Wee Care Academy: the challenges and triumphs of launching Birmingham's first Afrocentric day-care centers - Alabama business started by Gaynell and Elias Hendricks in 1988 - B.E. Report on Small Business

Black Enterprise, Nov, 1993 by Harold Jackson

The 30- and 60-second ads began running just before the start of the school year, in August 1988. Instead of hiring an announcer, Gaynell read them herself: "Are you satisfied with your present day-care situation? Is your center clean? Does it have culturally stimulating activities and trips? Does it teach a foreign language, piano, ballet? If not, you need to call Wee Care Academy!"

The response was tremendous. By 8:30 a.m., the phone was ringing off the hook, Gaynell recalls. Women claimed they could tell she was a real mother, not some radio announcer reading ad copy. In September, Wee Care's Akwaaba doll welcomed 40 children, more than the Hendrickses anticipated.

"We had to hire people quickly," says Elias, who maintained his full-time job, marketing manager at Bell South's Birmingham office, as a fail-safe. "I was the janitor; Gaynell was the cook. We had bought the whole nine yards from business school that it's going to take three to five years before you reach the top of your form. We were not prepared for immediate success."

"That's one of the things I make a point of when talking to business groups," Gaynell adds. "You always plan for failure. But you've also got to plan for success. Because it could happen quickly and you've got to be ready when it does."

Constructing A New Day-Care Model

Ironically, the Hendrickses, who relied on their managerial experience, may have benefited from not having come from academic backgrounds. They treated teachers like valued professionals, not baby-sitters. They used corporate models to generate personnel policies and, although salaries were modest, ranging from $10,000 for aides to about $30,000 for directors, they structured jobs so there would be upward mobility. "We wanted people to feel like this is a career," Elias explains. "Some of these people will retire with us."

To refine Wee Care's curriculum, the Hendrickses called on their experience as parents. "We thought of all those things we did with our older child that took away from quality time together," Elias declares, "and said, 'wouldn't it be nice if all that happened at school.'" Thus ballet and piano lessons became a part of Wee Care's offerings, for an additional $5 per lesson. They also invited other professionals into cooperative ventures. Dr. Paul Amamoo, a pediatrician, started a column, "Doctor Care," in the Wee Care newsletter. "I wrote about childhood diseases, bed-wetting, insect bites, when to call the doctor," Amamoo says. "Some of the children were patients of mine and this was a way to disseminate information to their parents."

Amamoo had an even greater vested interest in Wee Care: His 9-year-old son, Amartei, began attending the center five years ago. Amamoo says he knew Wee Care was the right choice when four months later he stopped by the school and found the boy reading from a nowspaper. "It was thrilling," Amamoo says. "I know from our experience with our other two children that would not have happened if Amartei had been at home. Wee Care pushes children to excel early."