How Naomi Fox Overcame Adversity and Transitioned from Investment Analyst to Thriving Daycare Owner

Intro  

Welcome to another edition of inspired stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes, how they’ve overcome adversity, and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti (00:05.718)
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codaspodi and today’s guest is Naomi Fox, founder of the Fox’s Den Child Care Center, where they have three locations in Northeast Ohio, Wadsworth, Canal Fulton, and Creston. Their website is the foxesdenchildcare .com. Naomi herself is a mother of four children.

and we’ll hear about how she first transitioned from an investment analyst to opening a daycare in her own home, and then how she expanded into the three locations that she owns today. At their centers, they care for infants up through preschool age, and even have before and after care available for K through fifth grade. Naomi opened her first center because she believed there had to be a better approach to childcare. Their lower student to teacher ratios allow each child to receive the attention they

Naomi Fox (00:46.238)
centers they care for.

Naomi Fox (00:59.486)
student to teacher ratios allow each child to receive the attention. Before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by…

Anthony Codispoti (01:03.885)
Before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Adback Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra net profits by implementing one of our proprietary programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at adbackbenefitsagency .com.

Naomi Fox (01:10.533)
where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line.

Naomi Fox (01:25.664)
results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

Anthony Codispoti (01:33.909)
Now back to our guest today, the founder of the Fox’s Den Child Care, Naomi, I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Naomi Fox (01:41.158)
Absolutely, I’m excited.

Anthony Codispoti (01:42.645)
Okay, so let’s go back to kind of the beginning. You were an investment analyst. How did the idea come about to transition from that into opening up your first daycare center in your own home?

Naomi Fox (01:55.008)
Okay, well I guess we’ll need to go just a little bit further back because it all started when I became an adult. I was married at the age of 18 and immediately wanted to just be a mother and that didn’t happen. So then I immediately wanted to spend whatever time I had being as successful as I could be. So I got into the business of financial planning and studied and took tests and had my stockbroker’s license.

And I did that for many years while we tried to build our family. We were unable to become parents for eight years until we adopted our first son. His name is Calvin and he’s now 13. So this is a long time, but in the midst of adopting our first son, we also became foster parents. So we were foster parents for eight years as well. And during that time, I worked some.

And I always stayed in the investment industry. And I also, you know, managed our foster children. And it got to the point after eight years where we were not able to adopt through foster care. had, we loved many children. Many came through our home. We were very connected to them, but they would move on as it goes. We would have adopted any one of them. We just, it just didn’t work out that way. So, nearing the end of that eight year mark, we did get a call finally for

two little boys that were already in the system, but they were available to be adopted. And they had both of them, they’re biological brothers. They had gone from birth to a foster home. In their foster home, it was an older couple that just fostered. They didn’t adopt children. So when those children became available for adoption, they needed to find an adoptive family and they found us. And I knew at that time I was working part -time.

And I knew if these boys were to come into my home and I continued working part time, they would need to go to daycare. And a one and two year old that are going to join my family permanently, I didn’t want them going to my house and then to daycare every other day of the week and not really being able to bond with our family. So I just literally out of nowhere got the idea to open an in -home daycare.

Naomi Fox (04:17.6)
where I could be home, they can be with me, but I can also watch other children in order to have some income. That was in 2017. I opened January 1st, 2017. They moved into our house March 1st of 2017. And it was going great. I knew I wanted to run my in -home daycare like I would run it if it were not an in -home. So one thing I always tell people, because I’ve talked to people over the years that had questions about starting a business.

I say, start how you want to finish. Be professional up front because you’re going to get there eventually where you’re going to need all of these things like a handbook, a tax ID number, invoicing, receipt. Like you’re going to need to be that way eventually if you want to grow. So you need to start that way. And that’s what I did. And I had a website built just for my little in -home daycare for six children. And my sons were part of that.

It was amazing. I loved it. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t thought of it sooner since we had been foster parents for so long. I was really good at financial planning and good at spreadsheets and good at running numbers. I didn’t like it, though. I really did not like it, but I did it every day. And once I opened my in -home daycare, I loved it. It was fun. We had birthday parties for my dog. We had a full preschool program.

and we just, we had the best time. And those children that started in my home seven years ago, they all graduated through my centers and stayed with us. And that was just, that’s always been emotional to like watch those children that, whose parents trusted me on day one, having no clue who I am, and then seeing them stay with us until their kids graduated out of our program. They’ve always had a special place in my heart, but that was.

The reason we started was my boys were moving into our home and I wanted them to be with me every day at first. And then we just, we were in my home for about a year and three months before we moved to our first small center.

Anthony Codispoti (06:29.874)
And did you do that simply because the demand was growing so much that you needed a bigger space?

Naomi Fox (06:35.456)
The demand was growing and I have always been the type of person that I don’t like to stay in one place. So when I got into being an administrative assistant in the financial planning industry, I wasn’t going to stay an administrative assistant for 10, 15 years. I studied, I moved forward and I advanced. And that’s where it was with my in -home daycare. I wanted to grow. I said, this is going great. I love it. It’s fun.

