Are you about starting a nursery school? If YES, here is a complete sample nursery school business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE. Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a nursery school.
We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample nursery school marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for nursery schools. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.
Why Start a Nursery School?
We all know that a nursery school is a pre-school childcare facility that are actually open all year round and all day to take care of kids of working or busy parents.
This business is not an easy business, which is why if you’re not certain about committing to a full-time business, there are other ways that you could be involved in childcare – from running a crèche to a playgroup. You can even start and organize a self-employed childminder at home.
It is very important to note that starting a nursery is certainly not a short cut to wealth. In fact, you could probably make more money driving a taxi than running your own nursery. But, if you want to start a business that will be inspiring, provide hourly challenges and a lot of rewards then you should consider starting a nursery school.
Before you start your nursery, it would be wise to write down your business plan. If you are going to go through the rough patch of starting a nursery school, you should run it like a business venture, not as a hobby.
One other hurdle that you will need to scale as you start out in this industry is to write a business plan. Below is a detailed business plan for your consumption.
A Sample Nursery School Business Plan Template
1. Industry Overview
Nursery Schools provide preschool education services for children aged three and four, combined with day care. Most businesses in the nursery school industry are private but may get funding from a variety of sources, including state and federal grants.
We all know that getting affordable, quality child day care, especially for children under age 5, is a major concern for many parents, particularly in recent years with the rise in families with two working parents. As the need for child day care has increased, the child day care services industry began to fill the need of non-relative child care.
It was estimated that within the past five years, strained household income and pressures on local budgets have shortened the spending on nursery schools, moving the nursery school industry revenue to reduce drastically. But it has been estimated that in the coming years, improved household income and greater public attention to early education will aid to turn the nursery school industry.
Still, grand plans for preschool expansion, including a tentative plan to provide multibillion-dollar investment by increasing taxes on tobacco and on high-income households, are unlikely to come to fruition in the near future.
Also it has been verified that this industry shows a low level of capital intensity, measured as spending on capital versus labour. It is expected that the average nursery school will spend only $0.05 on depreciable capital for every $1.00 spent on labour in the next two to three years.
It is believed that nursery schools will continue to rely on teachers and other staff, employing little capital beside school buses and software. In addition, this capital wears out slowly, limiting depreciation spending per year. It is expected that the capital intensity of the industry will remain low through 2022. Conversely, labour intensity will remain high, with wages being the single largest cost for an industry operator.
2. Executive Summary
Covenant Academy is a new, standard, and a full-service nursery school in the Sterling City that will take care of toddlers from age three to five. We at Covenant Academy hope to focus on the upper end of the market: double-income professional parents.
We believe that these personally ambitious parents are typically eager in terms of their children’s development and will be willing to pay to have their children attend the best educational facilities. We believe that through adequate and specialized training of our prospective staff and our innovative learning systems, we at Covenant Academy will be able to take over the market entirely.
We believe that our well sustained educational curriculum, coupled with a custom designed facility and a low teacher: student ratio will make sure we achieve a top shelf service for the children and the parents.
We at Covenant Academy expect to become profitable by month 12, and have estimated a modest net profit by year three. Our objectives at Covenant Academy for the first two years of operation will be to create a service based operation whose primary goal is to exceed customer’s expectations.
We also expect the utilization of Covenant Academy by at least 40 different families in the first eight months. We at Covenant Academy hope to increase the number of client’s served by 20% each year and also develop a sustainable, profitable, start-up business.
Covenant Academy will be located in Sterling City, Texas, and will offer child care services for kids between the ages of three and five. We at Covenant Academy plan to offer our innovative services from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The cute kids of our prospective clients we believe will be exposed to a large range of activities including arts and crafts, socialization, large muscle group activities, and general learning.
We at Covenant Academy believe that we will be priced out of some people’s budget, but will offer a low student to teacher ratio and well trained staff.
3. Our Products and Services
We at Covenant Academy plan to offer the good people of Sterling City an upper-end nursery school facility for toddlers age three to five. We hope to offer a low teacher to student ratio, custom facilities, and innovative learning programs. Our operation hours at Covenant Academy will be a bit wider rage than normal business hours to accommodate the working parents, the target customer.
We at Covenant Academy understand that the two income families have children, yet both parents work. That is why Covenant Academy was established as an innovative solution that acts as virtual parents, broadening the children’s skills during the day. It is worthwhile to note that Covenant Academy is not a baby sitter facility but a fully fledged Nursery school. The children are engaged throughout the day, learning new skills and reinforcing already acquired ones.
