Client Success Stories

How Independence Preschool Grew Revenue 122% Without Owners Doing It All

When Growth Means You Can’t Do It All Yourself

Tina and Jake Gordon had built Independence Preschool & Childcare into a growing operation with a second location in the works — but growth was starting to reveal a familiar bottleneck: them. As co-owners, they were pulled into daily operations so constantly that there was little time left for strategy, leadership development, or the growth planning the business actually needed to keep scaling.

Shifting From Working “In” the Business to Working “On” It

The Gordons partnered with Waters Business Consulting Group to build the operational and financial foundation their expansion required — starting with a hard question: could a second location actually pencil out financially? Beyond that immediate decision, the deeper challenge was structural. The business lacked departmental autonomy, meaning almost every decision still ran through the owners. Recruiting and retaining employees was a persistent constraint on growth, and there wasn’t yet a reliable system for financial forecasting, KPI tracking, or pricing strategy to guide decisions with confidence.

Building the Operating System Behind the Growth

WBCG worked with the Gordons to build a strategic growth plan supported by a weekly cadence of guidance and accountability — not a one-time strategy session, but an ongoing operating rhythm. That included financial forecasting tied to real KPIs, and pricing strategy guidance that balanced revenue and margin goals against both competitive pressure and the Gordons’ own lifestyle goals for the business.

Just as important was the org chart work: creating clearer roles and responsibilities so gaps and overlaps in leadership became visible and fixable, rather than quietly causing friction. WBCG helped establish a KPI framework of leading and lagging indicators with a regular review rhythm, mapped and improved operational workflows to increase efficiency, and supported recruiting, training, and retraining programs along with compensation planning to strengthen culture and retention — historically one of the business’s toughest challenges. Supporting documents like career growth tracks, position descriptions, and workflow maps gave the team tools to execute consistently, not just intentions to follow.

The Results: Faster Growth With Less Owner Dependency

The financial results speak for themselves. Revenue grew from $785,755 in 2020 to $1,060,885 in 2021 and reached $1,746,485 in 2022 — a 122% increase over two years. Growth actually accelerated as the new systems took hold: year-over-year revenue growth rose from 35.0% (2020 to 2021) to 64.6% (2021 to 2022).

Just as important as the growth rate is what’s driving it. The Gordons now have planning tools for forecasting and KPI visibility, an organizational chart and career tracks that support hiring and retention, and clearer alignment between pricing, staffing, and financial targets. The business is being built to scale on systems, not on how many hours the owners can personally put in.

Ready to Build a Business That Doesn’t Depend on You?

If your growth is capped by how much you personally can do, it might be time to build the structure that lets your business scale without you in every decision. A free consultation is the first step toward finding out what that looks like for your company.

Contact Waters Business Consulting Group to schedule a free consultation.

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