The 3 Problems Every Kids Enrichment Business Has (Ep. 21)

Episode 21 · June 15, 2026 · Solo episode

After interviewing ten kids enrichment owners, I found the same three problems in every business: finding and keeping instructors, running on tools that were never built for us, and having nobody to compare notes with. Chess, coding, music, dance, martial arts. Different cities, different models, same three. These are industry problems with known fixes, and the operators who have been at it longest already found most of them.

Listen or watch: Spotify · YouTube · Apple Podcasts

This solo episode of The Youth Enrichment Leader is called Kids Enrichment Business: What 10 Operators Taught Me. I went back through my first ten guest conversations and pulled out what confirmed what I knew, what surprised me, and what I changed at Journey to STEAM because of them.

Is it just me, or is every kids enrichment business this hard?

It's the industry. Before the podcast I was in my own bubble. I knew my problems. I didn't know whether they were mine or whether they came with the business. Almost every guest told me some version of the same thing: they had never talked to another owner about this part of the work. As a principal I had a room full of peers every month. As an operator I had nobody. Where's our watering hole?

What did each of the ten operators teach me?

One lesson each, in the order they came on the show.

Two of these have their own posts: how to keep music students from quitting with Aarun, and product-market fit for an after-school program with Jeff.

What problems did all ten have in common?

Three, and I heard them whether the guest taught chess or jiu jitsu.

1. Instructors. Finding them, training them and keeping them is a tax on everyone's attention. Turnover is high across the field. One guest changed his entire business model because in-person instruction needed more instructors than he could reliably hire. Several told me that classroom behavior drives instructors out more often than pay does.
2. Tools. Everyone is duct-taping. No two operators had the same stack, and nobody knew whether theirs was the right one. That tells me the industry is missing its infrastructure.
3. Isolation. Several guests work in my own metro area. Off the air we traded notes on partners and on where each of us is expanding. That kind of conversation has a real dollar value, and most owners have never had one.

What surprised me?

How big the visions are. I expected people who wanted to run better programs. I met owners building a gaming product on top of a school chess league, an app to connect music teachers with students, and programs turning into brands that other people can license and train under. The ceiling in this industry is much higher than its reputation. People are doing wildly interesting work, and until now they had nobody to tell.

What did I change in my own business?

Three things, within weeks.

• I canceled a marketing contract and went back to free. Throwing money at a problem is sometimes the lazy way out. If I pay for placement now, it goes to the local family publications parents in my community already trust. More in how to market a kids enrichment program locally.
• I stopped treating "we start losing money" as the automatic cancel line. After the conversation about canceled classes, my team pulled our own data. Of the families whose program we had canceled, almost none came back.
• I see a young instructor as someone to develop. Start them as an assistant, train them with intention, and you're building next year's lead.

Here's the cancel math with example numbers. A class breaks even at 8 kids and has 6, at $180 each. Cancel, and you refund 6 x $180 = $1,080 and risk all six families. Run it, and you're short 2 x $180 = $360. If two of those six families come back for one more term, that's 2 x $180 = $360, and the gap is closed. The full decision is in when to cancel a class for low enrollment.

Who should listen to this episode?

Anyone who wonders whether the hard parts are their fault. They're not. You still have to solve them. You don't have to solve them alone. It's 33 minutes, and it doubles as a guide to which guest episode to play next.

Listen or watch: Spotify · YouTube · Apple Podcasts

Frequently asked questions

Can an independently owned kids program get grant funding?

Sometimes, through partnership. One guest told me that when a grant is open only to nonprofits, he applies together with a nonprofit partner. Build those relationships before the deadline. Eligibility rules differ by funder and by state, so read each grant's terms. Related: nonprofit, LLC or franchise?

Do I need paid ads to fill a local kids program?

Start free. Community events, school partners and the family publications parents already read. Pay only for placements your parents trust.

Where can I compare notes with other owners?

That's what the show is for. Start with the five systems that break first, then apply to be a guest from the podcast page linked below.

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.