When I embarked on my entrepreneurial journey many people were surprised to see me shift from being a social justice lawyer with a stable wage to taking the risk of starting a business with an untested concept. I had just given birth to my third child and many thought it was a crazy time to take such a big financial risk.

But what only those close to me knew was that I came from a family of entrepreneurs, business owners, and risk-takers, so not only was it in my blood, but it was also my turn.

I needed to challenge myself and test my ability to combine commercial goals with my passion for solving social problems. I saw a gap in the market that conveniently also solved my need to access quality early childhood education and care for my three children under the age of three, so I decided to fill the gap!

When you throw yourself into entrepreneurship, there are the highs — like hitting 20 percent revenue growth month on month in the business’ first year. But there are also the lows, like when your personal bank account hits rock bottom because you can’t pay yourself yet, but you have to keep the lights on. The loneliness of decision-making and risk-taking at the top requires grit and determination, but it can also offer immense personal and financial rewards if you see it through.

Now that I have moved on from the business I established, I thought it was timely to share my reflections on the experience in the hope of encouraging others to take the plunge and bring their ideas to life that could just change the world.

The stomach for it

I have always said that to take the plunge as an entrepreneur, one must have the stomach for it. You need to be comfortable with rejection, making mistakes, and taking decisions that might not always pan out the way you hoped, despite all the best planning.

A recent episode of the Hidden Brain podcast (pop it on the list if you’re a human behaviour nerd like me) talked about our ability to live with failure and our own mistakes. They discussed the concept of ‘intelligent failures’, namely ones that are well-informed but occur when you are exploring new ideas, innovation, or trying to push yourself out of your comfort zone.

In my journey I needed to be comfortable with trying new things even if they didn’t work out, while taking the time to learn and reflect on them to improve my future decisions and actions. When you finally create something out of nothing, that feeling is indescribable, and it’s only through mistakes and failures that this kind of achievement is reached.

The right team

Having the right people around you to be able to execute is vital, but you aren’t always going to have the pick of the market when you’re a startup or make the right decisions the first time. So again, be comfortable with knowing when you’ve made the wrong choice and be swift in taking action to move people on if they aren’t the right fit.

Diversity of experience, skill, background, and way of thinking among team members is a must-have. You don’t want people who glorify you and are just excited to be part of a startup. You want people who question your ideas, push you out of your comfort zone, and bring skills you don’t possess.

As an entrepreneur, you are most likely the biggest risk taker in the room, but you need at least one person sitting next to you who tells you not to jump off that cliff.

The mental toll

Any entrepreneur or business owner will tell you that the mental toll of being a leader is almost impossible to quantify.

Not only is it lonely at the top at times, but you will also feel burdened by the weight of the business, you will have sleepless nights over finances, and you will be unpopular because of difficult decisions you make. So, ensuring you have strong self-care habits will be key to getting through these times.

During the height of Covid I found myself exercising more and taking frequent breaks from my computer to balance the stress of economic uncertainty. A great support network outside the business, like family and friends, will also provide reprieve and a place to debrief during those challenging times, not to mention being there to celebrate the successes.

In terms of the ongoing running of the business, make sure you have team members you can trust to run the business in your absence. Being away from the day-to-day is not only great for your mental health, but it also provides appropriate distance from the business to enliven creative solutions for problems you might have been grappling with for a while.

The learning

Once you decide to launch into business, you will most likely have the tools and skills to get something off the ground.

But be prepared to learn. A lot. I found myself watching YouTube videos to build a website myself, I got a friend to teach me how to use InDesign, and I tapped into my network to ask questions about insurance, marketing, trademarks, you name it.

After you have established the business and have confidence in the team you have created, be prepared to let go a bit (yes that’s directed at all the control freaks reading this). You need to impart your knowledge, give others the freedom to learn and make their own mistakes, but be there to guide and support them on their own journey of growth.

This type of freedom does, however, mean you need to maintain a strong culture of accountability and autonomy, otherwise you will forever be doing other people’s jobs. The reward of growing the capability of others will also form part of your entrepreneurial legacy.

The ‘why’

Many innovators and creatives can be easily distracted, so whatever you decide to focus on when taking the leap of faith into entrepreneurship, make sure it has staying power to command your ongoing attention.

If it’s going to be a fleeting interest then don’t do it, because there’s no such thing as easy money in business. Success takes time and commitment and your ongoing interest in the subject matter will be crucial to achieving that success.

In my case, the ‘why’ had a strong social purpose while also achieving commercial goals. The overall vision in the original business plan enabled me to create a clear set of values that remained relevant throughout the business’ evolution. This meant that many new recruits joined because of values alignment and understood the ethical framework that sat around decision-making and the way we operated, which allowed us to stay true to our purpose as the business grew and changed.

