Jean's Tot Spot (small business report)

Jean's Tot Spot (517-663-6959) is a registered, home based daycare in Eaton Rapids.  Jean's Tot Spot has been in business since 1993 but this is not Jean's first business.  Her first "daycare" involved watching the children of her fellow members in the First United Methodist Women's Choir.

She worked in two different daycare facilities while taking Early Childhood Development classes.  She struck off on her own shortly after she had her first child.  Tuition at the daycare where she worked would have left her with $80 a week with just one child enrolled.

Jean is a woman of steadfast loyalty.  She still sings in the First Methodist Women's Choir and she still watches children in Eaton Rapids.  She took those Early Childhood classes to heart.  She runs an activity-based.  The children learn and are socialized by performing activities together.

All pictures shown with parents' permission.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  Kinetic memory and these kids have the book memorized speedy-quick.  It is cute watching the littlest ones puzzle out which black squiggles go to the words in their heads.

I see a Beagle, a Turtle and a swimming pool.  What do you see?  They learn sharing and cooperation because there are a limited number of large-format pieces of chalk.

Move over Todd Rundgren.  That musical-choir thing carried over to daycare.  The percussion instruments are mounted at all different heights so even the "little" kids can get into the act.

Jean's philosophy is to give the kids what the parents wish they had the time, energy and facilities to give them.  Jean configured her home and yard to be very easy to clean.  The kids are kept busy.  They get sweaty, grimy...and they get quite a workout.  Like their parents, they are ready for some downtime like watching TV (which is a rare activity at Jean's Tot Spot) when they get home.  No clamoring, needy kids yanking on their exhausted parents after they come home from Jean's!

Going to the zoo-zoo-zoo.  How about you-you-you?  Did you know giraffes have tongues that are 20 inches long?  They are very popular in certain circles.

Competition

Jean welcomes competition.  Actually, there is not enough daycare capacity in most communities.

Civilian Labor Force Participation by Women.  The US economic miracle rode on the backs of working women.   In many cases, large mortgages and broken families made working mandatory.

While there are few barriers to entering the "watching kids" industry, there are also few barriers to leaving it.

Jean mentors daycare start-ups.  She tells the prospective business women (so far, always women) what they are getting into.  The kids will throw up on them, poop on them, wipe their noses on them.  The kids will bring in head-lice and every virus wafting through town.  The business owner will get sick a lot for the first couple of years but then have the immune system of a sewer rat.

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning.

Paperwork.  Get good at paperwork.  You cannot avoid it so become efficient.  Regulatory paperwork.  Tax paperwork.  Jean is willing to share her "system" with start-ups so they don't have to invent one from scratch.

Planning activities.  Kids have shorter attention spans than adults.  An adult might be content to have two activities to amuse themselves over eight hours, kids want eight or eighteen activities.  This is where it is advantageous to be an old-timer.  Jean has shelves and shelves of games, toys, puzzles etc. at kid height.

Hint:  Jean takes the kids to garage and yard sales with her.  It is a very enriching activity for the kids and they see each sale as a separate "activity".  Jean pays attention to what is grabbing each child's interest.  It is a fabulous way to pick up games/toys/puzzles at a reasonable cost.  They get cleaned before they are put on the shelf.

Low pay.  Don't expect to get rich. At least not with money.  You will grow some wonderful relationships with the kids and their families.

A little bit of downtime.  Reading to the dogs.  Peanut the Jack Russel is "meshmerized" by Spiderman.  Fermata the Beagle is a tougher critic...if it isn't Peter Rabbit or Velveteen Rabbit it is not literature.

"Jean.  I said I wanted a G-T-O, not a goat."  Jean is very involved in 4-H.  Many of her kids go on to show animals at the county fair. 

Vacations are a challenge.  Jean informs her "parents" of her vacation plans a year in advance.

Jean also has a three back-ups for things like jury duty and family emergencies.  One of those back-ups is her mother.  The other two back-ups are non-family.

Jean loves County Fairs.  And so do the kids. 

That only looks like a table cloth.  It is really a birthday card.  A BIG birthday card.

You don't have to attend a University to study Physics and Keynesian Economics.

 

Security

Jean is not oblivious to security measures.  Anybody who works with kids must be sensitive to potential custody issues and the fact that there are two legged predators who prey on kids.  She shared some of her security measures with me to share with readers.

Her facility has double doors, "air lock" style, keyless lock entry.

She has dogs.  She loves animals and has always had dogs (plural) around.

She has closed circuit TV.  She originally got the system so she could see parents as they showed up to pick up their children.  She could start getting them bundled up as the parents pulled in the drive.

Jean does not need a fancy sign.  Most of Jean's business finds her by word-of-mouth.  She is full until June when she will have two "graduates".  She is more than happy to make referrals to like-minded daycare providers in the Eaton Rapids area.  Jean's Tot Spot, 517-663-6959

The typical person driving by her house at 45 mph cannot tell it is a daycare.

Her signage is very low key. 

The backyard has privacy fencing.  People driving by cannot see the play equipment, nor can they tell if any kids are outside at any given time.

