Management
What goes into effectively managing a child-care business
The high rate of attrition in the child-care business is driven in large part by the fact that many caregivers focus almost exclusively on nurturing and caring for the children in their charge, and neglect the financial and management sides of their operations.
But whether your goal is a small, family child-care centre or to build a chain of commercial locations, you must deal with administration and management issues if your business is going to survive. If you plan ahead, that won’t be hard.
Set up your financial record-keeping system
From the outset in a way that will provide you with the information you need to monitor your profitability and handle your tax payments to SARS. You may want to hire a consultant or an accountant who specializes in small businesses to help you at first; this small investment could save you a substantial amount of time and money in the long run.
Spend time marketing and doing admin
Expect to spend a significant amount of time on management, marketing and administration. If you have employees, they need to be trained and supervised. Although the demand for child care is high, parents won’t be able to find you if you don’t market your service.
And keeping up with administrative details – paying accounts, buying supplies, doing budgets and forecasts, meeting ongoing licensing requirements, facility maintenance, etc.− is a never-ending process.
Choose staff very carefully
The staff that you employ must be children-friendly. Conduct thorough background checks on all potential staff.