Growth is essential for any successful business. What that growth looks like is up to you.
Exploring how you can expand your childcare business in the next 12 months but don’t know where to start? You’ve found yourself in the right place.
Whether you want to make the most of new government funding initiatives or the opportunity to acquire a new nursery location has fallen into your lap, you’ll need to know the pitfalls to avoid and your next steps to achieve your business growth goals.
In this article:
How can I grow my childcare company?
Our inspiration for this article came from the recent Early Bloom podcast episode with Carole Edmond. After sharing her honest nursery expansion journey with Glassmoon, Carole shared top tips and challenges on growing your nursery business in a way that works for you.
Childcare settings like nurseries have significantly changed their ways of working in the last decade. With higher involvement from the government via funded childcare places following the recent nursery funding updates, every nursery owner must be aware of the different ways your setting can grow (it doesn’t always mean acquiring new locations).
"It was all about really high quality provision, so that you get it right for the children in terms of improving outcomes, and the early years experience for the child who - at the end of the day - is the is the day-to-day end user. But also it was really clear to me that parents needed support too."
So, you’re looking to grow your nursery business. What defines ‘business growth’ is different for everyone. You may be looking to nail down your processes so you can loosen your reins a little. Or you might be aiming for the stars and are beginning to build your nursery group empire.
Here are a few ways your childcare company can expand (we will share more expansion details further down!)
- Increase your nursery locations (through acquiring or building a new site)
- Expand the types of services you offer
- Sell nursery-related products (like clothing with your logo on it or everyday equipment like water bottles)
If you’re looking to get started with your first nursery setting, access our free checklist and tips to opening your own nursery.
Acquiring a new nursery site
A new nursery site opening is exciting. As with any expansion of a business, you can apply all of your previous experience and knowledge to ensure its success.
You may regularly turn away customers in the area where your existing nursery is based, so finding a similar property in a similar location to direct the new parents can often be the easiest way to expand your nursery locations.
When opening a new nursery in the same geographical location, you should already know the demand, the demographic of parents and the local authority’s funding rates – which is a good start!
If your new nursery location contrasts your existing setting, remember that what works in Nursery 1 may not work as well in Nursery 2. Kate Peach, EYFS consultant and owner of multiple successful nurseries, explained this when contributing to our ultimate guide on running a successful nursery walkaround to impress prospective parents.
"My nursery in Hove is in an urban setting and doesn’t have as much outdoor space as I’d like. So we make connections, we regularly visit the three local schools nearby and use their facilities, including a forest for forest school.”
Undertaking detailed research before you sign a new lease is essential in ensuring your new location is profitable.
Business reporting and financial forecasting features in your nursery management software will show you the trends of acceptable loss and other vital financial statistics linked to your current setting, giving you ideas for your future setting’s financial forecasting.
Increasing your nursery capacity
If you have the luxury of land at your current location, you may consider increasing your nursery’s footprint by adding additional mobile learning spaces or acquiring property on the same site.
With the increased space, you may be able to offer more funded spaces, making government nursery funding work for you and increasing your occupancy at the same time.
It may also offer opportunities to achieve your nursery goals, like adding sensory or SEND facilities to increase your nursery’s specialist provision.
Expanding your nursery services
Childcare is your bread and butter and will be your majority income stream (including private and funded places). But have you considered broadening your service horizons?
The recent government initiatives surrounding free before- and after-school childcare places are opening opportunities for local nursery owners – especially if you share the site with the school or are nearby.
It may be worth researching the staff ratio count you may need, potential profitability and provision you have available to offer additional childcare services outside of early years.
Remember, we are in a general election year and previously proposed government initiatives have yet to be promised. The government website will have the latest updates on the wraparound care funding available, and we’ve run our own analysis on what childcare is likely to look like under a Labour government.
We are in the digital age, where valuable knowledge is shared in a multitude of ways. There are many ways you can bump up your income by being creative.
One example of increasing your income by expanding the services your nursery offers is renting out your car parking spaces during busy local events (like football matches if you’re near a stadium). Many websites support schools to rent out their parking facilities, and it could be well worth the short time researching for additional pennies.
Nursery merch
While you might not feel you have the time to create branded wares, most of the larger nursery groups will start with some kind of staff uniform. While you won’t make money from staff uniforms, it’s certainly feasible that a logo-ed hoodie might be of interest to your nursery’s parents if you were to purchase additional stock.
The same goes for water bottles, umbrellas, notebooks, pens, pencils, and all sorts of little bits that people can always use. Though it can become complicated to run a store in addition to a nursery, there’s benefits to having subtle adverts floating around in parents’ prams and pencil cases/desks!
If you’re signed up to any book reselling platforms, this can also be a little income booster when you share it with your parents and they buy nursery books. Or if one of your parents is signed up to resell you can get discounted books for your setting. A win either way!
The same goes for if your parents are signed up to a service like My School Fund.
Expanding your nursery: the pitfalls to avoid
It is easy to be swept up by your new growth venture’s exciting potential. Romanticising the feeling of success and achievement when you finally reach all your goals.
Not to take away the well-deserved feeling of pride when you plan, prepare and achieve a goal, but to give a cautious reminder of the challenges you may face when planning your nursery expansion.
The site
Ensure the nursery site you choose or acquire meets all the requirements you need to succeed from the beginning. For example, if your nursery site has limited parking available and most of your future customers will drive to drop them off, this could be a turn-off for some parents.
Think About:
- A building survey before you take it on (you don’t want to find hidden, costly surprises like damp when you start to decorate)
- The location and the other local competition
- The growing population need for the area (is there a new housing estate aimed at young families being built nearby?)
- When budgeting, think about all of the hidden costs in maintaining a nursery site
Your team
When you take on a new project, you can’t stretch your time across all of your current tasks AND a new project. Not while ensuring you don’t slip on standards and looking after your own health and well-being too.
Having a dedicated, trusted network around you is the most effective way to keep your current plates spinning while setting up your new ones.
Before expanding your nursery business, ensure you have a rock-solid leadership team in your existing setting. You don’t want to lose focus on the setting that inspired you to branch out.
Investing in your team’s CPD journey and progression is key to keeping high-quality EYFS practitioners and managers.
The nursery software
Building your nursery empire takes more than a vision. You will need the necessary tools to make the research, monitoring, and tracking as simple as possible — for your existing setting and your new one.
"Technology plays a big role in shaping that parent relationship, [...] giving them that support outside of the nursery."
Good-quality nursery management software can help you manage those first new parent enquiries to ensure you reach maximum occupancy each day. It can also help you find all the hidden ways to make the most profit possible while offering parents the gold standard of childcare choice.
Expanding to multiple sites means you have a brand to create and uphold. Making consistency and visibility your main priorities. Using the same nursery software across all sites allows for total visibility and consistency of communication for parents and practitioners.
Want to access all of Blossom’s nursery management software features? We have a free demo for that!
Book a Blossom demo
How can I expand my daycare nursery business?
And lastly, you have the vision, the research and the drive to successfully expand your childcare provision – so now what? We leave you with helpful steps and look forward to hearing about your successes on socials!
- Know your market
- Do your research
- Have the right tools
- Invest in your staff
- Get a mentor or coach
Having the right tools to help you grow your nursery company is essential. Blossom’s nursery management software is a favourite among nursery managers and owners for good reason.
Created and developed by active nursery owners, our software gives you all the tools to increase occupancy, profitability and efficiency. Book your free demo slot to see all of our features included in the nursery owner and manager packages.
