Rebecca Wolford dreams of creating a spot for entrepreneurs and community leaders to focus on their passions, people who also happen to be moms with young children.

Her answer: Creative Habitat Coworking + Child Care. More on that later. 
There’s a strong case for business leaders to consider Wolford’s dream — the need for more skilled workers and to address shortcomings in Iowa’s child care.

In Central Iowa, there’s a strong group, perhaps even hundreds strong, of women who, for one reason or another, choose to be the primary caregivers for their young kids and leave the workforce. Some find child care to be too expensive, with the sense that their paychecks go entirely to a day care. 

Some find that care is not adequate for covering the hours needed for work or that employers are unable to offer flexible hours or situations to accommodate the needs of young children (doctor’s visits, sickness, a nanny or baby sitter who quits). Some of these women simply want to be there to nurture their kids in their youngest and likely neediest years. 

The Iowa Women’s Foundation has focused on this issue recently, pointing out that a dearth of child care in a community is a drain on the state’s economy. The foundation estimates Iowa is short nearly 359,000 child care spaces for children 12 and younger. Executive Director Dawn Oliver Wiand in an interview with the Business Record described the situation as dire. A Brookings Institution report said parents pay an average $8,320 a year for a kid under age 5 to attend child care at least eight hours a week.

Along with the need for more child care and affordable care, Iowa contends with having a longtime low unemployment rate and a war for talent.

Iowa Workforce Development reported Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate as holding steady at 2.4% in March. It was 2.7% one year ago. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.8% in March, IWD reported. 

Business leaders often stress the need for skilled workers and have stressed needing to look at different population groups to find talent. Mom entrepreneurs could be one group to consider, said Christina Moffatt, director of small business resources with the Greater Des Moines Partnership. Moffatt said she knew several women involved in a work-sharing agreement and knew of the coworking and child care option like that at Creative Habitat.
Iowa has a majority of women already working. According to figures from the State Data Center, 63% of females age 16 and older are in the in labor force.
Wolford became a parent in 2015 and returned to work after maternity leave, even getting a promotion at her employer.

The fit didn’t feel right for her family, she said. She mulled over the issue and how to solve it, coming up with the hybrid coworking space and child care operation.

A blog with the title “Creative Habitat” started in 2015. When Wolford, her husband and family moved to the Des Moines area, she brought the idea and passion to develop it with her.

CREATIVE HABITAT BEGINS

Wolford’s idea for Creative Habitat ­— a hybrid coworking space and child care business with the intent to support families — provides an out-of-the-box idea for moms who want to plug in to their professional sides or to start a small business that could bring in additional income for their families.

“Honestly, the reason I’m doing this is because I want to be the best mom I can be. But I also just can’t deny that creative, problem-solving side of myself. I need both,” she said. “It’s not selfish [for women] to say, ‘Hey, I have these skills, I want to contribute to my community, but my time frame doesn’t look like 8-to-5 jobs like a lot of people.”

Instead, Wolford’s time for developing Creative Habitat and its programming depends on her son and daughter’s needs. When her 4-year-old son goes to preschool, Wolford uses those mornings to have meetings and work on partnerships. Her 2-year-old daughter comes along as her “little business partner.” Meetings take place in unorthodox spots such as parks or near the kid play area at Valley West Mall. 

Her education helps as well. Wolford double-majored in interior design and business management at Colorado State University; her master’s degree is in industrial organizational psychology.

Here’s how Creative Habitat works: The setup offers moms several hours of time in a coworking space while other members watch and care for their little ones in a different area. Partnerships with different organizations allow for space to be used.

“I think it just makes so much sense to have a coworking space with childcare,” Wolford said. Now, I will say it’s somewhat of a difficult business model to run at times, because it can be very expensive with the child care and the coworking space. There’s just a lot in running two business models at the same time. And that’s why I think it just takes a while to get it up and started. … We really want to help launch this in the Midwest,” she said.

In 2018, Wolford got a boost when she was able to participate in the Venture School. There she learned market research, how to take a business model and use it for the market’s needs, and how to pitch a business idea. Creative Habitat was chosen from the Des Moines cohort to move forward to the statewide pitch competition, where Creative Habitat placed fourth.

