The 4 Costliest Kids Enrichment Mistakes I Made (Ep. 1)

Episode 01 · April 6, 2026 · Solo episode

The most expensive mistakes in a kids enrichment business are growing into sites before demand pulls you there, making growth decisions on gut while your enrollment data sits unread, putting instructors in rooms before your training is written, and building alone. Every one of them cost me money and partnerships at Journey to STEAM. Each one has a fix you can start this week.

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This is my written companion to Episode 1 of The Youth Enrichment Leader. Operators keep telling me they have nobody to compare notes with. So I went first. Journey to STEAM runs programs at 75+ school sites and 95% of school partners renew. Some early decisions are the reason. Others cost me real money and real partnerships.

What is the most expensive growth mistake in a kids enrichment business?

Growing faster than demand pulls you. Our first sites came to us. A parent asked, a school called, a PTO lead passed our name along. I assumed every new site would fill the same way.

So one summer my team pushed into as many new partner sites as we could sign. Schools said yes. Then fall came, and most of those sites missed minimum enrollment.

We had already bought materials, hired and trained instructors, and built the year's schedule around them. Then we broke it all down and rebuilt it around where families were really enrolling. That was on me. I made a bet and it lost.

Why do some school partnerships fill while others struggle?

Schools that fill have a culture of enrichment: one person who owns outside programs and a reliable way to reach families. It might be a PTO lead, a coordinator, the office manager, the principal, or the volunteer who runs the newsletter. When that person exists, families hear about you on time.

When nobody owns it, you spend the term reminding, calling and emailing, and enrollment still lags. Here's the tell: nobody from that school ever reached out to you. Our best-performing sites all have one thing in common. They came to us. I go deeper in how to choose the right school partners.

What I'd keep doing: make it easy to be pulled. Put your contact information in more than one place on your website, with one line like "Want this program at your school? Email us here." Partner kits and referral rewards never moved people for us. Families who want you at their school refer you on their own.

What enrollment data should I track for every program?

Track one row per program, every term, starting with your first one. For a year and a half I made growth decisions on instinct while the answers sat in spreadsheets I wasn't reading. We kept running sites that struggled every term and priced too low at some, too high at others.

Here is the row I would keep from month one:

1. Site name and venue type (school, church, community center, parks department)
2. Program topic and format (after-school, workshop, camp)
3. Day, time and length
4. Grades or ages served
5. Price per student
6. Enrollment count and capacity
7. Zip code
8. How the site gets the word out, and how active that channel is

Then do the math. A made-up example: Site A has 12 seats and 11 kids. 11 ÷ 12 = 92% full. Site B runs the same class with 12 seats and 4 kids. 4 ÷ 12 = 33% full. With a minimum of 6, Site B is 2 kids short. One slow term is noise. The same result term after term is a pattern.

Every term, ask your data three questions. You can upload the spreadsheet to an AI assistant and ask it directly. What do my top programs have in common? What do my bottom performers have in common? Where are the opportunities I'm missing? The answers give you two profiles: your ideal partner and your best program. Go find more of both.

Data tells you where to look. Relationships tell you whether it will work. If a site keeps missing minimum, here is how I decide when to cancel a class.

What should be in place before I hire my first instructor?

Written training, written site expectations, and a way to see the person teach before they are alone with a class. I skipped that early. It cost us a partner.

One of our first instructors was wonderful with kids and new to holding a room. What none of us knew: this school expected after-school programs to be very quiet, because teacher meetings ran in the next room. The office told me. I coached. It got better. At the end of the term, the school chose not to renew.

That was a training failure and a support failure. Both were mine. Today I would not hire until I had:

• An onboarding checklist in writing
• Clear expectations by type of partner
• At least one co-teaching session
• A formal observation where I see every behavior I need
• Notes on each site's culture: noise level, which spaces kids can use, what else happens in the building at that hour
• An attention signal every instructor uses from day one, like a clap or a call and response

Sometimes a partner gives you a second chance. Sometimes they don't. For the hiring side, read my companion to Episode 3, how to hire kids program instructors.

What would I do differently if I started again today?

I would connect with other operators in year one. I ran this business in isolation for two and a half years. I thought scheduling on a spreadsheet meant I was doing it wrong, so I spent months trying and abandoning tools. Then I asked operators with decades in how they schedule. A spreadsheet.

Every business has hard parts that come with the territory and hard parts you can fix. Other operators help you tell them apart fast. Keep a list of the operators you meet, with a column that says "how can I help them?" Give more than you ask for. There is enough opportunity for all of us.

Who should listen to this episode?

Listen if you're about to add sites or hire your first instructor. If you're still getting into your first schools, start with the guide to getting your program into schools, then come back to this one before you grow.

Listen or watch: Spotify · YouTube · Apple Podcasts

Frequently asked questions

How long is Episode 1?

About 52 minutes, solo.

Do I need software to track enrollment data?

No. A spreadsheet with one row per program is enough to start. If you take registrations on enrops, every roster shows a live total enrolled.

Does the episode cover contractor or W-2 for instructors?

Yes, briefly. Settle it the week you bring on your first instructor. Classification depends on how much control you have over the work, rules differ by state, and I'm not your attorney. Start with the IRS overview (irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed), then talk to an accountant and an employment attorney in your state.

Create your first registration. Free for businesses. Live in under 5 minutes. Or click through a sample registration first.

Arielle Hammond, Ed.D. is the founder of enrops and host of The Youth Enrichment Leader, presented by enrops.