Ariane Ehtesham
Young Rembrandts
Jericho, VT
Young Rembrandt owner, Ariane Ehtesham, taught 4th grade at Underhill ID School in Jericho for 6 years. Although she loved teaching and thought she would make this her lifelong career, her job was not secure due to the shrinking enrollments in our rural schools. After being laid off (and then being asked to return!) a number of times, she finally decided she needed to find a more certain career path for herself and her family.

Ariane knew about the Young Rembrandts drawing program because her daughter had been involved in it through her school. Young Rembrandts is a franchise and is known as “the art program with a difference.” According to the Young Rembrandts website (www.youngrembrandts.com), the program teaches drawing, the fundamental skill of all visual arts. Their step-by-step drawing method teaches children to break down complex objects into basic foundational shapes. As they learn how to draw, the experience, repetition and variety of engaging and relevant subject matter brings them to increased levels of mastery in drawing - and in life.

When Ariane heard from a friend that the business was for sale, she and her husband George began looking into it. They began doing their homework. For Ariane, it was important that the business offer a product that was educationally valuable and one that she could feel proud of. For George the financial security and future potential of the business was important. Together they made the decision that the Young Rembrandts franchise was an excellent business for them to pursue.

Unfortunately, the nature of the Young Rembrandts business is that there are very few "hard" assets and they had difficulty securing funding through traditional lenders. Just as they were about to give up, they stumbled upon Community Capital while investigating their local Huntington Community Revolving Fund (which Community Capital also operates). With Community Capital's more flexible lending policies, they were able to secure the financing needed to buy the business.

Since July, there have been many challenges and many successes. The biggest success has been learning the day-to-day operations of the business and getting to know each account and its different needs. With Vermont’s small schools, it is impossible (and not good business) to treat every account the same, and learning all of these subtle nuances has taken some time.