The leap

Taking the leap has to be the scariest but also the most exhilarating part of the journey. That nervous feeling when you don’t know if something will take off, but you have done all the preparation, planning, and research to get you there is fun, wild and takes guts.

If this is what you’re thinking of doing, then jump. You don’t know if you’re sitting on the next big thing that could change just one person’s life or shift the course of society forever, so maybe it’s time to step into the uncertain and share your idea with the world.

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Australia’s childcare sector is in need of a desperate overhaul in order to see it survive beyond the pandemic, with relief hopefully coming this week. But Andrea Christie-David from Leor In Home Early Learning says there’s a hidden, under-utilised piece that has the capacity to support healthcare workers. 

It is hard to miss the fact that the childcare sector is on the brink of collapse as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as covered in Georgie Dent’s piece earlier this week.

Families are giving notice and cancelling their enrolments in droves, which cripples the cash flow of childcare operators. Most small centres are run by Mums and Dads who seek to make a small profit to support their own families. For most centres, the majority of their income goes towards rent and wages with only a small profit made unless they scale to more than one site. It is therefore a major focus of the Commonwealth Government right now to support the sector and see that it survives the pandemic, maintains its workforce, and remains a core piece of the puzzle that gives parents the ability to work. We wait with bated breath for the Government’s announcement on Friday for a rescue package for the sector.

However in the midst of a pandemic, a hidden piece of the childcare puzzle is coming to the fore to provide support to families juggling the demands of work and parenting in these challenging times. The In Home Care scheme has been around for 20 years, but in 2018 when the new Child Care Subsidy package was announced, the previously known ‘nanny pilot’, was officially turned into the In Home Care scheme. It became regulated in line with other providers of the Child Care Subsidy, and it established In Home Care Support Agencies in each State and Territory to approve families’ access to the scheme.

The purpose of the In Home Care scheme is to allow families to access childcare in their home where mainstream childcare is unavailable or inappropriate to meet their needs. These families include those working non-standard hours or rotating rosters where childcare centres or outside school hours services are not open during the hours they work; families in regional or remote locations where there is no childcare available; or those who have complex needs such as compromised immune systems, developmental delays, or complex behavioural needs.

The scheme is regulated by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Skills and Employment, the same Department working furiously with the rest of Government to save the entire childcare sector. The scheme is capped but under-utilised, and given that parents now need to work from home and keep their children out of school unless they are essential workers, it is now supporting many more parents who need to work to keep their jobs in this challenging economic environment.

The In Home Care scheme is, by no means, a perfect model. The hourly rate for In Home Care sits at $32.58 per hour, which is based on Educators engaging in independent contracting arrangements with In Home Care providers rather than employment contracts. This means that those providers offering leave entitlements and benefits to their Educators must pass on a high out of pocket fee to families. The regulatory, oversight, and supervision costs are not accounted for in the hourly rate, and for a family earning an average wage and sitting on a 50% Child Care Subsidy allocation, it often means that families may as well hire a nanny rather than access the scheme that was designed to support them. But this hasn’t stopped the sector from finding ways to give families access to home based childcare when they need it most, whilst also lobbying Government to make the scheme work better for hardworking parents.

The Australian Home Childcare Association, which represents the In Home Care sector, made urgent submissions last week to the Coronavirus Business Liaison Unit within the Treasury Department outlining ways to improve access to the scheme during the pandemic. They suggested expanding the Additional Child Care Subsidy to include healthcare workers, increasing the cap to allow more families to access the scheme during the pandemic, and lifting the embargo on Educators supervising school work in the home whilst schools are closed or excluding children of non-essential workers. The Association also proposed measures that would allow In Home Care providers to engage the workforce currently being stood down by childcare centres to support both families and the wider childcare sector.

We anticipate that the Government’s announcement tomorrow will be a saviour for the sector, as we all know how long it will take to rebuild and offer real support for working parents in the event of a collapse. In the meantime, however, this hidden piece of the childcare puzzle has the capacity to support more families now, allowing healthcare workers to leave their child at home, whilst they spend their days saving lives.

Andrea Christie-David is a lawyer, entrepreneur and director of a charity. Andrea is passionate about gender equality, access to justice, and equal access to early childhood education.

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Andrea Christie-David could see first hand the need for another option, especially as a busy working mother of three children under five, all needing care at the same time.

She saw an opportunity to engage high quality early childhood education in the family home in a way that could create comparable rates to what’s offered in formal childcare environments.

So after extensive research she created the childcare startup Leor In Home Early Learning, enabling families to access an innovative method of meeting the ever changing demands of busy family life.