Let’s do more. And then so about 10 months in, I had known about a church in the area that wasn’t using their building. And I reached out to them to see if we could lease part of it and open our first center there. And then that it worked. It just it all fell into place. And I liked I mean, I credit it to to God and God’s hand leading us through every step of the way, because I had never worked in a daycare a day in my life. I just.

loved taking care of children. So I had a lot to learn that I didn’t even know I had to learn. There was a huge curve there. And over the years, and I can share how I’ve made many mistakes, but I’ve made them once because you have to learn from them. And that was a huge step for me, but it was fun and exciting to learn something new as well and to dig in and figure it out and to have each door open along the way to get to get there.

Anthony Codispoti (08:03.344)
made many mistakes but only made them once. like that. You learn from it.

Naomi Fox (08:06.88)
Yes, that’s what I tell my staff as well. know, mistakes happen, but don’t let them happen again because now you know.

Anthony Codispoti (08:16.072)
Yeah. I mean, what you’re describing sounds like, you know, great sort of American dream story. Did you have, you know, like a good entrepreneurial role model growing up?

Naomi Fox (08:29.116)
I would say that I didn’t grow up in the best of situations. My family unit, my father was in prison my whole life. My mom was a single mom that would go in and out of working. She never was really committed to one thing. But I did have my father’s mom, so my paternal grandmother, was always there. She would take me to church on Sundays. She made sure she paid for me to go to private school.

because that was important to her. And I do credit a lot of my success to going to a college prep school and learning a lot of things that people learn in college. I learned them in high school and I did well in school. And I will say that seeing the contrast of my grandma who’s always been a very successful hard worker in the contrast of my family of origin and who I grew up around, it made me want the other side of things. I strove to be like,

my grandma to do the things she did and to be successful in life. I could see that she was successful. She didn’t live in the projects. She didn’t have food stamps. know what I mean? She didn’t live in poverty. So it’s like, do what she does and you’ll get somewhere. And that’s what I did. And I thank God for that role model in my life that I could look at and see that there was a difference than what I was surrounded by.

Anthony Codispoti (09:52.615)
What a powerful lesson you’re describing there because, you know, not only did you have the positive role model, right? This was a person that you wanted to aspire to be. But in a lot of ways you had, I don’t know if negative role model is the right term, but you had this sharp contrast to say, wow, there’s a big difference here. I can see what’s possible over here and I can see what it looks like on the other side. And I don’t want that. I know that this is possible because I come from this person, right? I am.

Naomi Fox (10:08.565)
Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (10:21.97)
part of this bloodline and she’s helping me. She’s showing me the way.

Naomi Fox (10:23.722)
Mm -hmm.

Yes, yes. she always, there’s some things she instilled in me that I carry to this day. And one of the things she always said, if there’s a will, there’s a way. So having that will to do something means you’re gonna figure it out. There’s a way to get it done. And I’ve had to use that almost every day of my life. And then she always told me that God is always in control. So those two founding, like foundational pieces of who I am and how I grew up.

have allowed me to not freak out, figure things out, and just keep moving forward.

Anthony Codispoti (11:02.281)
I, you there’s a usually a part in the interview a little bit later where I like to ask about, you know, particular challenge that you’ve overcome either personally or professionally. I wonder if there’s more to be said about kind of your childhood growing up and, know, some of the lessons that you learned along the way from.

Naomi Fox (11:21.728)
I mean, it’s just pretty simple. Like, work hard and don’t do things that are considered bad. Don’t drink, don’t do drugs, just say no. I mean, I was exposed to that and I could have very easily done all of those things, but I didn’t. I actually didn’t even have my first sip of alcohol until I was 26 years old. So it’s just one thing, because you see what something like that can do to a family. I saw it firsthand. So it’s like, don’t do that.

do this instead. But I’ve learned a lot more lessons as I’ve gotten older. I feel like there’s never been one big challenge. It’s been lots of big challenges. I just keep like, you know, from my childhood to infertility for a very long time to starting the business and figuring out, I didn’t even know what a building code was, but having to cross those hurdles.

to where now if I had to open another daycare, I could do it almost overnight. But that first time opening it was overwhelming trying to figure all of that out. And I had nobody helping me. I didn’t even know I could call the state of Ohio and have them help me. Now I do know that, but I didn’t. So I was just really just trying to figure it out.

Anthony Codispoti (12:42.798)
A couple things there I’d like to unpack if you’re willing. know, there’s, it doesn’t get talked about a lot, but fertility challenges are very common and incredibly stressful. What advice would you have for somebody listening who is going through a similar challenge now?

Naomi Fox (12:53.447)
Absolutely.

Naomi Fox (13:06.152)
I would say that, I mean, faith plays a huge part in my life. And I got to the point before we adopted our first son where I said, you know what, God, if it’s not your will for me to have any children, then I need to be okay with that. And my life could be amazing in a different way I don’t even know. I almost had to just give it up because I remember the exact time I had that conversation and made that decision. It was two months later that we were contacted to adopt my son.

So it was like, almost like you have to let go and focus on everything else around you that you can that’s good and not make that the only thing that you can focus on, which is very hard to do. But I can say this, it took eight years to adopt my first son. And it was 11 years after that until we adopted our next two. No, it wasn’t. It was eight years and then it was six more years.

I think before we adopted the next ones. And then, and this is the crazy part, 17 years from the time we got married, I did get pregnant finally. And we have a daughter. Thank God it’s not another boy. And so, and I never, after we had three boys, I said, I don’t want any more kids. I always wanted a lot, but three boys is literally insane. And I was very excited to be pregnant because I had never even been pregnant once.