4. Our Mission and Vision Statement
- Our vision at Covenant Academy is to provide dedicated early education services to children within the our target market
- Our mission at Covenant Academy is to provide top level nurse school activities. We at Covenant Academy exist to attract and maintain customers. When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place. Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.
Our Business Structure
Craig Sissy, the founder and owner of Covenant Academy will be managing the daily operations of the facility. Craig Sissy got his undergraduate degree in English from the University of Washington. After graduating with a Second class upper division, Craig was no actually sure of what he wanted to do so he travelled to Australia and taught English for four years.
Within the first two years of his stay in Australia, Craig stayed with a local family. In exchange for room and board, he cared for the family’s two children. Although he had never done any child care before, Matt found love and satisfaction just taking care of the kids.
When he returned to the united states Craig decided to start a solid career in the field that makes him happy and fulfilled. Ultimately, He entered the University of California for his Master of Education Program in toddler development.
After graduation, Craig became very confident in his abilities and decided that he would appreciate the autonomy of running his own business. He purchased a house for the facility has been working hard on this project ever since. He has layer a basic foundation that will surely guarantee success and these are the very workforce he wish to work with at Covenant Academy:
- School Director
- School Administrator
- Tutors for Various Learning Areas
- Marketing and Sales Executive
- Accountant / Bursar
- Client Service Executive / Front Desk Officer
- Cleaners
- Security Officer
5. Job Roles and Responsibilities
School Director
- In charge of providing direction for the nursery school
- Creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
- In charge of handling high profile clients and deals
- In charge of fixing fees and signing business deals (partnership)
- In charge of signing checks and documents on behalf of the tutorial college
- Coordinates all arms of the nursery school
- Evaluates the success of the nursery school
- Reports to the board of the nursery school
School Administrator
- In charge of overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the pre – school
- Design job descriptions with KPI to drive performance management for all staff members
- Regularly hold meetings with key stakeholders (parents and member of the school board) to review the effectiveness of the schools’ Policies, Procedures and Processes
- Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
- Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
- Defining job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
- Carries out staff induction for new team members
- In charge of training, evaluation and assessment of employees
- In charge of arranging travel, meetings and appointments
- Updates job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations.
- Oversee the smooth running of the daily activities of the tutorial college.
Tutors for Various Learning Areas for Toddlers
- Effectively teach subject / subjects as assigned by the school coordinator
- Access the progress of kids under their care
- Ensure that kids participate in learning activities such as potty trainings, rhymes and dancing et al
- Contributes his / her quota towards growing the pre – school
- Receives complaints from parents and channel it to the appropriate quarters
- Handle any other duty as assigned by the school coordinator.
Marketing and Sales Executive
- Identifies, prioritizes, and reaches out to new parents, and business opportunities et al
- Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of projects; assures the completion of development projects.
- Writing winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with organizations’ policy
- In charge of handling business research, market surveys and feasibility studies for clients
- In charge of supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
- Develops, executes and evaluate new plans for expanding increase sales
- Document all customer contact and information
- Represents the company in strategic meetings
- Help increase sales and growth for the company
Accountant / Bursar
- In charge of preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
- Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyses financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
- In charge of financial forecasting and risks analysis.
- Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
- In charge of developing and managing financial systems and policies
- In charge of administering payrolls
- Ensuring compliance with taxation legislation
- Handles all financial transactions for the nursery
- Serves as internal auditor for the nursery school
Client Service Executive
- Welcomes toddlers and their parents by greeting them in person or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
- Ensures that all contacts with parents (e-mail, walk-In centre, SMS or phone) provides them with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
- Through interaction with parents on the phone, uses every opportunity to build their interest in the school’s products and services
- Manages administrative duties assigned by the school coordinator in an effective and timely manner
- Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the schools’ products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to students when they make enquiries
- Receives parcels / documents for the nursery school
- Handles any other duties as assigned by the school authority
Cleaners
- Maintain a clean nursery school facility by sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, cleaning of glass doors and windows, etc. if required.
- Ensures that toiletries and supplies don’t run out of stock
- In charge of handling laundry
- Handles any other duty as assigned by the school coordinator.
Security Officers
- Ensure that the nursery facility is secured at all time
- Control traffic and organize parking
- Give security tips to staff members from time to time
- Patrols around the building on a 24 hours basis
- Submit security reports weekly
- Any other duty as assigned by the school coordinator.
