Little Creations Learning Center

The Opportunity

Mother and daughter duo, Georgia Reese and Tiffany Hayes, started their daycare business in 2012 as an offshoot of their church and religious community. They used one of their church buildings as a daycare during the week and as a Sunday school on Sunday. Their business was initially a non-profit licensed for 25 children, but they quickly met that enrollment quota.  

With backgrounds in education, Tiffany and Georgia, saw an opportunity to increase their enrollment capacity by becoming a learning center. They changed their business from a non-profit to an LLC and increased their square footage to include the church sanctuary, expanding their enrollment capacity to 55 children. These changes would make it easier for Tiffany and Georgia to partner with the Dallas school district, which covers the cost of pre-K teachers for qualified childcare centers.  

So soon enough, Tiffany and Georgia’s Little Creations Learning Center had a consistent enrollment of 55 children, with a waiting list of over 80 children. But there was no more space at the church for them to grow, halting all plans they had for the learning center. They were in desperate need to grow.   

The Challenge

Tiffany and Georgia needed a commercial real estate loan to expand. They spent over two years trying to find funding. They had gone around and around and around to banks for expansion capital but were turned down left and right because they didn’t make enough money. But Tiffany and Georgia couldn’t grow their revenue without growing enrollment and they couldn’t grow enrollment beyond what the buildings were licensed for. They were in a double bind. 

Things started to change when another lender connected them to a lending officer at Celtic Bank. Tiffany and Georgia shared their vision and business plan, and Celtic’s lending officer just got it. He understood what they were trying to do. He understood where they were at the moment and why they were being turned down by other lenders.  

Celtic’s loan officer believed in their vision and believed that Tiffany and Georgia had a legitimate, tangible, and strategic business plan that made sense. Because of Tiffany and Georgia’s strong industry experience, the learning center’s consistent cash flow, and market demand, Celtic was able to extend $1.2M in projection-based financing. 

The Solution

The commercial real estate financing that Tiffany and Georgia secured from Celtic Bank in January 2021 enabled them to acquire a four-acre campus with four buildings, totaling over 19,000 square feet. The campus is quadruple the square footage of the two church buildings they had been operating from. The new campus expanded the Little Creations Learning Center enrollment capacity to 223 children.

As of October 2022, the Learning Center is still in growth mode with an enrollment of 135 children. They still have a waiting list because they need more staff before they can enroll more children. But since moving to the new campus, they have hired over 10 people and employ 18 people in total. 

Finally, Tiffany and Georgia have the space to grow their business in the ways they’ve always imagined.