses to see what I’m doing well and what I needed to work on. That helped me to see what I needed to improve on and get my name out. Ever since, I’ve been super busy all year.
I just got relicensed, so now I can care for up to 12 kids. My first year was 10. People are always like, “That’s a ton of kids.” Actually, I noticed that when I first started and only had like 3 children, I was constantly having to keep them busy. But with more kids, they keep each other busy.
One of my proudest achievements is just getting the positive feedback from my families. I’ve had some really great families in the short amount of time I’ve been open. I’ve had kids call me their “mom No. 2.” It melts my heart that I’m able to give these kids this kind of care away from home.
I love to be busy. When I’m busy I stay motivated. Other jobs I’ve had, I’ve sat at a desk and had to keep asking for things to do. It’s just so underwhelming. It makes me really want to just keep doing well and to do better every day for these kids. I honestly never really saw myself being an entrepreneur. I always was like, “Who am I going to work underneath?” It’s just very fulfilling to own my own business and do things for myself. It’s very satisfying. And my business has helped us pay off some of our debts.
I definitely see myself doing this for another 10 years, at least. I’ve even considered the possibility of expanding into a day care center instead of in-home daycare just because I know there’s such a huge need for it here in Nobles County. I want to continue doing in-home to get it all figured out first. If I do ever decide to pursue that dream, SWIF will probably be the first people on my call list to help get it going.