But also I was scared. I was like, if this is another boy, like I don’t, I really don’t want that. And you know, it’s a girl, her name is Joy. She’s great. She’s four now, but that was, that was interesting to go through.

Anthony Codispoti (14:50.98)
What a great and apropos name for your daughter, right?

Naomi Fox (14:54.632)
Yeah, well her birthday is at Christmas time too, so it just all fit together.

Anthony Codispoti (15:00.454)
That’s amazing. And as a father of two little boys, eight and 10, yeah, I can attest to the challenges of a lot of little testosterone bodies bumping up against each other in the house. So yeah, adding a third in there, I could understand your apprehension about bringing a fourth boy into the house.

Naomi Fox (15:16.84)
Yeah, it’s exponential too. It’s not just like you add a second one and it’s double trouble. No, it’s like, it’s more than that. It’s like, and like one time when my husband and I were very young, we got two puppies at the same time. We thought that would be great. No, they like make each other dumber and it’s harder to train two at the same time than it is to do one. And I, whether it’s offensive or not, that’s what little boys do to each other. They make each other.

Less smart.

Anthony Codispoti (15:47.044)
actually, I think that’s a really good way to put it. I’m gonna have to share that with my wife tonight, because we’ve noticed that maybe if one of them is, playing with a friend for the day, and we’ve got one home with us, and the house is so quiet and peaceful, and they’re so kind and calm. And then the you know, the other one comes in and right away they’re at each other and they’re poking and they’re hitting and they’re yelling. So yeah, I think I think dumb dogs is is an appropriate comparison. So

Naomi Fox (15:50.464)
hahahaha

Naomi Fox (16:02.45)
See ya.

Naomi Fox (16:09.083)
Absolutely.

Anthony Codispoti (16:16.793)
Well, you something else I wanted to talk about, you you mentioned building codes. Did know anything about building codes? Did you have someone like as you were going along, that was a resource for you that you could reach out to and say, I don’t even know like the questions to ask or who to call or like, I have no idea what to do next.

Naomi Fox (16:31.37)
Mm.

Naomi Fox (16:36.192)
I mean, honestly, no, no, I did not. I would just call the building department and ask the questions. And if I didn’t feel like I got the answer, I’d call again and I’d ask a different question or I’d speak to someone else. That was the very first go around. So when we first opened, we were in the basement of a church. We were licensed for only 30 children. It was a very small space. We could only have three infants and then.

you know, 27 other age children. And so it was a huge hurdle, but it was a very small operation. After about six months of that, we were we needed to expand because the demand was it was very quickly growing. And we worked out a deal to take over the entire church building. So we were then licensed for 80 children. And one thing I’ll say expanding

There were some more things I had to figure out with the building code and all of that. But I knew that one of my children that I enrolled, that child’s parent was an architect. So I reached out to her. And that’s another lesson I learned is think about who you know and what they know and reach out to them. Because people, I’ve never had someone say, no, I won’t help you. Like they will because I’m saying, you’re an expert. Can you help me? And they said, you’re a nice lady. Sure, I’ll help you. You watch my kid.

And that’s gone a long way over the years, just knowing what people are, what they do, getting to know them, making it be personal. And then they’ve been able to help me along the way. And she drew up the plans for our expansion. I trade services a lot of times. That’s been something that’s been helpful. So she gets a discount. I get what I need. I’ve done that with cleaning services and just different things throughout the years. So that’s one really.

great thing that I’ve carried with me to even to this day is getting to know what people are good at and working together.

Anthony Codispoti (18:37.762)
I like that. Where was all this demand coming from? Sounds like you were growing very quickly. Were you advertising?

Naomi Fox (18:44.768)
I had never advertised. mean, I would share in like local Facebook mom groups and then word of mouth. I had an open house. I think it was good that we started small with 30 because that’s easy to fill and then go from there. If you start big, it’s a lot more. And I’m learning this now, actually. We just opened our third center in February and it’s licensed for 200.

ginormous compared to what I already have going on. And so I’ve had to totally learn a new way of filling a center. Whereas before it could be word of mouth, it could be just cheap little Facebook ads or just posts that are free. Now I have to implement a whole marketing system. And that’s something I’m learning right now as well.

Anthony Codispoti (19:34.197)
And so in this new center, you still have some capacity to fill.

Naomi Fox (19:37.694)
Yes, yes.

Anthony Codispoti (19:39.051)
And where is that center in particular? So folks listening. Okay.

Naomi Fox (19:41.76)
That’s in Canal Fulton, just outside of Canton, Ohio.

Anthony Codispoti (19:45.943)
Yeah. And is there, are there a lot of competing daycares around? Like, do you have a lot of competition or is it just a matter of time before you think this fills up?

Naomi Fox (19:53.642)
So.

I think it’s a matter of time. There’s definitely way more daycares in where my first location is in Wadsworth. There’s a lot in the town. The city of Canal Fulton doesn’t have a lot, but Canal Fulton is a suburb of a much more populous area. real close, there’s not a lot of daycares, but if you spread out, there are, but there’s also a ton of people. So the potential is there. It’s just really getting the word out.

Anthony Codispoti (20:22.913)
And so now you’re having to do marketing sort of for the first time. What does that look like? What kind of things are you putting in place?

