Thread: Child Care Business

Originally Posted by VAtrepreneur757

Hello,

Is there anyone here who has experience with the child care industry? I was thinking about starting up a 24hr daycare center. Can anyone offer any insight, feedback, and good or bad experiences? Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the Fastlane, VAtrepreneur.

One of the WORST ways to start a business is if you need a service (personally), and decide that if you need it, others will to-- so <BANG>, you start that business.

Only you may not have looked at the numbers:

1. How can a 24 hour day care make money, esp if the state mandates 1-2 adults for each 13 kids? (even if they're sleeping?)

2. Parents who have to work multiple shifts (or midnight shifts) may not have a lot of money-- so they'll be less likely to spend big bucks on this (the choice for those w/money is a nanny)

3. The big question: If you *do* start this biz, how will you GROW it?

********

Fastlane businesses have a few things in common:

-They appeal to a wide market (millions of customers)
-They are scalable (ie, you can grow from 1 to 2,000, quickly)
-They can be automated (ties in w/scaling)-- so as it gets bigger, your overall cost to run decreases
-They are NOT labor-intensive

So, let's take a look at a child-care business:

-They appeal to a limited market (hundreds of customers, who have enough $$)
-They are NOT scalable (ie, you cannot grow from 1 to 2,000, quickly)
-They cannot be automated (ties in w/scaling)-- As the biz gets bigger, your overall cost to run increase
-They are VERY labor-intensive

********

So, can you see why a child-care business might not be a great fastlane startup?

That being said-- if you have addressed the issues:

How to:

-appeal to a broader market (millions of people w/$$$)
-make it scalable (ie, grow from 1 to 2,000 daycare centers, quickly)
-automate (so not dependent on labor)

Then, let us know how you'd do it-- figuring out how to do this could certainly address a wide market.

-Russ H.

PS I don't want you to think I'm being sarcastic. Look at Kahn Academy-- THIS has all the elements of a fastlane business-- AND, it's somewhat related (different market: older kids/education):

If you want to track him down, Bounce from this forum was running a Day Care business the last I knew.

He had a rather unique method of making them Fastlane, although things may have changed.