She has an emergency scanner.  Her husband is a fire fighter and the scanner is something they both listen to.  She also carries her cell phone on her person.  She is three minutes from the police station  and four minutes from the hospital.  Both time estimates comprehending warp-factor speed.

Summary

Daycare needs in most communities is under-served.

Providing daycare is a relentless task if you do not love the company of kids.  Most people who go into daycare with the expectation that it is "easy money" leave it within a few years.  

There are good daycares out there with openings but they are typically new providers breaking into the business.

Many experienced providers are willing to share the names of newer providers who provide a similar style of daycare care.  A few even provide "mentoring" to new start-ups.

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Atta-boy for Dr Felton

I took Kubota into the Emergency Room at Eaton Rapids Medical Center last night.

Kubota lost his rescue inhaler yesterday while snowmobiling over at a friend's house.  He has been recovering from a virus that hit about two weeks ago. One of this virus's hallmarks is that it settles in the lungs.  Even after the patient whips this virus there is so much foreign DNA and alien protein in the lungs that the body keeps mounting an immune response.  Inflammation, bronchial spasms, etc. 

Picture from HERE

It resembles a small cytokine storm.  Ironically, young people with healthy immune systems are most vulnerable to cytokine storms....one reason for the unusual mortality patterns of the 1918 Spanish flu.

Kubota's breath was shallow, rapid and whistling when I picked him up.  Most alarming, the kid did not have enough breath to engage in light banter (aka, complaining and arguing:  Ya gotta know your kids).

We walked into the ER, albeit slowly.  I told the receptionist we had "shortness of breath".  Ninety seconds later we were in an examination room.  Sixty seconds later Dr Felton breezed in, asked a couple of questions, looked at the heart rate/blood oxygen monitor and told us what was going to happen.

The kid got an hour of albuterol nebulizer.  A chest X-Ray showed some fluid in the wrong place.  We left with scripts for another rescue inhaler, albuterol, an antibiotic and a prednisone burst.

I got to watch a TV show called Cleveland Brown.

My hat is off to Dr Felton, Jesse, Megan and the rest of the staff at the Eaton Rapids Medical Center Emergency Room.  They moved quickly.  They were calm, poised and friendly.  They took great care of us.

Thanks guys!

Another story about squatters

This story is out of Colorodo.

A woman who moved from Colorado to New Hampshire says she cannot sell her home in Colorado Springs because squatters have moved into her residence and refuse to leave.

They claimed they paid the landlord $2,700 and moved in, but later realized they had been scammed and lost all their money to this phony landlord. But now, the current residents refuse to leave the property.

“It’s completely shocking, it’s completely shocking that there are people like that,” said Hawkins. “It’s completely shocking that there are laws that are protecting these people to stay in my house. That’s the other thing that is completely shocking, there are no laws to protect me.”

Well, actually there are laws that protect Ms. Hawkins.  I see two possible avenues.  The squatters must be able to produce a cancelled check and proof that they filed a fraud complaint against the bogus landlord.

If they cannot supply both, then file a trespassing charges against them.

If the police refuse to act then file a law suit against the police department.  Include the police chief and mayor.  They are indemnified ONLY if they are followed the published policy of their governmental unit.

In all likelihood, there was no landlord.  That forces the squatters into the position of doubling down or bailing out.  Doubling down generates more evidence and exposes them to prosecution for more crimes (like fraud and filing false police reports).

The second avenue

The second avenue would be to report (with photos) the following to the insurance company.

“They destroyed my house so much so that when the buyer went through the final walk through, [they] took the offer off the table,” said Hawkins.

My experience with insurance companies is that they have the ear of the police and the legal system.  Insurance companies get much practice dealing with people of low moral fiber.  They will not get emotionally overwrought.  It is simple a matter of business.

This is a GREAT day to be retired

This is what blew in through the crack in upper-center of the picture.    Eight inches tall and across the full four feet width of the aptly named "breeze way".

Battle Creek, Michigan reported 18 inches of snow.  I refuse to estimate how much fell here.  It is three inches deep in some places and four feet deep in others.  We had twenty mph winds through most of the snowfall, so it drifted even though the snow was dense and gritty.

The Monday after the Super Bowl was always a tough time to run the production line.  Absenteeism is very high.  People go to parties and stay up too late.  Some, inevitably, did not come into work the next morning.

Throw a heavy snow fall into the mix and it gets really ugly.

Third shifters were offered overtime.

People play out of position.  Most of the white collar workers are pulled out of the offices and put on some of the simpler jobs.  The jobs were simpler because there were fewer parts.  There were fewer parts because the parts were larger.  Larger and heavier.  Those office people took a beating.

A few work the phones to offer work to people who work second shift.  They also attempted to contact people on vacation in the (slim) hope of getting the to cut it short. 

The folks on the phone also attempted to call the absentees.  Having somebody come in for six hours of work is better than having them come in for zero hours of work.

Hobbling

There is a hierarchy of "degrade" production modes.  "Degrade" refers to rate of production NOT quality.

