Michelle And Zach Richards: Franchising Child Care Brand

To some, starting a business during the recent economic downturn might be an antidote for disaster.

But for Wilmington-based Giggles Drop-In Childcare owners Michelle and Zach Richards, it was the start of something new.

“We knew we were taking a risk,” said Zach, Giggles’ chief operating officer. “We knew that this could go really well, or end up really bad, but we were willing to take the risk.”

After giving birth to their first son, Michelle, then a science teacher at Ashley High School, quickly fell out of love with the idea of leaving her newborn at a day care for the majority of day.

“I just couldn’t do it,” said Michelle, Giggles’ CEO. “I knew once I returned to work in January, I would never see him … so I decided to not go back to work and became a part-time bartender.”

For Michelle and Zach, who was manning his own information technology-consulting firm, the rapid career change was a point of reflection to consider a new business model for child care in Wilmington.

“We realized that not all families need full-time child care and that a lot of families in town did not use drop-in [child care],” Michelle said. “We started talking