This week, Kris is joined by Brian Duprey, Certified Child Care Coach and the Director of Business Development at The Child Care Success Company. He is a 20-year veteran who came to his first Child Care Success Summit in 2015 and became a coach in 2017. Last year, Brian wrote his first book, Child Care Millionaire, for early childhood business owners wanting to grow their business into a (multi) million-dollar company, and he also co-authored The Happiness Guide for Early Childhood Education with Kris. Kris and Brian discuss surviving COVID-19 as a child care center owner, money managing, marketing, expanding business, tour tips, escaping to Jamaica, and more.   Key Takeaways: [6:55] Brian talks about how his five locations, Little Angels, are operating during COVID-19.  From closures to lowered capacity, to utilizing funding programs; he is now operating at a higher occupancy than pre-pandemic. [9:44] Brian shares his best tips for how his businesses survived the pandemic, including transparency with his employees, outreach to his competitors, donuts, and pizza. [12:45] Why anyone interested in expanding their business needs to (virtually) attend Brian’s breakout workshop “Innovation Expansion Opportunities” at The Child Care Reimagined Success Summit and why he recommends people should strive to be salmon. Yes, salmon. [14:33] Brian opened nine schools and has never borrowed from a bank; he owns four of his five buildings and he opened his first center with only $5,000. [16:20] Having multiple schools gives you more flexibility and helps you leverage staffing, productivity, profits, and more. Five schools are much easier to run than one. The hardest school to open is #2 because people are so emotionally invested in their first school and don’t want to relinquish control. [19:00] Buy in cash and quickly pay off debt so you, too, can spend half the year in Jamaica! [20:42] Thanks to the strategies learned from the Child Care Success Summit, Brian has done more with his business in the last five years than in the 15 years prior to the summit. [23:23] Brian talks about how a strategy session/coaching call works. Schedule your free call here! [28:12] The three major “pain points” Brian finds when coaching clients are enrollment, staffing, and the daily overwhelm. He dives deeper into how he approaches overcoming these and why there are tips he only teaches on these phone calls. [30:18] Treat tours like a sales call and other tour tips. [35:26] Brian is most proud of the book he co-authored with Kris; The Happiness Guide for Early Childhood Educators. He values his educators and their happiness and wants to change the mindset to a place where they want to make a difference. Owners need to read this, too!   Quotes: “When you focus on helping other people, and not just yourself, you get helped in the process.” — Brian “Five schools are much easier to run than one.” — Brian “A tour is a sales call.” — Brian “The most important person in a team is the person watching the children.” — Brian   Mentioned in This Episode: Kris Murray The Child Care Success Company Child Care Success Academy Child Care Success Summit — offering $1 ticket Grow Your Center Brian Duprey Little Angels Schedule a Coaching Call Child Care Millionaire (Brian’s book on Amazon) The Happiness Guide for Early Childhood Educators (Kris and Brian’s book on Amazon)