There is nothing like being Starbucks on a busy corner unless of course there is no foot traffic and no handy car parking. Fountain City Montessori began looking for a sister location a couple of years ago and there were a number of considerations when we were looking.
Great sites like the one we found, owned by John and Glenice Gallagher’s family partnership don’t come up every day within the existing city parameters. Having a good relationship with the local NAI Harcourts office (Brad Chibnall) who knew of this location and the Gallagher family’s desire to support the community with their foundation, was an essential part of finding our site.
To properly discuss the strategy of our location with you, we should start at our initial site on Brooklyn Road. We positioned it opposite the Claudelands Event Centre which was strategically chosen around the location of other Montessori childcare centres in Hamilton, despite being next door and within birds-eye view of at least six daycare centres. We all go to food courts and down Avalon Drive to grab a burger, right? Not everyone wants a burger.
Traffic flow was also important to us for our first location – to identify logical traffic routes into the city where our parents work. To be handy enough to town, but also have enough parking for ease of access. Brooklyn Road in Claudelands (the old orange Hire Pool building) was fantastic for that, picking up traffic going into the city from Gordonton, Chartwell, Morrinsville and, with the new bypasses, as far as Cambridge and Tamahere.
When presented with the Tawa Street option, we considered that there were no
Montessori preschools that link easily into the Ohaupo / Te Awamutu gateway into Hamilton. Secondly, with the proposed development of Peacocke, there will be a lot of reasonably informed people building homes who might be interested in an informed childcare methodology. (Dr Maria Montessori was an internationally recognised psychologist, scientist, author, child development expert and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. I feel it is fair to say she knew what she was talking about!)
With the nearby location of the District Health Board and the development of the multiple large businesses on Kahikatea Drive, as well as reports of a need from Brooklyn Road parents from that side of town, it became obvious that more choice was in demand near the hospital, with the number of employees in the area in the thousands. There are a few day-care options nearby, but nothing that offers an educational philosophy like Montessori.
Because Dr Montessori actively set schools up in India, US, Holland and China among other countries, many of DHB employees are already familiar with the Montessori philosophy because it is so popular in their home countries. Additionally, many of the parents working at the hospital start their shifts at 7am, finishing at 3pm. It is therefore essential for many of them to have a drop-off earlier than 7am, rather than having to rely on extended family to drop their children off, which many do. Ministry of Education licence pending, our client need is therefore to have opening hours of 6.30am-6pm to cater to this demand, and that is what we hope to deliver.
We aren’t based on a corner, we are on Tawa St behind the Gallagher building, off a side road. So where will we get our clients from? So far, we have around five or six children who will come straight over to the new location on day one. Our existing families also have friends who are excited to have a location that is closer to their workplaces/homes. Word of mouth is our biggest form of advertisement.
Aside from having satisfied clients, our focus is therefore on new families, and we are finding that we are getting a lot of success by using social media and Google because this is where new parents are spending their relaxation time. We also participated in the Waikato Baby Expo which gave us a very keen half a dozen families who we have been communicating with to keep them informed of our progress.
As we haven’t been able to access the building until after Labour Weekend, we haven’t yet been open to view, nor have we had any open days. Yet despite being away from the main road, we have a good dozen serious prospects who are now starting to send in their formal enrolment paperwork. Our last centre grew from one child to the need for 18 staff in one year, but on Tawa St we will likely be at 15-20 enrolments in the first two months, and that will be through the Christmas period too. I think it’s fair to say that we are excited, but also a tiny bit terrified!
What is very clear in our experience here in selecting a location, is that it is so important to know what your customers need, know where they are coming from and travelling to, and know where you will find them to make contact with them. Informing smart business people about your strategy and slipping in some information about your product in Waikato Business News would not be a silly thing to do, either. Some of them may even have read about Pikler – and those business people would definitely love Montessori.
Our formal advertising will commence over the next couple of weeks, predominantly with open days, a new website, and a whole heap of online presence while we pack in and tick off our health department, council and Ministry of Education licensing requirements.
We expect to be open to view from mid-November – so please tell your friends to “like” our Tawa St page on Facebook to find out more, and then come and visit to see how quiet childcare can be.
Rowena Harper
Managing director
Fountain City Montessori