6. SWOT Analysis
We at Covenant Academy understand that just within the United States, there are approximately 20,000 businesses that provide preschool and early education services to the general public. We were meant to believe that annually, these businesses generate $10 billion of revenue while providing jobs for 180,000 people. Annual payrolls in each of the last five years have exceeded $2 billion.
Preschools are considered to be part of a mature industry, and the expected future growth rate will remain in line with that of the economy’s GDP. We also understand how competitive the industry is and how businesses in the industry are trying so hard to overshadow other ventures, which is why we are so keen to understand all possible loopholes and establish a competitive business.
We took our time to research and write a comprehensive SWOT Analysis, that explains our strength and possible weaknesses. We believe that all issues will be taken care of before we open our doors for operation. Outlined below is a comprehensive SWOT Analysis conducted by Nicklaus Communications for Covenant Academy:
- Strength
According to our comprehensive SWOT Analysis, the core strength of Covenant Academy lies in the will and experience of our team; our workforce. We at Covenant Academy believe that we have a team that has the right passion and drive for taking care of toddlers, a specific workforce with excellent qualifications and experience in education industry.
Our SWOT Analysis also noted that Covenant Academy is well positioned in a community with the right demographic composition and that we will attract loads of parents who would want to register their kids from the first day we open our doors at Covenant Academy.
- Weakness
Our SWOT Analysis noted that our weaknesses might be the time it will take some time for our organization to break into the market and gain acceptance in the already saturated education industry. Also we might not have the required money to pump into advertising and promoting our brand the way we would want to.
- Opportunities
The opportunities in the education industry are very huge due to the number of parents who would want their kids to be in safe place and to gain adequate knowledge. As a standard, safe and highly comfortable nursery school, we are ready to take advantage of any opportunity that comes our way.
- Threat
Our SWOT Analysis noted that some of the threats that we are likely going to face as a nursery school operating in the United States of America are unfavourable government policies that might affect us directly and indirectly, the arrival of a competitor within our location of operations and global economic downturn which usually affects spending / purchasing power.
There is hardly anything we can do as regards these threats other than to be optimistic that things will continue to work for our good.
7. MARKET ANALYSIS
- Market Trends
The improvement in the Nursery industry is the main reason that is attracting parents to enrol their wards is the safe and capable institutions, cleanliness, location and of course the overall comfort of their toddlers. It is worthwhile to note that the trend in the nursery industry is such that businesses in this industry can now comfortably start their Nursery school business in a business district; a place where it is easier for working class parents to pick their kids after work and do all things necessary.
Although competition among pre-schools is one way to bring tuition costs down, government action should be taken to make pre-school education more accessible for children from all backgrounds, whether it be ethnic, economic, or social. Investing in early childhood education will benefit individual children and society as a whole.
Since most pre-school programs are administered by private organizations, more funding is being provided at the state and federal level to provide make it possible for children to have the opportunity to attend pre-school, especially children coming from families living below the poverty line.
The economic downturn hasn’t really affected this industry, especially in countries that believe in the efficacy of early education. The areas you would need to spend heavily on is in ensuring that your school is up to standard, is the facility, your advertisements, and insurance.
8. Our Target Market
We at Covenant Academy hope to concentrate solely on the double income working professional families because they are the part of the population that can most easily afford nursery schools, are the ones who need day care because of their work obligations, appreciate the advanced learning and development we at Covenant Academy are very much ready to offer.
We believe that with both parents working, this part of the American population will always need some sort of provisions for the care of their child. It is very important to note that the Department of Labour indicates that over 50% of children are cared by relatives compared to 29% for commercial education institutions.
But we are confident that our targeted group always wants a more structured learning environment. We all know that using relatives are great for nights out or weekends, but it cannot be argued or compared to a structured program when it comes to the learning and development that we at Covenant Academy are offering.
Our competitive advantage
We at Covenant Academy are bent on targeting a specific niche in child care space and we understand the market properly. We plan to always adequately spread our services to let us attract our target market. We at Covenant Academy plan to use the touring of our facilities to sell our services.
We understand how important this is, because we understand that most parents want to see a facility before they will send their kids there. Our facilities at Covenant Academy are so good that they speak for themselves. We believe that our competitive advantage is in two folds and they include:
- Our intensive and specialized training
We at Covenant Academy understand that our educational facility can only be as good as the teachers and assistants. Which is why we at Covenant Academy have established an intensive training program that all teachers and assistants are put through so they are proficient at teaching the specific programs that we at Covenant Academy have organise for all prospective toddlers age three to five.