A MarketWatch article from December 2018 (https://on.mktw.net/2UT1bTq) explained how several coworking spaces in Philadelphia and Seattle were offering child care. Those examples differed from Creative Habitat’s current structure in focusing on moms. 

What about dads? Wolford explained that working moms are the target audience for now but that the future could include stay-at-home dads. Part of the program at the Valley Community Center offered a punch-card that was used by some fathers.

SECOND YEAR, NEW ADDITIONS

This summer Creative Habitat will run a program for the second time, expanding from eight families to 15. Of the six families still in the area who participated in 2018, all signed up again for 2019. 

“Last year was very much a pilot program. Our main focus was just experimenting with partnering with different spaces, and kind of coming up with the criteria of what those partnerships spaces needed to have,” Wolford said.

The three criteria were a safe place for kids and a separate area for moms to work; parking; and also a space that could serve the community.
The idea appealed to mom entrepreneurs.

“I chose to join Creative Habitat because I want to surround myself with other like-minded women who love their kids and want to be moms but also have a dream too,” shared Sarah Kelley, the Haute Homemaker, who provides closet consulting and style tips. 

Moms in the 2019 program include a professor, an accountant, a wardrobe consultant and more.

Creative Habitat last year partnered with the Des Moines Children’s Museum, the Valley Community Center and the West Des Moines Library. The partnership with the Des Moines Children’s Museum continues this year.

Creative Habitat operates as a nonprofit with a sparse budget, and Wolford and her mom — a former school principal — are the founders. There’s also a board. Wolford explained the funding for the nonprofit comes from membership fees and sponsors­ — “we are bootstrapping a lot of this,” she said. 

There are few changes in store for 2019’s program — including a big one with Creative Habitat renting space in the lower level of Valley West Mall in the spot formerly occupied by Foot Locker.

During a recent visit, the opening was over a month away and the space was mostly empty but a cheery yellow sign on the window promised “Coming soon — a workspace designed by moms — for moms.” The goal is to make that space the coworking space and have the children engaged in the Des Moines Children’s Museum a few doors down. The goal will be to have the space be flexible and comfortable, Wolford said.

“We chose this because the museum moved,” she said. “And as we’re talking about partnering with them again this summer, it just made sense to rent the space next to them.” 

She continued: “Also, I just think malls across America are kind of dying out, you know, and I think that they were trying to bring in more service-oriented businesses. I think we’re just wanting to step into that and learn more about that, how you’re repurposing mall space, and be a part of that movement as well.”

The space will have a grand opening June 10 at 6 p.m. Wolford would love for community leaders to attend to see Creative Habitat in action.

The hope is that this space at the mall will serve as a way for mini coworking groups of moms to form and operate, a “Play It Forward” program.
“For mompreneurs, there’s tons of digital outlets, mastermind groups and Facebook groups that you can join. I’m probably part of 20. But there is nothing like real hands-on help and being face to face.”

While the co-op is the main program, Wolford explained, this year’s program also includes providing development support. She became certified as a Gallup Strengths Certified Coach, and each member of the program in 2019 can go through that assessment.

Also, Wolford and several other women launched the Mother Board, which meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 9:30 a.m. A speaker comes in to discuss issues that relate to parenthood and work life. Jamie Barry, owner of Jamie Lynne Photography, and Katie Nyberg, owner of the Iowa Baby Lady, help with this program. 

“I have a master’s degree and I have worked in professional jobs, and I’m choosing to stay at home with my kid. And I’m choosing to develop this because I think there is such a need for it,” she said.

To prepare for the future, Wolford is tracking participants’ goals this year and measuring other data. The goal would be to use that for grant applications. She also hopes to secure more partnerships.

Wolford continued: “I think this is a trend of the future. … You can develop your skill set and be with your kids, and I think they kind of play off of each other. You know, it’s, again, that power of play and innovation. I think I personally would say kids have helped me become more innovative. And there’s actually tons of research on how when you become a mom your brain actually boosts creativity in the brain. So we have to give women a place to basically dispel that creativity.”