Your ultimate guide for your first preschool
Well, starting preschool is just like any business so stressful and hectic with a lot of things to do and plan ahead. Yet it is also one of the most rewarding, especially if you enjoy kids and their company. However, let’s approach this carefully so everything can be done in the best form.
Now let’s breakdown what you need to know before starting:
- Make a business plan
- Acknowledge your surrounding environment
- Calculate your monthly expenses
- Examine your space in hand
- Calculate your income
- Invest in the furniture
- Safety systems
How to make a business plan
Make a business plan:
Any business needs a plan and preschool /nursery is no different. There are several types of business plan which differ depending on the complexity and details. But let us first talk about the basic one first; In this plan you will need to include your mission and vision of creating this business, you also need to write the company description and include your pre-made market analysis and your employees and management. Also you will have to add the services you provide. And you can include prospect investors.
Business plan helps you in case you need any investment as the potential investors and lenders can check it and see if your business is worth investing in. It is also important if you need any guidance throughout the work process.
Acknowledge your environment:
We have already mentioned this in our previous article about preparing for your first school, you can check here.
So, the environment is one of the major keys in making this project successful. The environment will give a lot of information about your market, if there are any competitors and what are their strengths and weaknesses, what the social level of the neighborhood you are opening in. All in which will help you to decide on next steps you will do like how many children you can have, what activities you need to consider adding, and even the whole concept of the preschool (Montessori preschool, language preschool, special preschool, etc.).
Calculate your expenses
Now you are ready to calculate your expenses:
There are a lot of expenses you will have to consider when starting your preschool. These could be:
- Rent of your facility
- Electricity
- Gas
- Food that children will eat during their stay
- Safety system to ease the concerns of the parents
- Employees salaries
These are all the repeated expenses you need to think about. There are other expenses you will have to deal with just when starting like furniture and decorations.
Now that you have known your expenses you should start examining the space you have. This space needs to fit all of your activities that you will be practicing in the nursery. The space also needs to fit the number of children you have agreed on taking. So basically the space will tell you many things and secrets you need to consider before starting. The space will also indicate if you need to consider any adjustments to it to make it safer or enhance it.
Calculate your expected income
After all of this it is probably easier for you to understand how your income will be generated and on what it depends. so , your income will fixate on:
- The number of children you will have.
- The niche of your preschool as there are niches that are more expensive than others.
Invest in the furniture
Alright now that we have reached this point I am sure there are a lot of obstacles that you might be facing right now. However, furniture is one of the things that if you planned it correctly you will solve many of these troubles.
- Furniture can maximize a small space or narrow down a big space so buying it wisely and investing in furniture that enhance the qualities you need in your space is very important.
- Also investing in a furniture that is durable will reduce your future costs and will ease your mind about children safety which is a very important aspect of furniture
- Speaking of safety you need to consider the materials that your furniture is made of cause kids bite what they can find so make it is a safe materials for kids
- If you have an outdoor space you will also have to make sure that this piece of furniture/ equipment will be durable enough in the sun, rain, and any weather conditions you might face. Because the last thing we all need is furniture that breaks after a year of setting outdoors in the sun.
These are elements you might need to think about when buying furniture.
So now let’s move to the last thing you need to know about.
Safety system
Safety comes on top of the list of things you need to make sure it is ideal when it comes to a business handling kids and children on a daily basis.
What are the safety preactions you can take to make sure everything is safe for the kids and children:
- As we already mentioned in the previous section that furniture is fundamental when it comes to safety so make sure to consider all the aspects of it like specific pieces that your nursery need for instance, consider adding foam floor, or child-proof thing that might harm the kids
- The security system that helps you to keep an eye on the kids which you can also allow parents to access it so they can watch their kids and feel safe about their kids existing in your preschool.
- Also, consider investing in a fire protection system as well as security people that can watch out for any strange activities.
Now this are all the information you need to know about starting your preschool project. Since you know all that you need to know you can start launching this dream to real life. Tighten your seatbelt as it will be a memorable journey and good luck. And always know that joy and learn have your back if you need any help.