In areas where the line splits, it may be possible to run just one of the splits.  That was generally good for 60%-to-70% of the normal rate of production.

One area I worked was circular and had a great deal of line fill (i.e. buffering).  That is, it took almost forty minutes to run dry.  It also had three workers.  One snowy day we ran that area with two people.  Each person would make six parts in their "home" station and then stroll over to the absentee person's station and make three parts.  Six was chosen because they could easily keep track.  They placed six small parts needed for their subassembly in a small pile.  When the pile was gone they walked over and built their three.

Nobody had to sprint.  Nobody even walked fast.  But the we never ran out of dash assemblies. Two-thirds production rate was plenty because everybody else had the same kinds of issues.  Super Bowl and weather events not only impacted our plant but our suppliers and the ability to transport parts to the plant.

Still, it sucked to go into work on days like this.

This is a great day to be retired.

Native American Gaming

Michigan has Native American gaming.  We have casinos in 23 different cities, Acme-through-Williamsburg.

Some are incredibly lucrative while others are not.  The most lucrative ones spin off $100,000 per tribe member, per year.

Some Native American kids grow up knowing that they will start receiving two thousand dollars a week the day after their eighteenth birthday.

Sounds like "Lived Happily Ever After"

What could go wrong?

One risk is that a surprising number of people suddenly discovered their "Indian" roots once the checks started hitting the mail.  This surge in the number of people claiming membership in the tribe dilutes the payouts.

Some tribal elders are addressing this influx of new "Indians" by making decisions about who is a tribe member and who was not.  So individuals face the risk of being un-tribed in addition to the risk of dilution.

Unfortunately, this pruning of the rolls can become a temptation to settle old scores.

Another threat is competition.

As competitive pressures increased, however, the need for strategic marketing plans soon became evident. Many of the tribes could no longer depend solely on their monopolistic status. In fact, it appears that Indian gaming may have become a victim of its own success.

Competition began to arise from not only the other tribes but by the increased legalization of state sanctioned gaming. Many states simply did not want to sit on the sidelines as the tribes were the only ones to benefit from gaming.  -Source

So will those kids get $2000 a week for the rest of their lives? It comes back to what your grandpa told you.  If it is too good to be true...then it is probably not true.

Those kids will hit the ground HARD when the money stops.

The geography and uselessness of reservation land were the biggest obstacles in attracting any type of economic investment. Reservation land consists mainly of throw away land from the old frontier days. Most tribal land is barren and isolated and cannot even support the simplest of agricultural crops. One of the few industries that they could attract was that of toxic dumping. Most tribes rejected this type of industry, however, due to their strict religious beliefs on the sanctity of land (Turner 1992).

Even if this land was rich in natural resources, it is held in trust by the U.S. government and thus cannot be used as collateral for loans. Therefore, without the capital for economic investment, the ability to start businesses was virtually impossible.   -Source

A good model

Consider Earvin "Magic" Johnson.  He signed with the Los Angles Lakers for an unprecedented one million dollars a year for 25 years.  From Wikipedia:

Johnson began thinking of life after basketball while still playing with the Lakers. He wondered why so many athletes had failed at business, and sought advice. During his seventh season in the NBA, he had a meeting with Michael Ovitz, CEO of Creative Artists Agency. Ovitz encouraged him to start reading business magazines and to use every connection available to him. Johnson learned everything he could about business, often meeting with corporate executives during road trips.

 Johnson runs Magic Johnson Enterprises, a company that has a net worth of $700 million;

$700 million dollars is 28 times greater than Magic Johnson's lifetime earnings.  That is an awesome rate of return.

Those kids would never notice if 25% of their new income were squirreled into a mix of local development and traditional investment portfolios.  That is, they would not notice until "Too good to be true" ends.

Brass

Nine pounds of W-W brass.

Resized, deprimed, cleaned with 1% citric acid solution.  Citric acid is sold in the canning supplies section of grocery stores.

9mm W-W brass runs about 115 to the pound.  Nine pounds is very close to one thousand pieces of brass.

Snow storms are great times to reload.

Snowing

I had been watching the predictions for the "Superbowl Storm" path with detached interest.  The sources I was following predicted the center would sweep through northern Indiana and Ohio.  Too bad for them.

The storm ignored the predictions an is now centered on Jackson County, Michigan, a scant 20 miles south of Eaton Rapids.

* TOTAL SNOWFALL OF 8 TO 14 INCHES EXPECTED BY MONDAY MORNING. HIGHEST AMOUNTS WILL OCCUR FROM SOUTH HAVEN TO JACKSON WHERE A FOOT OR MORE OF SNOW IS POSSIBLE.

* BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW MAY REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO A FEW CAR LENGTHS AT TIMES...RESULTING IN SOME ACCIDENTS AND SLIDEOFFS

I called an audible.  We will not be going to church today.  Bella is scheduled for work.  I topped off her washer fluid and gave her permission to "crash" with somebody closer to work.  She has great tires on the Malibu and a good head on her shoulders.  Plus we will be praying for her.