- Our well researched Innovative learning programs
We at Covenant Academy understand that the specialized learning programs for toddlers within our target market will have to focus on specific traits and only work on one trait/ skill at once. We understand that as much as this is successful in reinforcing the skill, it is often very difficult for the child to appreciate the interrelationships of the different skills.
Consequently, the child can learn the skill, but has difficulty applying the skill when faced with multiple stimuli. We at Covenant Academy possess adequate experience so that the child is unsure of what to do because of the multiple stimuli and these several skills that they have learned independently, the child tends to shut down out of confusion. We are prepared to create a learning pattern that brings out the best in kids.
9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY
- Sources of Income
Our source of income at Covenant Academy will come from providing preschool, early childhood education services and after school care for children enrolled in our well defined educational facility. We at Covenant Academy also believe that from time to time, we will be able to receive state based grants that will help us in subsidizing the costs associated with providing our services for young children within the State.
We at Covenant Academy believe that we will be able to provide a broad range of educational services including artistic training, general education, and computer training for young children. We at Covenant Academy will also serve breakfast and lunch to students enrolled in our Institute.
We will also make sure that all employees possess the necessary licensure and background check so that they are qualified to work with children under the age of six. This will be one of the foremost priorities of Covenant Academy.
10. Sales Forecast
We at Covenant plan to use the very first two months to renovate the facility and bringing it up to specifications, both for the state health and license codes. Within the same period, we must have been done with the training program and manuals. The first week of the third month will be used for training of the staff. We at Covenant Academy understand that by the middle of the third month, we will start accepting children for care.
We also expect that the facility will be under-utilized until the eighth month. By then, word will have spread and the classes will be filling up quite nicely. We at Covenant Academy believe that from month seven on, there will be a steady, incremental increase in sales. We have researched the industry and have come out with a detailed sales projection and they are:
- First Year-: $150,000
- Second Year-: $980,000
- Third Year-: $3,000,000
Note: it is worthwhile to note just like we stated above that this forecast was done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the believe that none of the threats we mentioned above will be a hindrance or may likely appear.
- Marketing Strategy and Sales strategy
We at Covenant Academy plan to makes use a number of
It is also our plan to build relationships with public and private schools within the our target market in order to generate referrals among parents that have older children in grade school and are seeking preschool services for their younger children. We at Covenant Academy will also use an internet based strategy. This is very important as many people seeking local services, such as preschools, now the Internet to conduct their preliminary searches.
We at Covenant Academy also plan to register our Institute with online portals so that potential customers can easily reach the business. We will also develop our own online website. We will maintain a sizable amount of print and traditional advertising methods within local markets to promote the services we are offering. Below is the summary of all the marketing strategies we plan to use:
- Introduce our nursery school by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to parents / household and key stake holders in Sterling city
- Print out fliers and business cards and strategically drop them in religious centres, libraries and public facilities.
- Use friends and family to spread word about our Institute
- Post information about our nursery school on bulletin boards in places like churches, maternity clinics, parks, libraries, and local coffee shops et al
- Place a small or classified advertisement in the newspaper, or local publication about our nursery school
- Leverage on referral networks such as agencies that will help match parents with toddlers under school age with our nursery school
- Join relevant association or body that will enable you network and meet others in same industry.
- Advertising online by using an advertising platform such as Google AdWords, that will allow us place text advertisements alongside on websites with related contents, and along results from search engines.
- Advertise our pre – school in relevant educational magazines, newspapers, TV stations, and radio station.
- Attend relevant educational expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
- Engage direct marketing approach
- Encourage word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied parents
11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy
We at Covenant Academy plan to ensure maximum visibility for our Institute within our targeted market. Below is an overview of the publicity and advertising strategies of Covenant Academy:
- Place adverts on both print (community based newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
- Sponsor relevant community based events / programs
- Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our brand
- Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around Sterling City
- Engage in road show from time to time in targeted neighbourhoods
- Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
- Contact corporate organizations by calling them up and informing them of our Nursery school, and the advantage we over the others.
- Passing general information via our social media handles like twitter, Facebook, Google hangouts etc.
- Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our schools’ logo et al.
12. Our Pricing Strategy
Our strategy at Covenant Academy will be based on a communication effort to explain the virtues and importance of all our services and how we can successfully speed up the children’s development considerably. In addition to one on one explanation of the program and its merits, the prospective parents will be given tours of the facilities.