Naomi Fox (20:26.804)
Yes, yes. I found a company that can help me that is, you know, they’ve made a landing page and actually before I talked to you, I was on a conference call with them setting up our Google Ads account and I’ve never had to do that before. So that’s something I’ve had to learn. I learned about a CRM recently. I’ve never used a CRM system, but now I need to. And these are all things like I joke and I say,

I run straight forward through a wall and figure stuff out, but I don’t think about everything that comes after that. And that’s what I’m doing now. Like, I have to do three preschool graduations now instead of two, and how am going to work that in my schedule? I have to learn what a CRM is, and I have to learn about so many new things that I didn’t need before. Always continuing to learn is very important. You can’t just say, this is what I know how to do, I’m just going to do it, because you won’t get anywhere.

if you’re trying to grow.

Anthony Codispoti (21:24.011)
Yeah. Yeah. A phrase, ready fire aim popped into my head when you talked about running through a wall and, figuring it out later. And you know what? It works so well for a lot of really successful entrepreneurs. And I think the reason is because, you know, if you spend too much time sort of planning and thinking and rehearsing, you know, you sort of get stuck paralysis by analysis and you don’t move forward and, you know, take those big steps. So I think, I think there’s a lot to be said for this approach.

Naomi Fox (21:30.714)
That’s me.

Naomi Fox (21:54.302)
Yeah, it’s the more vulgar way to put it is F around and find out. And that’s just what I do. I feel like if a door opens, I’ll knock on a ton of doors. They’re not all going to open and they’re not all going to work out. But this opportunity with our newest center, it opened. We negotiated. I knew what I was willing to put forth and it worked out. It didn’t have to. It’s not going to kill me if it doesn’t, but I’m going to keep trying.

Anthony Codispoti (22:22.53)
Excellent. So Naomi, let’s talk a little bit about the daycare centers themselves and what goes on inside. I’d like to hear more about your curriculum and your overall approach to early childhood education.

Naomi Fox (22:36.894)
Yes, it’s very important that it’s not just a cold educational environment to me. The staff members that have been with us the longest, that are the ones that are the foundation of our business, are the ones that are loving and caring and the children adore them because there’s a real connection there. It’s not just a professional or stark educational environment.

I think teachers as kids get older can be that way too, but when they’re little, we’re not just here just to teach you stuff. We’re here to hug you when you’re sad that your mom’s not here. We’re here to put a bandaid on your boo boo. We’re here to help you figure out how to get along with other people in those very early stages. There’s so many studies that are done that say ages zero to five are just crucial.

what I will say to that is, then how come that’s the most overlooked by the powers that be? They put so much into K through 12, and then they’re like, you guys are so important, figure it out. That’s really what I’ve learned. Yeah, it is. It is. So we want to be a caring, loving place.

Anthony Codispoti (23:52.799)
It’s a real mixed message being sent there.

Naomi Fox (24:03.668)
that values communication first and foremost. One thing I did have over the years with my foster children, I did use daycare for them so I could work. And I felt like once I dropped them off, like I had no, like they weren’t, we weren’t connected at all throughout the day. I had no idea what went on until I was handed a piece of paper at the end of the day. I didn’t even know if the paper was accurate. So one thing we implemented right away and we use religiously is an app.

that has communication with parents all day long. Now seven years ago, that wasn’t common. We were one of the first places in the area to really start doing that. Almost every daycare does it now. And what I say the difference is we do it religiously. If a parent sends us a message at any of our centers, everyone in the building sees it so that they can get a response right away. Because a teacher may be busy. If they have seven little kids, they may not be able to write their parent back.

a teacher next door can say, hey, did you see that message? Or a member of management can make sure that they’re replied to right away. So open and constant communication is huge for us. And then as far as learning goes, I struggle because I know that kindergarten right now is like first grade. So our preschool class has to be like kindergarten when I was a kid. And we do provide that, but I also think

It just saddens me that I know that when they leave our center and they go to kindergarten, that playtime is gone. It’s all business almost at that point. And so we want to make sure we provide that as much as we can while still also getting them ready. And we have gotten feedback from our local school systems that yes, Fox’s Den children are ready for school. And that is huge for me.

but also I don’t want it to be so focused on that that they don’t still lose out on that wonder and that magic and that fun of what childhood is all about, which is playing and being silly and just doing crazy stuff. So that’s what we do.

Anthony Codispoti (26:15.274)
And there’s a lot of learning that happens through play when it’s, yeah.

Naomi Fox (26:18.086)
Absolutely. It’s the primary source of learning for a child.

Anthony Codispoti (26:22.526)
Now, interesting to hear you talk about the app. Did I see on your website a mention of a video camera system?

Naomi Fox (26:29.172)
We do have cameras, a lot of them, everywhere in every center. We don’t allow parents to access them because that’s a privacy issue with other families. But all of our management team can see all the cameras no matter where they’re at. If they’re home, if they’re in the office, we have on our phone, we can see our cameras. And really it’s just, it’s good for…

You don’t know someone until you know them. So you can hire someone who you think is going to be great and they may not be. And to have that line of security, just knowing we let them know they’re being watched at all times is important to have. And then also, I don’t ever want to tell a parent ever, I don’t know what happened to your child. I don’t know why they have this mark on their arm, because it’s possible that your teacher’s back was to them.

because they were doing something they needed to do and they didn’t see it, but we have a camera so that we can make sure we can give you the answer of what happened to

Anthony Codispoti (27:31.527)
Is that unusual? Do most daycare centers have these camera systems in place?

