Fastest Way to Open or Grow Your Childcare Center

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Hey, guys, it's Erica Sakosio here with the Child Care Director's chair. Ask the expert segment. So my next question was, what is the fastest way to open or grow your center? So this is a awesome topic. Just a little background. My sister and myself have opened six child care centers over the last 11 years. We have done several different styles of opening up a center, but the fastest way to get a center open and operational is to purchase a turnkey operation. And right now, with the economic downturn, you may be able to find a great opportunity from somebody who has an existing center in your area or in the area that you want to operate in. You can reach out to them and see if they are interested in selling. That is another way to do that. But a turnkey is the easiest, and I'll tell you why. It already has existing customers, you already have existing staff. You know the location already meets compliance. If it's open and operational right now, you know that the physical space meets the requirements that's needed for the age group that's currently served. Now, if you're going to make changes in the age groups that you're serving, then you may need to make some modifications in the classrooms. You may also have an adjustment in numbers. Whether you're doing younger children, the capacity may go down. If you're adding older children to the program, the capacity may go up. But a turnkey is certainly the easiest way to do that. Unfortunately, many centers in the last three years have gone up for sale. So I would say if you have the capital to do it, you have your business plan ready to go. Look for a turnkey operation. Of course you're going to go in, you're going to brand it for your brand, you're going to change the handbooks, you're going to do many things that make sure that the program is yours and meets your vision. Um, but that's the fastest way to do it. The second thing you could do is purchase into a franchise model. Um, typically that requires a little bit more money. Um, but that has a proven system that is built out. So handbooks already created for you. Everything is really already created for you. Um, you are paying for that premium service, but you do have support background, a home quarters that you can call if you get stuck. So a lot of people who have never ran a center before like that as an option because you have support.

The third way would be to purchase a center that has closed and you go into that building. The only thing I would recommend is before you sign a lease or before you make the purchase, contact your worker, your licensing worker, have them walk the building with you. Because there could have been some changes in, in the regulations that maybe the building no longer meets the requirements for the physical space, that you may have to do some build out or make some changes. So know that before you sign your lease. Just because it was a childcare five years ago does not mean it meets the requirements now. So do that with your worker. Um, but on the opposite end of that, a lot of the build out will be there. It's certainly a lot easier than converting a space that's never been a childcare but program at all. So that is probably the third option on the fastest way to get a center up and going. If you want to expand and you currently have a great program already and you want to expand without building on that building, but branching out to another location, my recommendation is to get another one that's within your zip code. Now that sounds silly to some, but honestly a lot of people, if you know, you know is the fastest way to grow your business. If you have folks that are calling you for the wellestablished location and your new location is just down the street, it's very easy to convert that sale. A lot easier than having them go to another city where you may not be able to get that same conversion. So you know, who knows about that? Dunkin donuts and McDonald's and Burger King. You notice that there's a Dunkin if you're from New England on almost every corner and guess what? They're busy as ever. So having another location where within your zip code, within the area that you already established, is a fantastic way to keep expanding. And you can continue to do that model as you grow if that's what you feel in your heart. The last thing I would say was you can convert an existing building to a child care program that typically requires a lot of plumbing, a lot of build out, breaking up larger rooms into smaller rooms. So that's probably one of the slow methods to get your center open. But it is doable. I have done several that we built out the space ourselves and it could take anywhere, depending on your city, depending on your contractors, could take anywhere from six months to a year, depending on the accommodations that you have to make in that building. And the very slowest way would be of course to build from scratch to buy a piece of property and then build your dream location. Although if you're only going to do one center and you're going to make it big and you want to make it right. That could be a great option for you, but those are the different ways that you can open up a child care center. And of course I did forget a home child care center, but I don't have a lot of experience in that area, so that's why I didn't add it. But certainly a home child care center is something you could do very quickly and just test the waters to see if that's something that you even want to do. Because owning a center is different than working in a center. And trust me, it looks a lot easier than it really is. But. But if you have the passion for it, the drive for it, the focus for it, the skill set for it, and the knowledge in the field, you can be very successful. So if you like this content, please hit the subscribe button. If you have another way that I didn't mention, please leave in the comments below. We would love to hear from you. And if you have any other questions that you would like us to address in the Ask the Expert, leave it in below and we will be happy to answer it for you. If you want to know more about the business side of running a childcare business, visit our website at www. Stella business concepts.com and if you love podcast, you can check out our Sista podcast at Practical Biz Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. Have a great day.