As an owner – you have three main responsibilities:
1) Find somewhere to locate your nursery
2) Recruit the right team
3) Get paying clients
That doesn’t seem too hard – you probably have the first two licked, but that last one – how much do you know about marketing?
There are plenty of resources online and courses that cover caring for children, but very few that focus on the business aspect of nurseries. I was in that exact position 18 months ago. My name is Neil Dudman and I have 3 nurseries and 2 after school clubs. As an owner, I felt quite lonely.
I resorted to Facebook, and created a private vetted group, hoping to recruit maybe 20 people I could have a good chat to. Inside a week, I had approved over 150 members.
This group was for owners only, no childminders, no parents, no managers and no staff.
This was a safe place for owners to discuss problems and ask for advice, without the fear of staff, managers and parents getting to hear.
WOW – I did not expect that nearly a thousand other owners would join me.
It has been a stunning success!
To amplify the learnings, we held our first conference before Christmas 2016 – and we were delighted that TTS came on board as the main sponsors.
We are again delighted that they continue to sponsor our event – the summer conference on June the 9th 2017.
As an owner – you need to make sure that your ship is tight.
The 4 key critical factors to success are:
1) You are full (you need to get really good at marketing).
2) You are staffed correctly (you don’t waste money on unnecessary staff).
3) Your money comes in reliably on time (preferably by direct debit).
4) Your fees are at least the same as everyone else (preferably more).
Nurseries can be a great little business, but they must be run efficiently.
At the Day Nursery Owners Summer conference, we will once again be looking at ways that you can improve your business.
The conference is not for owners only, but it will be business oriented.
If you want to find out more, click here.
With thanks to Neil Dudman & Dave Kyte. Neil owns 3 nurseries and 2 after school clubs.
Come along and talk to TTS too, they will be on their stand at the event.