November 22, 2025
Allen, CEO and founding father of Themba Inventive Studying Heart, discusses her success as a seven-figure earnings earner within the childcare business.
Jameela Allen is the CEO and founding father of Themba Inventive Studying Heart. Her pleasure comes from serving to different childcare house owners benefit from the fruits of their labor. Along with her business data, successes, and failures, she provides steerage on construct a financially thriving operation and a life that gives others with freedom and choices. BLACK ENTERPRISE not too long ago caught up with Allen to debate how she has achieved success as a seven-figure earnings earner within the childcare business.
BE: When do you know you wished to construct an empire within the childcare business?
Allen: From a younger age, I had a profound imaginative and prescient of constructing a transformative affect within the childcare business, and proudly owning my very own childcare heart was the last word aspiration. My expertise as a childcare assistant at a top-notch little one improvement heart throughout my freshman yr at West Virginia State College ignited an unrelenting ardour inside me.
BE: Share briefly about your entrepreneurial journey.
Allen: After a decade and dedication of being a public-school trainer and the founding father of a non-profit group that offered free enrichment actions to low-income youth, I spotted my true calling was to create my personal nurturing early studying setting the place kids may thrive. I launched into a journey to pursue my imaginative and prescient of proudly owning a childcare heart, pushed by an insatiable need to study and develop.
Whereas instructing and operating my non-profit, I earned a Grasp’s in Public Administration and supplemented my data with early childhood programs, empowering myself with the experience to excel in each facet of my future enterprise. With unwavering willpower, I remodeled my imaginative and prescient into actuality, which birthed Themba Inventive Studying Heart in 2007.
Eighteen years later, I proudly replicate on this pivotal choice, which has been a testomony to the ability of braveness, resilience, and strategic risk-taking. By leveraging my monetary acumen and investing in my dream, I created a vibrant group that has flourished for almost 20 years, inspiring a way of satisfaction and success that continues to propel me ahead.
BE: Speak about your crew and the workers you’re employed with.
Allen: I’m actually humbled and grateful to work alongside my extraordinary Dream Group, who embody the very essence of excellence. My workers of 30 devoted people, together with my outstanding director, Mrs. Rashadah, who I fondly name “my angel,” together with 3 distinctive members of my Admin Group, are the driving pressure behind my success.
Moreover, my Dream Group has been instrumental in serving to me obtain many awards and native recognition as one of the best small enterprise in Prince George’s County, an honor bestowed upon us by the Prince George’s County Chambers of Commerce.
BE: What have been a few of your biggest challenges and the way did you overcome them?
Allen: Early in my entrepreneurial journey, I spotted that the first impediment to success was my very own mindset. I needed to shift from a mentality of shortage to considered one of abundance. Initially, I ran my childcare enterprise with a ‘Mother & Pop store’ mentality, missing efficient management and techniques. I confronted immense stress and nervousness, which led to repeated emergency room visits, as I assumed I may be having a panic and coronary heart assault all on the identical time. The expertise was overwhelming.
Poor hiring practices and insufficient instruments hindered our productiveness and profitability. Many individuals advised me that there was no cash to be made within the childcare business.
Nonetheless, a go to with my mentor, Mr. Turner, was a turning level. He inspired me to learn the IBIS report, which revealed that the childcare business was a $60 billion business. This newfound understanding prompted me to reevaluate my method. I acknowledged that all the pieces rises and falls on management. I made the pivotal choice to put money into myself. I began dressing professionally, sporting a go well with to work, to replicate the success I aspired to attain. I additionally invested in my crew, offering them with matching uniforms to advertise a way of professionalism. To additional develop my management expertise, I employed a coach, attended enterprise conferences, and I listened to motivational audio system like Les Brown and Zig Ziglar. I prioritized persevering with schooling for my director and workers, making a complete 90-day onboarding course of to make sure we employed and retained high expertise.
BE: What does it take for a childcare proprietor to go to the subsequent stage and obtain 6 and seven determine success?
Allen: To unlock your full potential as a frontrunner, it’s important to acknowledge the significance of management. Cultivating key traits like perseverance, tenacity, grit, and fervour will empower you to encourage your crew and propel them to new heights.
Implementing the three Ps –individuals, product, and processes–can be important. You’ll wish to encompass your self with Folks who possess the best mix of temperament, perspective, and fervour for working with younger kids. To realize greatness, you have to be resilient and motivated to push by challenges.
Providing a superior product is essential. My aspiration is to supply cutting-edge early childhood improvement packages that set us aside. We obtain this by providing distinctive packages like overseas language courses, dance, yoga, science, PE, STEM schooling, chess, and natural gardening. By encouraging our crew to pursue instructing certifications, we be sure that dad and mom can belief us with their kids’s schooling and well-being.
Lastly, establishing glorious Processes is crucial. Our efficient 90-day onboarding course of, accountability measures, and steady studying from errors allow us to refine our operations and keep distinctive requirements.
BE: Who’s your mento, and the way do you are feeling about mentor relationships?
Allen: I’ve been actually blessed to have had some unbelievable mentors all through my life, and I firmly imagine that having a mentor is a game-changer that may catapult you to unprecedented heights.
My dad and mom have been wonderful mentors, instructing me invaluable life classes and sharing their knowledge in ways in which have formed me into the particular person I’m right now.
On knowledgeable stage, I’ve been impressed by Sandra Yancey, Les Brown, John Maxwell, and the late Earl Nightingale who’ve all served as mentors and function fashions, displaying me what it means to reside a lifetime of goal, ardour, and integrity. Studying from them has been a very uplifting expertise that has impressed me to succeed in for greatness and make a significant distinction.
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