How Gina Seebachan kept her business, the Be With Me Playseum, open during the coronavirus pandemic can be summarized in an alliteration: faith, family, and frugality.
“The core of my faith is that if I do the right thing, God will do the right thing by me, too,” Seebachan said.
Seebachan opened her first Playseum in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2009.
Ashlen, Seebachan’s daughter, said that Seebachan losing her mother in 2006 played a part in her decision to open the Playseum.
“She was kind of at a loss as to what meant most to her about her mom, and she looked back and realized what had the most meaning was spending time with her mom,” Ashlen said. “She looked around and didn’t see many places where parents could be exclusively with their children and that stimulates the child.”
The Playseum has multiple rooms, each with themes such as a doctor’s office, grocery store, and theater designed for play. It also includes a bakery, soap and science bar, art studio, and toy shop. It is ideal for getting parents to spend time with their children.
Not long after opening her store in Bethesda, Seebachan opened another one in Washington, D.C. That store was often busy but struggled financially, so when its five-year lease ran out, Seebachan closed it.
In 2018, she opened another Playseum in the Westfield Annapolis Mall. The success of that store prompted Seebachan to open another one in 2019 in Minnetonka, Minnesota, her hometown.
She gives a lot of credit to her daughters for her recent expansion of the Playseum.
“My daughter Ashlen is now a manager at the Annapolis store and was a big reason why 2019 went so well,” Seebachan said. “My daughter Ianna is the genius behind creating systems in the Playseum we can reproduce elsewhere.”
In early 2020, the Playseums were doing quite well financially. Then the pandemic hit.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ordered the closure of all nonessential businesses on March 16, and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan did the same on March 19.
Seebachan closed her Playseums in Maryland earlier.
“I was working in Annapolis on March 17 when I heard that Apple computer closed,” she said. “I thought if they were closing, then we needed to close. I figured it would be for two or three weeks.”
Fortunately, she has been careful with the money she made from the Playseums. She seldom takes out loans to start a new Playseum, preferring to pay with savings. And when she does take on debt, she insists on paying it back as quickly as possible.
“I find so many business people who are unwise with their decisions, whether it is with marketing or how they spend their money or they pay themselves crazy amounts,” she said. “I’ve never done that.”
The money that Seebachan had saved, along with some Paycheck Protection Program loans and two grants from the state government of Minnesota, helped her pay the rent on the Playseums while they were closed. She was even able to pay down the one loan she took out to open the Minnetonka store.
Seebachan had to let her employees go, but she hoped to hire them back.
“It was definitely stressful. We reached out to all of our employees, but less than half of them got back to us,” her daughter said. “It was difficult because we were worried when we reopened who would work for us.”
It turned out to be a benefit for the business because most of the employees who returned were the ones committed to providing a good experience for the children and parents who come to the Playseum. It also meant that the businesses could operate on a reduced payroll when they reopened in late June.
“It landed heavily on one of my managers, Olivia, my daughters, and my son, Alex, plus some part-time employees who came back,” Seebachan said. “Many of us were working seven days a week. My daughter and myself did not take a paycheck for a while, and we made it work. … We learned to be more efficient, sometimes running stores with two or three employees.”
She also refunded money to parents who had scheduled birthday parties and field trips at the Playseums that had to be canceled, including a $100 nonrefundable deposit.
“I really believed I needed to do that because, to me, COVID was out of their control and out of my control,” she said. “But I believed if I did the right thing, then God would bless me, and he did.”
For years, she has donated 10% of the Playseums’ income to various charities, including some that fight child trafficking and help provide children with clean water and the anti-abortion movement.
In October, Seebachan received a check from the federal government because she had overpaid her taxes when her charitable giving was factored in.
“It was a blessing,” Seebachan said. “It helped us pay our bills.”
In January, the landlord who owned the building where the Bethesda Playseum was located sold it. The company that bought it decided to tear the building down. For Seebachan, that meant closing the store.
But it is only a temporary setback.
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“In six months, I think we’ll be ready to grow again,” Seebachan said.