Starting Up a Daycare Center: What is your best option?

Upon deciding that a daycare business is really the one for you, you need to decide how you would start up with it. Your options could be to start up a ***** new center, buying an existing center or buying a franchise.

Starting Up a New Center
Yes you may consider starting up your daycare from scratch; however you’ll need to do a lot of homework and a lot of effort in the preparatory stages. This will include the search for locations, planning the layout of your facility, overseeing the renovations, furnishing and decorating your daycare and a lot more. It could be a very time consuming process, but if you are meticulous, organized and a resourceful person; you’d save a lot of money in this choice. There are a lot of websites hosting loads of advice to equip you with the necessary information and resources to help you get started.

Buying over an existing daycare center
Buying over an existing daycare facility may save time and planning compared to starting up a new one. But there are a few concerns that you must take notice of before making the decision. First, you have to ensure the condition of the daycare center you plan to buy, is it still in good or satisfactory condition? You should consider not only the physical set up but the business operation as well. Review the conditions of the premises; do you need minor or major renovations? Is the state of company assets reusable? Can your clients easily access the daycare center or does it have an ideal location?

You must also check the financial statements of the business to evaluate the financial health of the business; how the existing daycare center is is doing, if the enrolment is stable or shrinking – this information will help you determine how much you are willing to offer.

Survey their customers and get to know them better. Find out if the parents are happy and contented with the current services, and why their kids still with the present daycare are.

Gather information about their competitors and check out their rates and how many children are they caring for. Find out how many daycares are within a 500 meter distance from them, and know if they are successful and what other value added services do they offer.

And you should also ensure that all legal aspects of the business can be easily resolved.

Buying a Franchise
And the last option is to buy a daycare franchise from a franchisor. There are many benefits from franchising a daycare and the success of the business, though guaranteed, are as good as the franchisor would have established. Training will be given and with the transfer of management expertise, the learning process of operating a daycare will be shorter.

You will also be making huge savings on items like the curriculum development and marketing materials which is usually taken cared of by the franchisor and spilt among all the franchisees.

But there are also disadvantages in franchising a daycare such as the prohibitive franchise fee, lack of flexibility in operations or lack of support from the franchisor. Some promotional programs may not also be suitable to your local market.

So your option should really depend upon what you are looking for in the business, you time and resources.


For more: How to start a daycare center