Like any other business, before you open up a nursery you will need a business plan. This will help you to focus your attention on the burning questions of is your proposal viable? In other words, will it make money? Is there a need for your service and so on?
To determine these answers you will need to do a little research to determine the competition around you. Ask friends, family living in the area and gather information from the council about other childcare providers in the area, such as registered childminders in or around your area, playgroups and other nurseries who could potentially be competition. It is also important to find out if other local nurseries, have a waiting list or are oversubscribed.
You should record your research in a business plan, as this will allow you to keep all your findings together. Make sure you cover all the conceivable topics when creating a business plan. If you require finance, this will help you get the support of a bank and a potential business loan.
Figuring out the number of children you want to, or will be able to, look after given the size of your premises, is also a key step in starting your own nursery. As this will have a major influence on the expenditure of your business. The more children you decide to look after, the bigger your property will have to be, as well as the number of staff you will need and the overall costs being higher.
A rough guideline when starting up a nursery would be to have around 30 places, however as your business grows you may gradually increase the places to around (or even over) 100.
However, you should not exceed 26 children in one group , or exceed the staff to child ratios stated below.
Finding out how much to charge should be a part of your business plan too, as the price varies depending on which part of the country you live in. The price also varies between children, as it generally costs more to look after babies rather than toddlers. Typically, running a part-time day nursery will only be for around 25 hours a week (up to 4 hours a day), which equates to around £110 a week (nationwide) for children under 2 years old. However, in the centre of London, childcare costs a minimum of £140 a week for children under the age of 2.
To find out more on how to set up a day nursery click on the links below:
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