COTC Alumna Opens Childcare Center

For Brittany Klinkert, life keeps her on her toes. The Central Ohio Technical College (COTC) alumna is not only a mother of three, but she also recently opened a Newark-based childcare center that brings an additional 20 children into her care.

“My life consists of keeping my kids busy and trying to run a business,” she says. “Sometimes it seems hectic, but it’s definitely better than selling cars or being a server like I did in my past!”

The idea to start her own daycare came about when Klinkert was pregnant with her third child and had a hard time thinking of leaving him to return to work. Then when her mom said she could no longer babysit, Klinkert realized she needed to figure out a business where she could stay home with her children and make money.

“So I started looking into it. I realized if I just focused and got my state approval (for a daycare license), I could make this dream happen — and I did,” Klinkert says.

Fast forward four years later, Klinkert was offered the opportunity to rent rooms from a local church and run her childcare center there. “I quickly realized I did not want to do daycare out of my home forever because of the mess and chaos, but I wanted to wait until my kids were in school before I opened a center.”

She added, “I feel like all my hard work and determination is finally paying off. I’ve broken many generational curses, and I’m paving a new path for my little ones.”

It’s a venture that’s been aided greatly by Klinkert’s associate degree in business management technology from COTC. She says the content from one of her marketing courses now helps her navigate changes in the market and technology because she already has a sense of what people want and how to attract them to her business.

“It also gave me a sense of confidence in what I am doing and taught me I need to be confident when I speak, especially to state and authoritative figures,” she adds. “Confidence is key to selling yourself to customers.”

Despite her newfound confidence, Klinkert admits that it’s been a difficult journey, and at times she wanted to quit — especially when her son was an infant. “I’m thankful for the online classes because that really helped me,” she said. “I used to have my baby on my lap while doing schoolwork.”

Klinkert initially chose to attend COTC because it was affordable. And while a student, she loved the atmosphere and felt great support, especially from the admissions team – something she’ll never forget.

“I was the first to graduate for generations since going to college wasn’t something people in my family did, so I had a lot of questions when I started. The people at the front guided me every step of the way.”