This time, we’re speaking with Amanda Munday, Founder and CEO of The Workaround, a parent-friendly workspace in Toronto’s east end.
Tell us a bit about your business
The Workaround is a co-working space with childcare onsite. We want to be a solution for parents who need childcare in alternative situations. Most childcare providers have a 3-year waitlist for full-time 9-5 care but if you’re self-employed or on maternity leave that often isn’t a viable option.
At The Workaround, parents work while children are cared for onsite. We offer 10 spots per day with registered ECE (early childhood educator) staff and our customers only pay for the time their kids are in childcare.
We have three options for membership: a half-day pass, a full-day pass or a monthly membership. In the beginning, everyone opted for full-day passes but these days, half-day passes are our top-selling offering. Parents on a half-day schedule say they are far more productive because they can zero in on what they need to do, then get on with their day.
Tell us about your customers
I just ran a report on the breakdown between business owners and self-employed vs. remote workers. It turns out that 55% of our customer base are business owners, 44% are remote workers and 1% are people on maternity/paternity leave or students.
Ultimately, I think our customers are parents who need some flexible accommodations in their work. The common denominator is the need for flexibility in their day. Flexible drop-off, meeting spaces etc. They come in and do their work while we take care of logistics.
How did you get started as a business owner/entrepreneur?
I worked in tech for 15 years, always for smaller organizations that were often based in co-working spaces.
I went on maternity leave twice while working for start-ups and found the return particularly rough. I’m ambitious, driven, and loyal, but I found myself hit with a stigma that was unwarranted. When I came back from mat leave, my role was altered because they didn’t think I could handle it anymore or that my commitment had weakened.
I didn’t have a lifelong dream to build a coworking space or to be an entrepreneur but about a year ago I realized that this community needed more childcare options
I didn’t have a lifelong dream to build a coworking space or to be an entrepreneur but about a year ago I realized that this community needed more childcare options. I decided that industry needs to solve these problems, so I went to BDC, (Business Development Bank of Canada), and they gave me a loan. I got a lease on a space and jumped right in. That was one year ago this summer.
What’s the most powerful lesson you’ve learned as a business owner?
It’s always about money. I come from a marketing and storytelling background and I thought compelling content would keep the company going. I underestimated my weakness in financial management. I spent money too fast without any idea of what it means. The weight of the fixed costs of this business is all-consuming and it takes me away from the storytelling side. I had to outsource my marketing so I can raise money, build profitability and keep cashflow tight. You can’t outsource financial responsibility.
Then there is staffing. I saw a tweet, “everyone will tell you staffing and hiring is hard and you’ll ignore it, and then one day you’ll learn that staffing and hiring is hard”. Building a cohesive team falls on me and can’t be underestimated. I hired good people, but they can’t run everything themselves. They need clear expectations and guidelines from me in order to do their jobs well.
What’s the best use of your time at work?
I have a great business coach, Janet Whalen. She is really good at getting me off this productivity-distraction tangent of doing busy work when I’m stressed. My job is People, Strategy, Cashflow. Those are the three things I need to spend my time on.
My job is People, Strategy, Cashflow. Those are the three things I need to spend my time on
If you could remove one task or responsibility from your work, what would it be?
I hate financial modelling. Everyone wants forecasts for growth but it’s totally made up. I understand that when it comes to funding, it’s more about the decision making vs. the final number. The decision making on a 2-3 year projection is incredibly time-consuming. It feels like an epic waste of time, but we can’t move forward unless I have a robust model.
What are some of the more specific pain points for you when it comes to your operations? How do you tackle them?
We are dealing with a public-facing, people-centred business where everything is part of our product. The space is the business and it can present an operational challenge to keep it clean, efficient and well-run.
Staff sick days affect childcare so we need a strong roster of hourly, on-demand, part-time staff vs. full-time salaried staff. In this kind of business you need flexibility so scheduling and retention can be challenging.
People are my main focus and I try to get a lot of feedback from my staff. I hold an end-of-week rant and rave to give the staff an outlet. It unearths repetitive complaints that I can actually address and gives everyone clarity on what’s in our control and what isn’t. It also gives me insight into operational issues that I can identify and address at a later date.
People are my main focus and I try to get a lot of feedback from my staff.
Do you have any favourite tools for work? Things you can’t do without?
We use Trello for productivity and I have become a convert to inbox labelling. Either I answer it right away or label it. Green = sales, Red = money out, etc. Our team also thrives on Slack. Our space is quite quiet. Customers pay to get their work done here so the Slack community channel lets them know what is going on in a passive way and allows parents to communicate with childcare to avoid disruption.
Do you have any books or podcasts you would recommend to other people?
I wrote a memoir on post-partum depression that was released earlier this year — it’s called Day Nine and details my experience being involuntarily committed to a Toronto psychiatric institution after the birth of my daughter. It’s something that isn’t talked about enough in parenting circles and it’s important to shed a light on the issue of post-partum depression.
Some books I would recommend to other entrepreneurs would be Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul, by Jenny Kassan; The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, by Priya Parker; Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0, by Sarah Lacy; and Hacking Marketing: Agile Practices to Make Marketing Smarter, Faster, and More Innovative, by Scott Brinker
Some podcasts I’ve been enjoying include CANADALAND, Oppo, and Call Your Girlfriend.
Is there anything else you want the reader to know?
That idea that “if it isn’t hard, you aren’t doing it right” is not the message that parents need to hear. This business is so fun—it keeps me close to my kids, it’s manageable and on my own terms by design. I’m growing it to be profitable and highly successful as we open multiple locations. I reject that entrepreneurship needs to be savage. It’s a dangerous idea that sets people up for failure. You want to be an entrepreneur so you can have control of your life. I’m not building a billion-dollar business, but I am building a profitable business.
I reject that entrepreneurship needs to be savage. It’s a dangerous idea that sets people up for failure
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Learn more about The Workaround on their website — https://theworkaround.ca/
You can follow Amanda on Twitter or LinkedIn, and buy her book here!
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