Naomi Fox (27:36.416)
I’d say it’s probably 50 -50. think some have them. It’s almost like the same thing with the app. You have it, but are you religiously using it? Is it a core aspect of what you’re doing? And our camera system is another one of those core aspects of what we’re doing where we have it, it records, some of them don’t record, and we review frequently just because we want to keep everyone in check.

And that plays on to another part of our business that I think really separates us is we offer our staff attendance and performance bonuses every single month. And one way that we can monitor that those expectations are being met obviously is our camera system as well, because we can’t be everywhere at all times.

Anthony Codispoti (28:27.39)
I’m glad that you brought that up. One of the questions I typically like to ask is, know, tight labor market, hard to find and hold on to good people. What kind of creative things have you tried that are working? And you’ve got this attendance and performance system that motivates people to, you know, show up and do what’s expected of them. Any other interesting things that you’ve tried and found success with?

Naomi Fox (28:51.338)
Well, I’ll say after about three years in, like the first three years of my business, I was just so excited that someone would say, yeah, I’ll come work with you. And to me, I looked at it like, we’re in this together, like we’re on, and I didn’t have as much of a over management role. I was like a teammate and I had to learn as I grew, like I can’t always be like that. I have to be a boss. And one of the things I learned is, you know, people are gonna call off all the time.

And in our industry, you can’t make up the work the next day. You can’t pick up the slack in the same day because you’re not allowed to be over ratio in a classroom. can’t have more kids than you’re allowed to have per state laws. And one thing I tell everyone we interview and every parent that we meet, we will never be over ratio. Not one day will you have a classroom in any of my centers that is over ratio. And that is uncommon at times.

My management knows that they’re going to step in a classroom. I will step in a classroom. My husband will step in a classroom. We are not going to be over ratio because it’s not safe and it’s not allowed. That being said, a lot of call -offs cause a lot of problems. And when I saw that problem and that repeated issue that we were having, I just had the idea to offer the attendance incentive bonus.

where if you work all of your scheduled shifts, you get an extra 75 cents an hour for the whole previous month, every hour you worked. You get a bonus at the beginning of the next month. And then more recently, I said, you know, I want our teachers to be incentivized to know the state rules, because there’s a lot of them, and to desire to follow them. So that’s when we offered the performance bonus as well, where that’s an extra 50 cents an hour on top of the 75 cents.

Ever since then, things have gotten a lot easier. You know? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (30:53.106)
For both of those bonuses, you see people showing up for more shifts and you see people, and how do you measure if they know the state rules?

Naomi Fox (31:01.438)
We tell them we’re going to teach you and we’re going to, if we noticed you’re breaking one of them, we’re going to tell you and we’re going to make sure you know, because this, the burden is on us. We’re going to make sure you know. Once we know that you know, if you continue to do it, then you lost your performance bonus that month. And we also say you can’t get a performance bonus if you don’t get an attendance bonus because you have to be here to perform. And then I tell everyone else also.

We want you to give yourself a raise before we’re able to consider giving you a raise. So you need to say, I’m going to be on all my shifts. I’m going to perform and I’m going to further my knowledge. If they want to get, get a degree or a CDA certificate, we’re giving them raises along the way to do that. If you do those three things, you’re amazing and I’ll give you even more money, but you, we, we want to make it a personal responsibility thing.

And I think that’s the culture that we have actually successfully created. I’m very proud of that.

Anthony Codispoti (32:04.368)
That’s really cool. I like that you’ve tried something a little bit innovative there. you know, sometimes as business owners, we try different innovative ideas that don’t play out. You know, before we were doing the pre -interview, before we went live, we were talking a little bit about your, the idea you had for blended classrooms. I wonder if you can talk about that.

Naomi Fox (32:24.99)
Yeah, I was really excited when we first opened our center and I loved everything I had going on in my little in -home bubble. And I said, we just need to recreate this in a center and have, know, siblings can be together even if they’re different ages, because that’s what goes on in my home and it’s so fun. And I started out that way, but then I realized quickly there’s more state rules than I even knew existed. And one of them is you can’t blend ages.

if there’s so many children in the building. So that took that away right away. Like you can’t do it. And also it doesn’t financially make sense the larger you get to do that because the older the kids are, the more you can have in a classroom. And that’s how you’re able to meet those bottom line numbers to make the business operable. So I had to change that pretty quickly. One thing I will not change, even though it probably, I know it’s not a financial advantage.

is our infant classrooms will have lower ratios. I don’t believe that infants get the best care. In the state of Ohio, you can have two teachers with 12 infants. That to me is absolutely absurd. I think that I’m sure there’s teachers that do it every day and they do a very good job, but it’s very difficult. And I don’t want to hear babies crying because their needs aren’t being met. So much so that myself or a director of a center will have a baby on their lap in the office frequently.

because sometimes they just need help, they’re babies. And it’s our job to meet that need. When a baby cries, they need something. So we will never. There was one time I can recall that we had to do that due to call -offs and sickness. And I was one of the teachers with the two to 12. And I think I’m the best, obviously. And I said, this is crazy. How do people do this every day?

Because it’s our instinct to make babies happy and not crying. So we make sure those infant classes do not have to operate that way. It just really varies because if all of them are closer to age one, it could be like two to 10, one to five kind of thing. But if you have a lot of newborns, it’s going to be one to three, one to four because they have more needs more often.

Anthony Codispoti (34:27.213)
What’s your typical ratio in the infant classroom set?

