In 1997, the Hannah Grimes Marketplace opened with a focus on serving artisans. While the store was open to local vendors of all kinds, it was home to mostly makers and growers in the beginning. Since then, Hannah Grimes has gone on to serve different kinds of entrepreneurs. While we still serve artisans, we also serve farm, food, biotech, and service based businesses, just to name a few. One of the ways that Hannah Grimes has adapted to serve these businesses is by iterating our successful Business Lab programming to include sector specific resources. Starting in 2021 with Farm and Food Business Labs, we have most recently iterated this programming for home-based childcare businesses.
In 2021, Cheshire County was home to only 33 licensed childcare facilities with a total capacity to care for 1,677 children. According to County Services, 3,506 children under five were living in the county at that time, meaning there were less than half as many slots as there were children of daycare age. To help combat this shortage, the Bringing It Home Project (BIHP) was launched. BIHP is a collaboration inspired by grassroots activism in Monadnock Region that aims to create 10 new home-based childcare providers and 60-120 childcare slots in the region by 2025. Partners and funders of the project include the Monadnock Economic Development Corporation, Alexa Plewa of Andylex Youth Enrichment, Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship, Granite United Way, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, and the Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA) tax credit program. Home-based childcare providers participating in the BIHP receive connection to a peer-to-peer network, quality business support, and access to home improvement funding.
You might be asking, why home-based childcare? A mixed delivery system – one with both center-based and home-based childcare – offers families options that align to their values, expands accessible and affordable care, and is more resilient and sustainable in rural communities.
For those wanting to own their own childcare business, a home-based business is a great starting place. There are fewer credentialing hurdles and it enables the entrepreneur to start small and grow. At Hannah Grimes, we love to say, “one entrepreneur at a time,” because we believe that serving every entrepreneur, no matter how small, makes a difference in our local economy. No where is that truer than in childcare, where every additional option benefits the business owner, the child, the family, the family’s employers, and the larger community.
Hannah Grimes was happy to support the Bringing It Home Project by developing a Business Lab program for family childcare providers. Different kinds of entrepreneurs need different resources, so this Business Lab is 10-weeks long in comparison to the traditional eight. It covers basic business skills like bookkeeping and marketing as well as childcare specific topics like licensing and more.
Two home-based childcare businesses participated in the first cohort of the Family Childcare Business Lab. Elizabeth Lussier from Pollywog Playschool and Sara Ladzinski from Trillium Christian Nature Preschool graduated from the program in June with a public pitch event at the Hannah Grimes Center.
As Hannah Grimes continues to serve different kinds of entrepreneurs, we will continue to provide sector specific resources. In addition to the new Business Labs, we are also expanding our coaching roster. We now have three food business experts, four clean energy and solar experts, and an entire team of biotech professionals coaching our entrepreneurs. We’ve also dipped out toes into clean energy work by supporting our brick and mortar entrepreneurs in finding grants and loans for energy efficient upgrades to their businesses. While we love providing support directly to entrepreneurs, we also value working with our local nonprofits and community groups, which is why we are chairing a working group through the Monadnock Resource Alliance called, “Entrepreneurial Solutions to Improve Housing Access for Everyone”.
From housing to childcare and beyond, Hannah Grimes is committed to providing resources for entrepreneurs that are combating social problems in our community.
Written by Program & Development Coordinator, Lillian Chase.