Today we’d like to introduce you to Ann Godley and Rob Godley.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Rob and I have spent the last 25 years traveling the world together. We met while teaching at an international school in Brussels, Belgium, Rob was working with special needs students and I was teaching Kindergarten. After 4 years there, we moved on and worked at American schools in Singapore, Mexico and Abu Dhabi.
Rob worked as a Middle and High School Principal and I worked as a Kindergarten teacher and took on a leadership role at several of the early childhood centers.
Just over a year ago we completed our contracts and decided to move to Georgia so our two girls could experience high school life before heading to college. We have loved Georgia since the day we arrived. After spending half a year settling in and getting to know the area, we decided to follow our passion and put our efforts into opening a faith based childcare and preschool center in Kennesaw.
We have spent the last 5 months renovating the facility, marketing, licensing, writing curriculum and designing a contemporary, play based program for families in Cobb County. Our global experiences and educational backgrounds are uniquely suited to building a program of care, love and excellence. We have started enrolling families and are excited to open at the end of July.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
During our exploration phase, we spent a lot of time speaking with franchises and other operators who were interested in having us partner with them. By staying true to our vision and ourselves, we were able to keep our eye on the target of being small business owners and retain the ability to put the things in place that we know will create an amazing facility. However, saying no to other options was hard. Doing this on our own has felt lonely at times, especially as we just moved to the area and do not have a family or social network to lean on.
Also, without a financial background, making decisions about tuition, salary, benefits and budgeting have all been areas of growth for us. Having the knowledge of what excellence in education looks like has been great, but there has been so much more for us to learn,
We have found that we love the adrenaline involved with problem solving and learning how to run our business. We have put so much time and energy into this project, but it’s been worth every penny and drop of sweat. I am so happy we are doing something that we love because if we weren’t, pushing through some of our challenges would have been really difficult.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Mt. Elizabeth Academy story. Tell us more about the business.
Mt. Elizabeth Academy is a faith based child care and preschool for children age 6 weeks to 5 years. It has been custom designed by two career educators to provide safe, loving and educational experiences for the children of Cobb County. ‘Mt. E.’, has an outstanding facility with 12,000 sq. ft. of classrooms and instructional space. Unique to us, we have an indoor gym/theater, a dedicated library and over 20,000 sq. ft. of outdoor playgrounds in a park like setting. Activities and organic catered food are included in our program.
Based on our global experiences, we believe in teaching our children how to live a sustainable life. As such we combine aspects of recycling, organic gardening, composting and nature into our program
Jane Goodall said it best when she told us to, “Leave softer footprints.”
As we incorporate faith, global understanding, environmental care and a passion for learning, we are able offer a unique, family run program for families who want something special for their kids.
By offering an all-inclusive tuition model, we accomplish a number of things. Firstly, families know what they are paying and are not constantly getting bills for different things. Also, all kids are included in everything that we do. Everyone participates in all activities and eats the same things. This also allows us to roll everything together and charge a fee that is lower that other quality programs that do not offer the same opportunities for kids…
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We feel very fortunate to have found such a special location. When we left Abu Dhabi, we gave ourselves a year to transition back. During that time, we settled into our neighborhood, helped our kids get comfortable with their schools and just basically re-integrated into American living. When we decided to move forward with our plans to open a school, we very quickly fell into our current location.
Contact Info:
- Address: Mt. Elizabeth Academy
3450 Stilesboro Road
Kennesaw, GA
30152 - Website: www.mtelizabeth.com
- Phone: (678) 257-2804
- Email: info@mtelizabeth.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mtelizabethacademy/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mt-elizabeth-academy-kennesaw?uid=0CUq-qTAdbgkkPxul0G3eA&utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