We at Covenant Academy hope to keep our fees below the average market rate for all of our students by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance. In addition, we will also offer special discounted rates to all our students at regular intervals. We are aware that there are some kids that would need special assistance, we will offer flat rate for such services that will be tailored to take care of such kids’ needs.
- Payment Options
It is very important to note that we at Covenant Academy after our extensive research and thorough discussion understand efficiently that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at different times and ways.
We plan to make sure that we provide them with payment options that will make their transactions less stressful and very open. Listed below are the payment options we at Covenant Academy plan to make available to our customers;
- Payment via bank transfer
- Payment with cash
- Payment via online bank transfer
- Payment via check
- Payment via bank draft
- Payment via POS
We have also chosen to partner with a known bank in the United States in order to give our customers the best they can ever get in the nursery school industry of the United States.
13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)
It is very crucial to note that Covenant Academy will start out as a simple proprietorship, owned by its founder. We believe that as the operation grows, the owner will consider re-registering as a Limited Liability Company or as a corporation, whichever will better suit the future business needs.
Every possible threats and analyses have been considered, and the future we see for Covenant Academy is as bright as the sun. We have analysed the possible place we wish to spend our start up capital and they include:
- Business incorporating fees in the United States of America will cost – $750.
- The budget for Liability insurance, permits and license will cost – $3,500
- Acquiring a facility / property that will accommodate the number of kids that we want to take care of for at least 6 months (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) will cost – $35,000.
- Equipping the office (computers, printers, projectors, markers, pens and pencils, furniture, telephones, filing cabinets, and electronics) will cost – $10,000
- The budget for paying staff members and utility bills for at least 3 months – $70,000
- The budget for start – up inventories (toiletries, toys, cots, and mats et al) – $2,500
- Launching an official Website will cost – $500
- Additional Expenditure such as Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions will cost – $5,000
From the above projection, we need approximately $250,000 to start Covenant Academy, and we have made all possible plans to raise the said amount.
Generating Funding / Start-up Capital for Covenant Academy
We at Covenant Academy understand that adequate funding will go a long way to make sure you achieve your desired goal. Finance basically is a very crucial factor when it comes to building any business, and building a successful business is not a one day job but a continuous job that requires consistency and hard work.
Covenant Academy is the dream of Craig Sissy, who is the founder and owner of Covenant Academy, and will be managing the daily operations of the facility. We have decided to start up the business as a sole proprietorship business, and will sponsor the business solely, but we consider other sources as the business grows. For now the strategies we hope to raise funds may include:
- Raising part of the start – up capital from personal savings
- Raising part of the start – up capital from family members and friends (soft loans and gifts et al)
- Raising a larger chunk of the start-up capital from the banks (loan facility).
14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy
We at Covenant Academy believe that we will be offering child care/development for toddlers age three to five, and that we will be targeting double income professional families who, because of work obligations, do not have the time during the day to care for their child.
We at Covenant Academy are very keen to get to families that are hungry to offer their kids something more than simple baby-sitting facilities, those individuals who like their children to be registered in a program that offers development of many different skills including: socialization skills, arts and crafts, large muscle group workouts, reading, numbers, etc.
We at Covenant Academy plan to make use of our facility tour to impress our prospective clients. We believe that our facilities were custom designed to achieve very specific educational goals and we are very proud to have it. We believe that these tours will occur during the day and will serve as a perfect opportunity for prospective patrons to view the care as it is occurring.
We hope and trust that this strategy will serve to build a trust bond between Covenant Academy and the parent who naturally is cautious about leaving the child with strangers to have the child cared for and taught the entire day.
We at Covenant Academy believe that in case of an economic downturn, we may face a decline in our incomes. But we believe that the demand for parents that want to register their children in our care will keep increasing steadily. Which means that Covenant Academy will always remain profitable and our cash flow will remain positive at all times despite certain drawbacks in the economy.
Checklist/Milestone
- Business Name Availability Check: Completed
- Business Incorporation: Completed
- Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts various banks in the United States: Completed
- Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
- Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
- Application for business license and permit: Completed
- Purchase of All form of Insurance for the Business: Completed
- Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
- Leasing, renovating and equipping our facility: Completed
- Generating part of the start – up capital from the founder: Completed
- Applications for Loan from our Bankers: In Progress
- Writing of Business Plan: Completed
- Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
- Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
- Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
- Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: Completed
- Recruitment of employees: In Progress
- Purchase of the needed software applications, furniture, office equipment, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
- Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
- Creating Awareness for the business (Business PR): In Progress
- Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
- Establishing business relationship with banks, financial lending institutions, vendors and key players in the industry: In Progress