Naomi Fox (34:47.38)
We just play it by ear.

Anthony Codispoti (34:49.113)
Naomi, I’m curious if you could share a success story of a particular child who’s thrived under your care. Maybe they were going through a challenge, a little bit of a rough spot, and you were able to help them.

Naomi Fox (35:01.14)
I mean, I think we see stories like that every single day and really is under my care or is it under the care of an amazing teacher that’s with them all day long. I’m gonna offer them my staff advice and I’m gonna help them figure things out if they need help. But ultimately it boils down to if that teacher has what it takes and has the right spirit and wants to help them through something, then they will. And that’s why it’s important to have really great teachers and to reward

the ones that are awesome and weed out the ones that aren’t. Because there have been some times where our center or any center is not fit for the needs of a certain child or a certain behavior that you can’t overcome. But we’re not going to stop trying until we get to that point. But there, I would say there’s a lot of them, you know, and I’ve, I’ve loved one thing I absolutely just love every year at graduation when they go to kindergarten, I’m crying is

I remember their first day as a baby and then now they’re graduating and going to kindergarten. And to me that’s always a success story because we’ve been a part of that whole time period of their lives before they move on to the next phase.

Anthony Codispoti (36:14.021)
Naomi, what are some of the most common concerns that parents have when starting their kids in a new school like yours? And what can you tell them to put their minds at ease?

Naomi Fox (36:25.97)
I think they’re concerned about ratios. They’re concerned about how many kids are in the class. They’re concerned about who’s watching their children and that their needs are being met. And I think what I’ve learned to overcome that is the more communication, the better. The more open we are with each other, them and us, the more we can make sure those needs are being met. If you don’t tell us

that there’s something particular that they need, we can’t meet that need. And if a teacher realizes that what they’re doing isn’t working, but they don’t ask the parent for advice on something that may help, then they’re never going to get that information as well. So I think they are really concerned with who’s watching their kids and that not too many kids are being watched and that…

The only way I can think to overcome that obviously is communication, sharing with them that we will never be out of ratio and then obviously having cameras to make sure that our eyes are on them. The parents need to be comfortable to share a concern they may have. And some people just aren’t and I don’t like that. If you see something out of a teacher that I don’t see, I want you to tell me and it will swiftly be handled every time.

And that’s also important because it’s really hard in this industry to staff as it is and to meet ratios. But to be willing to just let someone go because they’re not a good fit and they’re not what’s best for a child, no matter what that means for me having to be in a classroom or their boss having to be in a classroom, you have to be willing to do that because the safety and the best interest of our children has to come first. And it’s a struggle constantly. The staffing is a struggle, but I

I try to tell parents if you see a turnover rate, please know that it’s for a reason. If someone quits, we probably wanted them to quit anyway. I can think of three or four teachers over the years that unfortunately we couldn’t make it work out because we can only pay so much or their schedule changed or something. But there’s a whole lot more where it’s really okay.

Anthony Codispoti (38:39.403)
It’s for the best. Addition by subtraction sometimes happens. Yeah. What advice do you have for parents who are trying to decide between different schools?

Naomi Fox (38:41.926)
Yes. Yes.

Naomi Fox (38:49.0)
I think you have to, you have to tour every single one of them. You have to see how you get along with not only the teacher, but the management as well, because a teacher may come and teacher may go. But if you feel confident and trustworthy of the management that’s in place, then I think it’s easier for you to just ebb and flow with whatever’s happening at the center as a whole. But you have to just really…

We all have the same state rules to follow. Like that doesn’t change. Every teacher at every daycare is gonna have a background check. So I can’t say we’re special because we have a background check. So they have to, you have to get in there and just see how you feel. Do you feel comfortable? Because that’s really what it boils down to, you know?

Anthony Codispoti (39:40.014)
You know, as business owners, big part of our job is to keep an eye on the bottom line, right? Make sure that we’re profitable so we can keep our doors open so we can continue to grow and support our teams. We’ve got sort of two categories of levers that we can pull. One of them is how do we increase sales? The other one is how do we decrease expenses? So thinking first about the sales lever, what’s some things that you’ve tried there that you found have worked?

Naomi Fox (40:10.016)
Well, it’s not as open -ended in our industry because you can only have so many children in a building. That’s a rule. I have one for 80, one for 60, one for 200. We can’t increase sales past that number. It’s not possible. So for me, I’ve opened other centers. That’s how I can grow. My business as a whole is to open more centers. And then another thing you have to consider is parents can only afford to pay so much.

I could charge more, but then they can’t be here. So then I don’t have anything to grow on because I can’t pay teachers to be here if I don’t have kids to be here. So I’ve said that a lot over the years is I can’t pay more because if I raise rates so high, they’re going to leave. And it’s really a problem for our industry as a whole. It really is. And obviously, I’m actually

Anthony Codispoti (41:01.089)
It’s a tough balancing act.

Naomi Fox (41:06.342)
on the verge of raising rates as I do every school year when it starts. And I it’s just one of those things that I just struggle with because I I know these families personally and I care about them. And it’s like, I have to do this to keep these staff here and to continue to provide them with raises and incentives to stay here. And I know it’s going to affect your bottom line, but it’s something that I have to do. And it’s very difficult.

But we have to, we raise rates every year as the economy right now isn’t great. That’s something we’ve had to struggle with. And once you’re at capacity though, there’s not much you can do to increase sales other than open another center. Yes, yes. Yes, yes.