The Leor model aims to engage highly experienced and qualified early childhood educators in order to bring a formal early learning framework into the home.

It also goes out of its way to reward educations with pay rates well above the Children’s Services Award, and offer a number of other benefits that ultimately help contribute to higher quality outcomes for children.

And business is booming, with Christie-David herself now being on their own waitlist.

The ex-human rights lawyer and equality advocate has spent years working with the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our society.

Now she’s an entrepreneur, and has been named a finalist in the 2019 Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards in the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year category.

Christie-David answers our finalists Q&A below, describing what she believes makes a successful entrepreneur and how mentors have aided her career.

Our finalists are sharing some awesome career wisdom in these Q&As, as well as more on their back story and how they have emerged as a leader. See our growing hub for this content here. 

And tickets to the 2019 Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards are still available at the time of publishing, here. 

How did you become an entrepreneur? Was it a deliberate decision or something that happen by chance?

I wanted to create a childcare alternative for my own children, that allowed them to access education at home. Once I came up with the idea I felt that my diverse work experience as a lawyer, COO, and a company director provided me with the skills I needed to get this business off the ground.

Give us your quick elevator pitch: What does your business do and where did the idea for it come from?

We place qualified early childhood educators into family homes to deliver tailored learning programs to children aged between 6 weeks and 12 years.  The idea came from my own experiences of different forms of childcare with my children. I wanted an option where I could leave them in the comfort of their own home but also bring quality early childhood education to them.

Can you share three major contributing factors that have led to your businesses’ success so far?

Firstly, finding staff that are equally committed to making a positive difference to children’s lives as I am. Secondly, having the support and confidence of family and friends to be able to give it my all. Finally, knowing when to seek out specialist expertise or ask others for advice and assistance.

What do you believe is the number one trait that makes a successful entrepreneur?

The ability to evaluate and manage risk, and then to be able to take calculated risks, even though you may not always know what the outcome is going to be.

As well as your business, what other priorities do you juggle?

I have three children under 5, I have a husband who travels a lot for his job, I am a Director of a charity, and I’m on the management committee of my daughter’s preschool. Due to the popularity of the business, I am also now on my own waitlist! A good problem to have as an entrepreneur, but it also means I have to call on loving grandparents for childcare to get through my workload.

How have mentors, sponsors or other kinds of support system aided your career?

Mentors and supporters have been such a blessing throughout my career. I have benefited from their counsel and feedback when I’ve been at a career crossroads, or just grappling with a complex decision.

As a business owner you are often faced with difficult decisions that you need to make on your own, but my ability to access mentors and experts in different fields has allowed me to make informed decisions, even if they are, at times, difficult.

Where do you currently get news and info regarding your industry and career?

Women’s Agenda of course, especially in relation to aspects relating to gender equality in the workplace, as well as Care for Kids, Early Childhood Australia, Child Magazines and Facebook forums for early childhood educators.

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Having experienced her early parenting life with three children under three, she also personally knows some of the difficulties that can occur navigating the childcare system.

For her, it wasn’t just the challenge of childcare costs that she explored (especially with three in care at one time), but also trying to find good quality centres with availability and excellent early learning options.

Now she’s pooling the best aspects of what she discovered into her new business, Leor In Home Early Learning, which brings quality early childhood education into the home. The costs can be lower than comparative full-day childcare rates (when the Leor daily rate is divided between three children), with kids conveniently cared for and taught in the home environment, or in a co-op arrangement with another family.

Christie-David recently finished up as a COO, responsible for the pro bono firm at Salvos Legal. Having had responsibility for teams nationally, and for overseeing hundreds of pieces of advice to vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals every week, she’s using that experience to manage a network of educators across Australia.

“I don’t do anything I’m not passionate about,” she tells Women’s Agenda. “I’ve worked for a not-for-profit for so long where I really believed in what we were doing, and now I really believe in this model too.”

She formally started Leor on 1 July 2018, just as the new childcare changes were coming into effect across Australia.

Leor aims to provide great opportunities for educators — which is one of the reasons why the startup was named a finalist in the Employer Initiative of the Year category at this year’s Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards.

For one, they enable educators who are also parents of children between six weeks and six years, to have their children included in a co-op caring arrangement — keeping them connected to the childcare workforce.

Secondly, they aim to engage early childhood educators who are seeking flexible and part time work, and to ensure they have access to quality professional development options regardless of their employment status — something Christie-David says she discovered educators are concerned about should they be working casually or part time.

Leor also pays above the teacher’s award, enabling those who are diploma-qualified to get paid as if they are degree-qualified.

Christie-David is currently building up a team of educators as interest in the business model grows nationally.

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