My Odyssey Journey
Three decades of real-world childcare operating, development, growth, and transaction experience.
Pictured, Odyssey’s Administrative Team: Amanda B. (Director, Odyssey Trace Crossings, 27 years tenure), Amy D. (Assistant Director, Odyssey Trace Crossings, 23 years tenure), Jennifer S. (Assistant Director, Odyssey Inverness, 22 years tenure), Annie F. (Director, Odyssey Inverness, 25 years tenure).
The Beginning
Odyssey Early Schools began as a family business rooted in education.
My parents spent their careers as public school teachers and administrators in Washington, Virginia and Alabama before my father founded Odyssey Early Schools in 1995. Like many entrepreneurial ventures, the business began severely undercapitalized and faced significant financial and operational challenges early on.
After completing a JD/MBA program and passing the Alabama Bar Exam, I joined the company in 1996 during a period of aggressive growth and constant operational demands.
Those early years taught me lessons that continue to shape my perspective today: growth requires discipline, operational details matter, and long-term success is rarely linear.
Building Odyssey
Over the next three decades, Odyssey evolved from a struggling family business into one of Alabama’s most respected privately owned childcare organizations.
We developed and operated multiple build-to-suit childcare campuses serving more than 500 children daily and employing approximately 100 team members. Those projects included over 31,000 SF of greenfield construction and expansion within existing suburban development environments, each bringing its own operational, financial, licensing, and development complexities.
Along the way, I became deeply involved in every aspect of the business:
Operations and organizational leadership
Enrollment growth and staffing development
Development and construction oversight
Licensing, compliance, and expansion execution
Strategic planning and operational scalability
In 2004, during a financially difficult period for the company, I used personal and commercial debt to acquire full ownership, despite the business carrying a negative cash position exceeding $600,000.
That period reinforced lessons about financial discipline, operational accountability, debt management, and long-term decision-making that few operators fully appreciate until they experience them firsthand.
Learning Through Adversity
Some of the most valuable lessons came during periods of uncertainty and pressure.
We experienced the challenges that come with growth: operational strain, staffing complexity, development delays, changing economic environments, and the constant balancing act between quality, profitability, and long-term sustainability.
In Odyssey’s first eight years, we went through three ownership/investor group changes.
The COVID-19 pandemic presented perhaps the most difficult operational period in the company’s history. In 2020, the State of Alabama ordered all childcare centers closed for nearly four months and imposed severe enrollment restrictions upon reopening.
Despite having virtually no revenue, Odyssey continued paying every teacher and staff member their full compensation for a substantial portion of its closure while also maintaining the company’s ongoing fixed obligations.
That experience reinforced my belief that leadership matters most during difficult moments—not easy ones.
By 2022, Odyssey had fully returned to capacity enrollment and generated more than $6.3 million in annual revenue.
Why This Experience Matters
Three decades of operating, expanding, developing, financing, managing, and ultimately selling a childcare organization provided firsthand exposure to challenges that cannot be fully understood through theory alone.
That experience now informs how I advise:
operators navigating growth,
owners preparing for eventual transition, and
investors evaluating scalability and operational infrastructure within the childcare sector.
Every organization reaches defining moments where disciplined decisions matter. My role is helping clients navigate those moments with practical perspective grounded in real-world experience.
The Exit
In 2017, Odyssey executed a successful sale-leaseback transaction of both company properties.
In 2023, I successfully sold the operating company at an 8.6x EBITDA multiple—one of the strongest transaction multiples achieved in the childcare sector that year, especially for a middle-market company with only two locations.
Sophisticated buyer diligence can become far more demanding and complex than many owners initially expect.
During the sale process, one potential transaction unexpectedly collapsed deep into due diligence after months of preparation and negotiation, requiring us to regroup and ultimately complete a successful transaction with a second buyer.
Experiencing that process firsthand provided invaluable perspective into:
Buyer expectations
Operational scrutiny
Financial preparation
Transaction readiness
Organizational positioning
Diligence management
The experience reinforced the importance of preparation, patience, adaptability, and experienced guidance during high-stakes business transactions.
Why the Journey Continues
After spending nearly three decades building, operating, expanding, developing, and ultimately exiting a childcare organization, I realized the most valuable lessons came not during smooth periods—but during moments of uncertainty, complexity, pressure, and change.
Today, through The Journey Continues Consulting, I work closely with a select number of childcare owners and investors. Together, we navigate important decisions involving growth, development, scalability, investment, and transition planning.
My approach is intentionally personal, hands-on, and relationship-driven. Because I work directly with every client, I intentionally maintain a limited number of active engagements at any given time.
I’m not interested in building a high-volume consulting business.
What motivates me is helping good operators and thoughtful investors avoid costly mistakes, navigate important decisions more confidently, and ultimately achieve the strongest outcomes possible for their businesses, their teams, and their families.
Every business journey is different.
But experience matters in all of them.