How to Run a Preschool Business Successfully

This is a guest post by Jess Cooper.

Running a preschool, as with any other business, has its own challenges. Loving kids and taking care of them is by no means the same as running a preschool business. When running a preschool, you need to understand that both children and parents have their demands, and you should try to find a balance. Preschool business is the right type of business for you if you love kids, have plenty of energy, a nurturing spirit, and a desire to stimulate young minds. By running such an institution, you provide supervision to kids, amusing activities as well as educational activities. Keep reading to learn more about how to run a preschool business successfully.

First of all, you should put yourself in parents’ shoes and try to observe things from their perspective. Then, you should consider your location and whether it’s convenient. Moreover, you should invest in your premises from time to time. The staff is the key to your business, so you should keep educating them. Also, you should encourage reviews from parents - this is especially important nowadays as people rely on the internet. You should also keep your environment clean and safe at all times. And lastly, it is vital to keep detailed business records and to have a social media presence.

1.   Observe things from parents’ standpoint

The key to running any successful business is having the ability to observe things from the consumers’ standpoint, in this case, parents. When it comes to choosing the right childcare, parents put a lot of thought into it, as it is the first step in their child’s education. They need professionals, educated and kind, to care for their children. What is implied and necessary for your business is to fulfill all the legal requirements. However, you can also do other things to go above and beyond for your clients. For example, make sure there is enough parking space for parents to drop off their children. Your space needs to feel safe, welcoming, and professional.

2.   Consider your location

Another key thing you should take a close look at is your location. You should ask for feedback from parents amongst your network and check what they think about the location. In case there are plenty of negative comments regarding the location, you should consider finding a better one. The location should be near a residential area; it should have some outdoor space with nature within the premises and plenty of parking. You should check its security considerations before leasing or purchasing.

3.   Invest in your premises

Running a successful preschool means keeping it up to date regarding the furniture, equipment, toys, and educational features. Technology is developing and advancing fast, so you should keep your premises updated. You should follow the trends and replace toys and other things before they become completely outdated. Your preschool should breathe new and modern and not old and dusty. This is the best environment for children to thrive.

4.   Educate your staff

The staff is the essence of a preschool business. When hiring early childhood development educators, try to hire those who possess proper education, skills, and certain personal characteristics. These include being thoughtful, kind, considerate, fair, and loving their job. It is essential to have the right people working in your preschool, as it is exactly them and their way of teaching children different skills that shape these young minds and affect their attitude towards education and learning. What’s more, when you find the right staff, you should pay them well in order to keep them happy and satisfied. Additionally, you should offer them possibilities for further specialisation and taking different childcare courses to gain more knowledge.

5.   Encourage reviews from parents

Online reviews are an important part of the whole digital world we live in. That’s why you should encourage your customers, i.e., parents, to write reviews online. The more positive reviews you have, the more likely you are to attract new customers. Start from yourself: when you are looking for a new product or service, which one do you go for? Well, the one that has the best rating and the most positive reviews. Parenting comes with its challenges, so parents resort to all tools at their disposal.

6.   Keep the environment clean and safe

As far as running a preschool is concerned, keeping the environment clean and safe is implied and necessary. After all, you are working with young children, so the level of cleanliness and safety should be pretty high to avoid potential mishaps and accidents. If such things are to happen due to a lack of safety or cleanliness, it can affect your reputation negatively. So, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

7.   Keep detailed records

Another thing you shouldn’t overlook - keeping detailed records. Keeping track of everything business-related will lead to a better customer experience as well as protect you as a business owner. Moreover, you should always work on updating your policy and making adequate changes to it. Remember to have parents sign them before enrolling their children. Parents should review the policy and agree to it. There are certain policies, rules, regulations, and laws that every preschool needs to fulfill. But there are also those that are customised and individual. Creating strong and thoughtful policies makes expectations and services clear to both sides, even when some unexpected occurrences happen.

8.   Build a social media presence

Nowadays, developing a successful business without an online presence is hard. So, this is an aspect you should definitely be working on. You should have a user-friendly website that contains all the information that customers seek. Moreover, you should create business pages on several relevant social media channels for your business and target audience. This is one of the best ways to connect to potential customers and create an emotional bond as well.

Running a successful business can seem overwhelming at times. However, with a good business strategy, careful considerations on your side and an effort, you can make it.