Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Lanquist.
Hi Allison, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Music City Kids Club opened its doors to Sumner County and surrounding communities Saturday, August 10, 2019. The organization offered to drop in child care for children ages 13 months to 12 years and was the first of its kind in the area. Drop-in child care allows parents to drop their children off in a safe, state-licensed environment so they can play. At the same time, the adults do errands, enjoy a date night, or do any other activity they might need to attend to child-free. While daycares serve the purpose of child care during standard working hours, drop-in child care has extended, flexible hours to help with more casual, short-term needs. A growing trend nationwide drops in child care in Tennessee can provide childcare up to 14 hours during the weekdays and up to 20 hours a week, including nights and weekends. It is a perfect solution for those who work odd shifts or don’t have traditional babysitter resources. The company was created by Middle Tennessee locals Allison Lanquist and her husband Trey Hannah in 2018 when they recognized the huge gap in flexible child care in the Sumner County area. “Trey and I were driving to other parts of Middle Tennessee to utilize drop-in child care for our son and recognized that this was a service that parents needed,” said Ms. Lanquist. “Reliable and trustworthy child care are hard to come by, and after we had to give away $300 worth of concert tickets when a babysitter canceled last minute, I knew there had to be a better way,” she continued. So, they started Music City Kids Club and found a home in the Hobby Lobby Shopping Center of the Indian Lake area. Today MCKC has over 1400 children on its roster and over 900 families serving the Hendersonville location. Trey and Allison are currently working to open a second location in East Nashville.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We were a brand new business hitting some amazing business milestones when Covid-19 hit our 6-month mark. We were forced to close in April 2020 for 28 days. We closed so our employees could collect unemployment as we knew we could not continue to schedule them with no children coming to our center. Then, we recognized that we needed to reopen as we were the only option many families had for child care. Those frontline workers still had to report, and traditional daycares were not offering care. We bravely decided to bring employees back and take in any children we could serve and help those who needed us. It was slow sometimes, but we were committed to keeping our employees working and serving whatever children we could. We also worked very hard to keep our center Covid-free. We did not have our first case of Covid-19 in children or employees until January 2022. We are very proud of that record as it took extensive cleaning and constant sanitizing of surfaces to keep everyone safe.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a consummate entrepreneur. When I broached this idea with my husband, we knew nothing about childcare. I know how to run a business, and I knew that I could surround myself with people who knew how to care for children. So, we put together a business plan and jumped in with both feet to learn the strategies to launch the best version of childcare to help people like us fill in childcare gaps in today’s busy lives. I started in public relations and special events planning out of college. I finished my PR career in 2006. I had worked in crisis PR for several years and was burned out. I found a new career in buying and flipping houses from foreclosures. At that time, the foreclosure market was huge, and tv shows about flipping houses were all the rage. I bought and flipped homes for 3 years until 2009, when my business partner and I bought a terrible home that needed to be torn down. So, we began Castleridge Home Builders and started building new homes. Most of my home-building career has focused on urban infill homes, replacing dilapidated structures in urban neighborhoods with new, beautiful ones. Today, I am in the middle of developing my first neighborhood in Old Hickory, Tennessee, and I hope to see the first house sold from this project in early 2023.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I grew up on a 500-acre farm, and my dad could do just about anything. I learned so much working and living on a farm, and I loved all the freedom and adventures that came with having that much land to roam.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.musiccitykidsclub.com
- Instagram: @musiccitykidsclub
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/musiccitykidsclub/
