Lisa Giancarli is the Executive Director and Owner of Over the Rainbow Child Development Center, located in Bordentown, New Jersey. Lisa followed her passion to own her own business and fell in love with child care after acquiring her center in 2011. She talks about the improvements she and her husband made when starting Over the Rainbow from the bottom up. She shares the specific things she has done to create a culture in line with her overall company vision, and the benefits she received from looking at her metrics and taking action steps based upon them, and more.
Click here to listen to more episodes of Child Care Rockstar Radio™ with Kris Murray!
Here Are the Key Takeaways From This Episode:
- Lisa’s husband is a realtor and they bought the Over the Rainbow building as an investment in 2011. Her plan was to run it until they got a deal but she ended up taking it on and eight years later the rest is history.
- Lisa proves that it is possible to learn as you go. She became a student of the child care business and they went from a barebones school to one that utilizes technology and state-of-the-art electronic reporting and data collecting.
- Lisa and her husband, Joe, not only work great together but they are also high school sweethearts who have been married for 28 years.
- While you are working hard and building your business, self-care is not only important but it’s also essential.
- The director position is a huge component of success in the school. Lisa realized firsthand how important it is to listen to the team and foster an environment where people can speak up.
- When one toxic person leaves, sometimes more follow.
- In an age of electronic communication and quick responses, a well thought out handwritten note goes a long way to create a personal touch and show that you care.
- Lisa tracks enrollment weekly and reviews her metrics to create a realistic view of where her business is. This wasn’t always the case but she found much more control and power once they started consistently looking at metrics.
- Lisa’s top pillars to success in the field:
- Never stop learning about the business and immersing yourself in the industry.
- A happy family and happy staff build the business and foster high retention.
- Be open to the outside-of-the-box ideas from all people on your team.
- Don’t resist growth and change or advice from others who have done it before you.
- A child care rockstar is one who learns what they need to do and figures out how to do it. They understand, plan, and execute.
