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Child-care center owner wins Young Entrepreneur of the Year

Nikki Reynolds loves to play and loves to be around children. When she was just a kid herself, she set a goal: to own a child-care center.

Reynolds, 29, maintained her career focus as she grew up.

End of the Rainbow Owner, Nikki Reynolds.

After attending community college in St. Louis on a soccer scholarship, she enrolled at the University of Missouri and took the first step toward her goal by working part-time at End of the Rainbow Child Development Center.

When Reynolds graduated from MU in 2003, she made an offer to buy the 17-year-old business, but the owner wasn’t ready to sell. She took the setback in stride and started learning more about the day-to-day operations of running the business. She was promoted to lead teacher and then assistant director.

In 2005, Reynolds and her husband Jared persuaded the owner to sell them the business and the landlord to let them expand into the rest of the 7,300-square-foot building on Old Highway 63 South.

Reynolds renovated the building and added a security system with key-card entry and cameras in the classrooms and the playground. She also installed a ventilation system with a filtered fresh-air return.

Next on the to-do list was revamping the marketing materials and the Web site, 
www.rainbow-childcare.com, and arranging for transportation so the children could attend swimming, soccer, gymnastics and music lessons.

Ginger Otto, Assistant Director of End of the Rainbow leads the pre-school children in song.

End of the Rainbow’s enrollment soon grew from 56 children to 99 children. The staff more than doubled, growing to 18 full-time and seven part-time employees, and their benefits increased. In three years, revenues rose 325 percent.

“Learning through play is the heart of our curriculum,” Reynolds wrote in the nomination packet.

Reynolds also encourages children to participate in charitable projects, such as MDA’s trike-a-thon and hop-a-thon and takes them for visits to the animal shelter and the food bank.

And she still finds time to play. She’s a member of the Columbia Soccer Club and the Columbia Multi-Sport Club, and is training for her first triathalon.