One small business owner found success by putting business second.
Name: Steve Williams
Business: Especially for Children child care
Employees: 180
Location: Edina, Minnesota
What makes Minnesota a good place to run a business?
I think for our industry, there’s an appreciation for the value and importance of education in general. That extends to and transfers to the importance of a good child care program.
To what do you attribute your company’s longevity?
My wife was trained as an educator—she has a degree in child psychology and has been dedicated to this all the way. I joined the company in 1984, so we had been underway for about eight years. For her, doing a good job with the children came first, and running the business came second. I think overall it’s been a philosophy of, if we can do a good job providing for and taking care of children and families, then the business part of it will come.
How do you compete with national chains?
It’s interesting in that the national chains are certainly present in our marketplace, but it all depends on your location. If we have a location on one side of town, there may or may not be national competition close by, and parents don’t really drive long distances to go to a national chain or some other kind of child care program if it’s out of their way and not convenient.
How are you able to retain employees in an industry with typically high turnover?
We have a focus on allowing them and encouraging them to develop curriculum that’s appropriate for their group and that’s also rewarding for them. We found that about 40 percent of our employees have been here for five years or more. We really go out of our way to know them.
What advice would you give to other small business owners?
I think that it’s important for small business owners to be in touch with other people who are also small business owners and for whom the same kinds of issues are important. That’s why I joined NFIB, because we look and feel different from the big players in our industry. I would encourage people to be active in their local and state governments. I think it’s important that legislatures hear from people like us and not only from the regulators or the big players. I think that most legislators like to hear from Main Street rather than from Wall Street.
