Our Beginnings
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Robert and Christine Groth |
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Childcare is a wonderful profession, in our opinion. This business has created so much happiness for our family.
Not only has it created financial success but it has given us the ability to be there for our children. We have had the best of both worlds – money, time, and a business that has been fulfilling spiritually and financially. |
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To the left is a picture of all of us at Grand Canyon National Park.
Let me tell you a story about how this all started.
My husband Robert and I met while attending college at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He was completing a degree in Accounting and I was wrapping up a degree in secondary education.
2 years later we married. Six months after that, I discovered I was pregnant with twins. At that time I was working as a bank teller and making a lousy $6.25 per hour. I worked through the pregnancy and |
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| made it until my 38th week. That was amazing in itself. |
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| On November 12, 1996 I gave birth to twin girls who we named Alexandria and Caroline Groth. |
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| Shortly after their birth I stopped working and believed that staying home with my daughters was the right thing to do. My mother and mother-in-law had stayed home with their children and I would do the same regardless of whether we could afford it or not. |
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| Well, we couldn’t afford it. |
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| We were eligible for welfare under Wisconsin’s state system. So here I was, mother of two beautiful babies and my accountant husband wearing his suit sitting in the welfare office. I felt so embarrassed, but we were literally at the poverty level. |
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| We lived on welfare for the first year of our daughters’ lives. We had one car, no money in our checking account, little furniture – pretty much nothing. We had a couch, bed, kitchen table, and this little white plastic table in the corner with a T.V. on it. |
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| Life was very simple…. and depressing. |
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| I spent most of my days listening to my colicky daughters screaming, while waiting for my husband to come home so I could run out the door. |
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| One day during that stressful time, a thought came to my mind. I’d once met a lady who’d told me she’d run a child care center out of her home for many years. That night, I asked Robert if he knew any clients who operated daycares for a living. He said yes, and offered to introduce me to a woman named Karen Narlow. |
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| And so it began. That weekend I met my mentor, Karen Narlow, who taught me everything I needed to know about starting a daycare. |
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| At that time Robert and I lived in a duplex. We lived in the downstairs flat and had a tenant who lived upstairs. (You’ll find this information very important as we proceed). My early days in daycare were composed of having toys lined up in the dining room and placing articles in the classified section of the local paper announcing my new business. In the beginning, my certification only qualified me to care for 3 or 4 children besides my own. |
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| The initial days were spent caring for a handful of children and my own. My income ranged from $13-20,000 per year – small potatoes when I look back. But I was happy as a clam because I was staying home, making money, raising my daughters, and having a pretty good time. |
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| During that time my husband started studying other daycares. He would speak at conferences regarding daycare write-offs, taxes, etc., and other daycare providers would love to hear about everything he had to say. His lectures painted a perfect picture for other daycare owners. Since his wife was a daycare provider, he knew exactly how these business ladies felt. |
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| The funny thing is we learned from them just as much as they learned from us. |
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| We made various decisions regarding our business; we owned a duplex and decided to kick out the tenant upstairs (I hated being a landlord) and moved the daycare upstairs. I believed my parents were longing for a separate place of their own, and I really thought the children would enjoy having their own “space”. I then hired an employee. The time was coming for the girls to go to school and I needed someone to take care of the daycare while I was out being “taxicab mom.” I also longed for getting out of the house and spending some quiet time by myself. |
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| During this time I branched out. I decided to purchase a group center and open another family daycare. But I found over time I enjoyed the “smallness” of the family center. |
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| Today, I only have one family daycare. I am licensed for up to 8 children and supply second-shift childcare three days per week. My husband is an accountant for Marvin Groth and Associates (his dad) and specializes in accounting for daycare centers. He has many clients who specifically see him regarding their daycares. |
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| My gross income for 2004 was $90,241 per year. I have one employee who works 40 hours per week, she is wonderful. With all this free time I’m able to pursue my online interests. |
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| Lake Country Family Childcare has been so good to my family. It has allowed us vacations, time with our family and everything else you could imagine. And no, I do not drive a Hummer. It’s a minivan. I believe in modesty and reinvesting money for the future. Robert and I believe in frugality and providing a quality education for our daughters. |
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| Today we currently live in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin with our daughters and two orange tabby cats “BB” and Mr. Plup’s. |
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