Anthony Codispoti (41:50.924)
which you’ve done now multiple times. And you’re working on filling your latest center now, which is exciting. So now as you think about that other lever to pull, lowering expenses, what are some creative strategies that you’ve tried there?

Naomi Fox (42:05.376)
I’m not gonna cut people’s pay. That’s like the easiest thing to do. I’m not gonna do that. But lately I have started using reusable, it may cost a little money to get a washer and dryer put in the center, but we’re gonna be able to wash and dry towels for wiping faces and towels for wiping hands so that you’re not just blowing through paper towels and baby wipes constantly. That has helped, especially because the prices of all of those things.

since I opened have gone up such a crazy amount that things like that we’ve been able to cut back on those kind of expenses. then with my new center, there’s a program in the, it’s a national program that helps pay for food when you provide food for childcare. My first two centers do not provide food. We don’t have the space for a commercial kitchen. My most recent one does.

and we’re working hard to get signed up with the food program because that’ll help cover a lot of our food expenses. That’ll help a lot. And then obviously there… Yeah, yeah, it’s awful. It’s another one of those things like I had no idea about. So you can either go directly through the state of Ohio, but you have to be open for a year to do that. So we’re not there yet. Or you can get a sponsor that helps you do all the paperwork and get it all set up.

Anthony Codispoti (43:10.645)
Is that a difficult process to go through?

Naomi Fox (43:32.032)
but they have to have availability to take you on. So I’m on like three waiting lists for a sponsor and if I don’t get in then we’ll be at a one year mark and we’ll just go straight through the state of Ohio. Which is annoying. February of 25. It’s annoying because you need that help more when you’re new and small but you can’t get it until you’ve been open for a year. So just get through that first year. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (43:42.401)
When will you be at that one year mark? Okay.

Anthony Codispoti (43:58.583)
right? Power on. Naomi, what’s something you wish you could teach a younger version of yourself?

Naomi Fox (44:08.052)
Maybe do a little more research on the front end. Because yes, yes, yes. I don’t know if it would stop me, but it would make things a little easier, less surprises along the way. So it would be a little less stressful. I’m still going to do it. I’m still going to figure it out. But doing more front end work would, I think, be very helpful.

Anthony Codispoti (44:11.935)
Not so much ready aim fire or ready fire aim, more ready aim fire. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (44:37.713)
We were talking a little bit in the pre -interview about your great American success story and sort of the love for the country and what a great place that we live in, lots of opportunities. I’d like to hear kind of your take on that.

Naomi Fox (44:51.208)
I mean, ever since I was a child, I’ve always just had this level of patriotism. I don’t know why. I don’t know where it came from. I just love America and I believe what I was taught in school is that you can, and my mom taught me, you can be anything you want to be. And, sorry, one second.

I have one child home today. You can be anything you… Right, absolutely. If you put your mind to it and you work hard, you can be whatever you want to be, you can do whatever you want to do. And I actually believe that. And I do think some people don’t believe that, but I actually do and I actually did. And so that allowed me to just, there’s nothing causing me to second guess that I could be successful.

Anthony Codispoti (45:15.35)
That’s all right. A job that never ends.

Naomi Fox (45:41.65)
in the financial services industry or that I could be successful in opening daycares. I just knew that if I worked hard and figured things out that I could move forward and I think that that’s available to anyone here because I’ve seen it myself.

Naomi Fox (46:02.462)
I’m grateful to have these opportunities. I know college has really pushed on a lot of people and there’s some, obviously you have to go to college and be a doctor. Don’t try that without going to college. But you don’t have to go to college to be successful. I firmly believe that and I’m sorry if that makes some people mad, but you can get really far in life by just digging your heels in and working really hard.

Anthony Codispoti (46:28.01)
You’re a living, breathing example of that.

Naomi Fox (46:31.328)
We just, bought our first home a year and a half ago. Like I’m 40, finally bought a home. It’s an amazing home and I’m so thankful for it. But I worked hard for so long and saved for so long to get to that point. You have to be willing to sacrifice on the front end to reap rewards on the back end. And I know that’s something that this culture nowadays isn’t, I don’t see it, I don’t see an understanding of that.

It’s almost like people want to live like they’re 40 when they’re 20 and you can’t, you have to pay your dues. And you have to pay them because just living for 20 years isn’t paying your dues. Paying your dues is working and struggling and sacrificing and growing and showing up for work when you have a headache and doing things you don’t feel like doing. You have to every day or you’re not going to get ahead.

Anthony Codispoti (47:24.063)
That’s a lesson. Are there particular mentors or books that have been helpful for you in your path?

Naomi Fox (47:31.872)
I mean, just my grandma has been a huge mentor for me and I have not taken the time to read too many books. I want to. I have a list I’ve started to now that I actually have a little more time. But you don’t have time to read.

Anthony Codispoti (47:52.191)
How about any podcasts or any TV shows, anything like that that you found inspirational or instructive?

Naomi Fox (47:59.712)
No, I don’t have anything major that sticks out like that. I really don’t. I do. And when you’re doing this, you’re busy. I don’t watch a lot of TV and I don’t read a of books because I’m struggling through life. Trying to figure things out. but I am determined. I actually just introduced to my management team.

Anthony Codispoti (48:00.767)
Fair enough.

