Built to Sell with Jennifer Conner

Child Care Rockstar Radio

Kris welcomes Jennifer Conner, the Director of Coaching at the Child Care Success Company. She first gives an update on her move to Mexico and shares her inspiring story of exiting her business and transitioning to a full-time role as Director of Coaching. Jennifer’s natural talent for building operations manuals and systems, combined with her leadership skills, has allowed her to scale and grow the company’s processes and automation. She shares valuable insights on how she and her team valued the business, organized the necessary paperwork, and set her successor up for success. This episode is particularly relevant for those looking to build their businesses with an eye toward future sales and expansion. Lastly, Kris and Jennifer also discuss a transformative book that provides a framework for stepping out of the day-to-day operations and achieving maximum value when exiting your business.

Key Takeaways:

[5:50] We get to know Jennifer from her home office, just a little north of Tulum, Mexico. She gives a quick highlight of her background in early education and how it was not the path she expected.

[10:16] Jennifer’s decision to move to Mexico.

[13:47] Jennifer talks about the emotional highs and lows that come with changing ownership. If you are in the process of exiting or changing ownership structure, it’s very normal to ping pong back and forth.

[17:40] How did Jennifer structure the financial side of the buyout?

[21:47] The benefits of having a clear cut on the operating accounts.

[23:33] Fun Fact: the director opened up a second business, and Jennifer loves the idea that selling her business to her may have given her more confidence and the empowerment to go even bigger.

[28:33] Why she encouraged the new owner to rebrand and have her own name.

[29:05] Adopting video during the pandemic to keep connection with families.

[37:14] Subsidy vs. private pay and the lessons Jennifer learned.

[41:25] Creating systems that would make it easy for the next person, and making a video about them instead of having to repeat the same things.

[44:17] Why you may not want to be the one steam cleaning your carpets on a Saturday, and learning to have your business run without you needing to be the one working on it all the time.

Quotes:

• “I didn’t want to be an owner that has only been an owner and had no understanding of what goes on in the classroom.” — Jennifer [7:02]

• “Exiting your business is a ping pong. One minute I was all in, we’re going to sell. And the next day, I was like, Nope, I’m pulling it all back.” — Jennifer [13:28]

• “That was my goal to empower people, and I wanted them to have more and be able to be more.” — Jennifer [23:30]

• “I’m proud of what we accomplished together. Because it’s the legacy of what was built, and still being able to serve the families and children and the staff.” — Jennifer [27:10]

• “I do love systems. I did that because I felt like I trained people better than anybody else. And so I wanted to do it, but then I got tired of repeating it over and over. So I’m like, why don’t I just record it? So that was the brainchild behind that.” — Jennifer [42:13]

Sponsored By:

ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI)

Use the code CCSC5 to claim a free course!

Mentioned in This Episode:

Kris Murray

The Child Care Success Company

The Child Care Success Academy

The Child Care Success Summit

Grow Your Center

Childcare Education Institute: use code CDARenewal22 to get $100 off your renewal

Jennifer Conner

Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You, by John Warrillow

@thejenventure