Kiwi Business Story: Ray Everest from Future Focus

Ray Everest is the founder and owner of Future Focus, an early childcare business based in Papamoa. Having opened in 2019, the centre now has three facilities in the Bay of Plenty with a fourth due to open later in 2022.
 

Location: Tauranga
Business Type: Early Education and Childcare
Founded:  2019
Number of Employees:  53 (Full and part-time)
Current Business Situation: Experiencing successful and rapid growth in line with long-term business plan
Relationship with The Icehouse: Business Owner Programme Alumni

How did you arrive in the business? 

Courtney, my wife and I, are the owners. I'm a qualified teacher and became a school principal when I was 26, 14 years ago, while Courtney’s been in business for 12 years.

I left my principalship after only two years because I was highly frustrated with the huge level of red tape and bureaucracy that was being put on teachers. My belief was that I could go higher up the chain and have greater effect on cutting that down.

Courtney always said to me, ‘Why don’t we buy a school?’! We looked at charter schools but settled on early childhood. We're not a traditional day care model, but we’re really proud of it. We’ve gone from one centre to three within three years and we have ambitious plans for the future.

What’s your day-to-day role? 
 
If I'm being honest, my job is to stay out of the way! Yes, I clean floors, play with the kids and so on, but it's not common for people to see the owners of day cares in the rooms. We’re really trying to break down the hierarchy space, of us being the owners and how everything stops with us.  

Our philosophy is about moving us out of the day-to-day as fast as possible. Personally, I believe that too much of our DNA in the business slows down decision-making from the people on the ground, when they're the ones really making the decisions on the coalface.   

What are your challenges and positives? 

When we started in 2019, Courtney and I had never worked together, so we had to work through that! We've got quite grand plans around scaling into other areas and we’ve set a permanent goal of 50 centres.  
 
However, that means we don’t just have to develop 50 centres, we’ve got to develop 50 centre leaders, 50 support teams, admin space, and all those sorts of things.  

People say to us, ‘You’re doing so well’, and while 50 centres sounds great, it’s taken me 20 years to become an overnight success! The real driver is around growth, creating opportunities for people and trying to pave a way for people because being a teacher for the rest of your life is a hard gig! 

How do we build the best experience for teachers? What is it they need? How do we cut away the red tape? How do we enable them to be what they want to be when they signed up? That's the continual conversation. 
 
Like any business owner, when Covid kicked-off, we were worried about keeping our doors open, and not burning up too much money. We felt for our teaching staff and looked at how to manage their stress levels, so we were constantly checking in with them. 

Post lockdown we’ve been pretty much full, so obviously that alleviates a lot of financial stress and allows us to really dig deeper into our own leadership philosophies in terms of building and scaling a business. We went through a process of realising we’re building a good product. Our teachers love what we're doing, they love the freedom and autonomy. So that's a good sign.

Bravery counts, but it’s calculated bravery! I also think you make your luck. I'm very good at relationships, I get out and meet people and tell our story. We've got pretty big aspirations around where we want to be. 



What did you do with The Icehouse?  

I did Business Owner Programme 2 [a practical six-month academy for Bay of Plenty business owners] from May to October 2021. Courtney convinced me to apply and even when I got the phone call, I was so nervous.  
 
It's crazy, because I'm so confident in a whole range of things, but an old piece of Ray really flooded back, thinking, ‘What are you going to offer?’ That’s my imposter syndrome coming out. I’m young, from Tokoroa, and growing up I never knew a doctor, a lawyer, or anyone who had a business or owned their own house. I turned up to the first session probably overly excited, asking myself if I belonged here!  

What were your key takeaways?  
 
I was absolutely blown away to be part of it. I loved it and just sitting in the room, hearing people's origin stories and what they do and why they do it was unbelievable. It just fascinated me. Also hearing Jamie’s [Brock, BOP facilitator] stories was just an unreal experience.  
 
I want people out there, especially Māori and Pacifica, and women in business, to know that BOP can really affirm that what you are doing is brilliant – and also fill some important business gaps.

How do you weave what your learnt into the business? 
 
My real area of growth has always been around numbers; growth and projection, sales processes and so on. BOP was around having a process that allows you to discuss where the growth needs to come in that process – that was a really powerful one.  
 
BOP was also about hearing from the other business owners – their struggles, how they're getting through them, how they're pivoting, what sort of level of innovation they're trying to attract or create, where they struggled and what didn't work. 
 
Hearing Jamie’s stories – about being willing to try, even if it means falling over every now and again – and expertise, was amazing. He’s very real and has so much experience.  
 
To be honest, I would have loved to carry it on for a year!

Have you worked professionally with any other alumni since doing the programme?

I still see Mike Dennehy, who is a coach and mentor with The Icehouse. I haven’t worked with any of my group just yet but I’ll be turning up for events and having a beer with them!

What advice would you give for someone wanting to start a business right now?  
 
As I said earlier, I'm trying to get my DNA out of the business as fast as possible, because I believe I'll get in the way. That's my leadership philosophy. If Courtney and I can move our DNA out of the day-to-day, the business will grow quicker because it means that the backstop isn't me, it's the culture and systems of the business which will drive it.  
 
I absolutely encourage it, but you've got to have a good team around you. You've got to have people who provide every piece of the puzzle – to tell you you're on the right track but you also need people who will say, ‘I don't really think that's a good idea’. So be very clear on your own philosophies on how you want to build it, and don’t be afraid to fall over.  
 
Follow the link for more information about Future Focus and its range of early childcare and pre-school services.