Well, you’ve got your grandma and she sounds like a gem.

Anthony Codispoti (48:18.11)
The school of hard knocks, that’s where you’ve gotten your lessons.

Naomi Fox (48:26.342)
A week ago I said, we’re going to read this book together because I think that it’s important for us to grow in our leadership abilities together. So I’m getting to a point now where I feel like I can do that stuff, but I haven’t felt in the midst of raising four children and starting businesses that I could do anything like that.

Anthony Codispoti (48:44.658)
What are you doing with all your free time?

Naomi Fox (48:47.273)
I don’t even know.

Anthony Codispoti (48:49.224)
So what’s this new book that you and your management team are gonna take in?

Naomi Fox (48:53.6)
It’s called Dare to Lead and I think that you have to be brave to lead and to grow and that’s something I thought would be good for us all to start off with.

Anthony Codispoti (49:04.54)
Right. Naomi, what’s a fun fact most people would know about you?

Naomi Fox (49:10.484)
This is weird, but I don’t think a lot of people have the same experience. I have never touched a worm. I’ve never caught a lightning bug. I’ve never touched a frog. Never touched a fish. Like I don’t do that. Intentional. I’m not about that life. And I have three boys. So when they’re running in my house with this stuff in their hands, it’s get out. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (49:23.806)
This is all intentional.

Anthony Codispoti (49:36.19)
So ever since you were a little kid, the idea of touching something creepy crawly flying is really repulsive for you.

Naomi Fox (49:42.098)
No, it’s unnecessary. Why do I need to pick up a worm right now or catch a lightning? But like let them live and let me live. No need for that.

Anthony Codispoti (49:53.287)
Now does this apply to like all kinds of animals or just sort of these creepy crawly types?

Naomi Fox (49:59.328)
So we actually just had an animal lady come to one of our daycares last week and she brought all our animals and she showed all the kids and she’s gonna go to all of our centers in the next few weeks. if it’s like I would touch the bunny, I touched the bunny. That’s it. I’m not touching a snake. And my mom had snakes growing up, not touching it. Anything that’s like not soft and fuzzy.

I don’t need to touch, I don’t think that nature intended for me to touch that.

Anthony Codispoti (50:35.379)
appreciate you sharing that. Naomi, I just have one more question for you. But before I ask it, I want to do two things. First of all, if you’re listening today, excuse me, and you like today’s content, please hit the subscribe, like or share button on your favorite podcast app. Next thing I want to do before I get to the last question, I want to let people know how to get in touch with you. What’s the best way to make that happen?

Naomi Fox (50:57.876)
I would say go to our website, thefoxesdenchilcare .com and it’s F -O -X -S, not E -S. It’s possessive, thefoxesdenchilcare .com. And it’s really easy to reach out. You can hit a contact us form. You can chat with us online. You can click which center you want information on. That’s really the best way. All of our business phone numbers, our cell phones, you can even text if you want because I don’t like making phone calls. I know most people nowadays don’t.

you can text us, it’s easy.

Anthony Codispoti (51:28.776)
Yeah, that’s great. So last question for you, Naomi. Where do you see the child care industry evolving in the next five years? What do you think the changes are that are coming?

Naomi Fox (51:41.78)
I know it’s been talked about that we would be more like the public school system where it’s free and it’s government run. I could see that happening. I also could see it not happening because that’s a huge, massive undertaking to just like start that from scratch because so many centers are privately owned and operated. I could see that. I don’t know if it would be good or bad. I think that…

The state should help more though so it can be affordable for more people. We’re in a situation now where childcare is very expensive. So you either need to be very wealthy to afford it or you need to not be very wealthy and you can get a subsidy to pay for it through the state. If you are two middle -class working parents who have a mortgage and two car payments and children to provide for, writing that check every week is not easy. And I understand that.

And I think that’s really the groups that we’ve found that we work with best, those families, because our rates are more affordable in that middle ground. We’re not super expensive like all of your corporate run daycares. And we’re not just for inner city lower income areas. So we’ve been able to like hit that middle ground of people. But I see them and I know that it’s a struggle.

And I think there needs to be more help for them. So it’s my hope that we wouldn’t be fully state run, but that there would be more funding and help for those middle families.

Anthony Codispoti (53:19.978)
Yeah, it does seem a little impractical for it to be completely state run, right? Like there’s already a great deal of privately owned infrastructure there. Even if they wanted to make the change, like the initial and the ongoing expense would just be tremendous. It seems like a nice in -between approach is kind of what you’re suggesting to have the state help out more, right? To not just have the subsidies be available for

Naomi Fox (53:24.458)
Mm -hmm.

Naomi Fox (53:29.13)
Yeah.

Naomi Fox (53:44.606)
Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (53:47.644)
people at the lower end of the income scale. for a lot of folks that are, like you said, to middle incomes, car payment, house payment, that’s a real struggle for them too.

Naomi Fox (53:59.988)
Yeah, it’s almost like it reminds me of college. If you’re very wealthy, you can just pay for it. If you’re not, you can get a lot of grants and scholarships. But those middle class families, it’s insurmountable at times to even pay for college. So I see that every day in our industry as well. It’s very similar.

Anthony Codispoti (54:19.068)
Well, Naomi, I wanna be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Naomi Fox (54:26.068)
Yes, thank you for having me. It’s been enjoyable. I appreciate it.

Anthony Codispoti (54:29.636)
Absolutely. Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.