2019 THRIVE Workshop Denver Recap

HINGE arrived in Denver the Wednesday before the workshop to prep for this year’s one-of-a-kind financial deep dive with early education business owners and directors. We spent the day reviewing attendees’ submitted financials, discussing tweaks to content and planning for the days ahead. (We also had dinner and lots of wine at the fabulous Avelina Restaurant in Downtown Denver).

We kicked off the event on Thursday, September 12th with an afternoon of Financial Diagnosis Appointments—meeting one-on-one with attendees to review their company’s financials and let them know what areas of their business to focus on during the workshop. Afterwards, we greeted attendees at rooftop hotspot Tap Fourteen for delicious drinks, sliders and mouthwatering mac and cheese. The atmosphere was amazing, and we had a great time getting to know everyone!

The workshop day began with an amazing breakfast buffet including an avocado toast bar, breakfast burritos, fruit, yogurt, granola and lots and lots of coffee. Once attendees were fueled up and ready to go, THRIVE hostess Kathy Ligon welcomed everyone with an overview of the day and an introduction to the current state of the childcare industry.

Kathy launched right into her morning content discussing financial reporting, tuition rates and discounts, occupancy, driving revenue and our tried-and-true THRIVE Financial Model.

More than 25 years in the industry, this proven model has been used successfully by hundreds of childcare companies across the US and was recently advanced into a benchmarking tool. We’re happy to provide it to any childcare business owner free of charge!

Following the reveal of our revenue maximization model, we took a short break and then dove into THRIVE Enrollment Consultant Molly Petchel’s marketing and sales wisdom. Molly rocked the house with her website must-haves, blogging tips and social media tricks.

For lunch, we broke into our THRIVE Case Study groups to review individual (and imaginary) childcare school financials and decide which areas of the business could use the most improvement. Each group nailed it! And after all their hard work, it was time to re-fuel for the day with a delicious and healthy lunch!

After lunch, everyone made their way back to the ballroom to reveal their case study conclusions and HINGE National Director of Real Estate Mike Pepper led the discussions. Kathy then took back over to wrap up her financial discussion with a focus on cash flow, accounts receivable and budgeting expenses.

Then it was over to THRIVE Staffing Consultant Kathe Petchel to present The Staffing Storm. Kathe spilled ALL of her staffing knowledge to attendees—from hiring to onboarding to retention. So much knowledge, in fact, that she ran out of time! Luckily, we have a whole year of content saved and ready to share with everyone from our THRIVE Masterclasses ;)

Thank you so much to everyone who attended this year’s workshop in Denver, CO! We are super appreciative of your participation and valued input and can’t wait to see you all again in Miami for our SHIFT Childcare Leaders Conference!