Setting up a nursery in The AnswerBank: Parenting

My wife and I looked into this (she is already in the business) and it does look promising on paper. In principle you can set up a nursery without needing NVQs etc in childcare as long as the people working with the children are suitably qualified. In reality the major stumbling block is that it is quite dificult to find decent staff who will actually do their jobs and still turn a profit. Insurance will be horrific and the nature of the staff means that you will generally have a high turnover (young women - usually on on minimum wage - tend to get pregnant or better jobs). You can turn a profit but - from experience - I would say that you have to run a very financially tight ship without compromising on safety and that is very difficult to do.

jackie03

Question Author

Wow - but are you still making profit - not struggling? I mean without compromising and safety? How are you getting over the staff problem?

rekstout

We decided against running our own and I have gone in a different direction for a business and my wife works in a nursery. Knowing how much each parent pays and how much it costs to run the place I can conclude that there is money to be made but don't rush off to Coutts to open an account - we are not talking serious ROIs. Enough to be comfortable.

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jackie03

Question Author

Really? Thanks for replying. Why did you decide against running your own nursery?

rekstout

Too much hassle for too little return - my main concern was the liability issue - we live in such a litigious world that any honest and reasonable mistake can result in a crippling law suit. Gone into property now and very happy but may look at nurseries again a a few years time.

jackie03

Question Author

I can imagine.I was already thinking that way over the weekend as well. Also with all the bad reports from nurseries now and stuff.And the govt might change their outlook soon and stop pouring money into nurseries,or stop encouraging mothers to go back to work.Esp.,if Govt. changes.Also,all the news yest in the daily mail about nursery being able to seriously damage children under 2 yrs.But,what do u think about the other types of child care centres like after-school clubs etc? I am also into property, kind of happy, but not too much return as such though.What exactly do u do in/with property?We have a couple,we let them out.But what with all this talk of property value decreasing?What do u think in the light of that?

rekstout

I reckon after-school / school holiday groups and acitvity centres and private tuition look like they could go big.

I am a full-on property developer now - buying land and farms and converting to residential using my own workforce - scheduled for about 30 units total for 2005. Property market is inflated at present but even the most serious devaluation would not put us in the red as we are building our own and the cost of materials has not increased massively. As a boutique operation, our margins are a little higher than the big builders so we can absorb more of a dip in prices. Besides that we cater for the luxury/executive end of the market where there will always be more money than sense no matter what the economic climate.

jackie03

Question Author

Good gracious! That's some real stuff you guys are doing there :-) That's wonderful - happy for you.Where are you developing? Have u sold any yet? Are you a builder, or have any background in building or similar fields? We thought of land and stuff,and my husband even seriously made enquiries about it,but we thought it might be too big a step building a house on land.It kind of looked impossible to do a couple and sell like the developers do.Where are you getting capital from? Hope u don't mind me asking too many questions.. We were also told that we needed to be cautious in buying land as the Goovt could later have plans to build roads or railways on it much later. Is this true?

casdac

Different rules applies for different states. Make sure you check with your health department, and all other state and local facilities; including your fire department as to the requirements. It first seems like something easy, but oh the bumps in the road can be very difficult. You must be very motivated to do it; and money should not be your motivation. It may take years to actually break even.

rekstout

We self-funded as we had a substantial sum to invest and now finance it 50:50 through personal and bank as it cheaper to borrow and leave our funds in investments.

I was an IT consultant for a few years but we have experience of self-build and major renovation. We partnered up with our friend who was a builder by trade so we have a builder head and a business head. Running a business always requires the same issues, scheduling, financial control, supply chain management and staff management. We have 23 staff now who we look after well, they in turn look after us.

Compulsory Purchse Orders are rare nowadays, local searches when buying land should tell you if there is anything untoward happening nearby which would affect your build or sales. Planning issues are the pain in the butt but remain calm and patient and keep within the regs and you will get there. Got to have a thick skin when it comes to locals as well s they will kick up an almight fuss no matter what you do - even if that is what you asked for. To give you an example...
We proposed eleven executive houses on a two acre site, the locals objected and complained like hell and said they wanted to see smaller, affordable housing on the site. We resubmitted for a small estate of "afordable housing" and they went even more nuts when they realised that it was - to the local gov't - acceptable but would result in a different sort of resident in the locale. People don't like change but they don't like things to stay the same either. If you want to try it then start small, buy a house, fix it up and sell it on - see how you got on with it before tackling bigger jobs and use a good builder - even if they cost a lot more - it's worth it.

jackie03

Question Author

Wow-thx for your answer.U sure have a good-sized workforce - that's brill.Very interesting-property business.I'll take your advice and start small.Do you mind if we ask u questions when we start? Yeah,we definitely need a new builder-the one we've got at the moment fitting a new kitchen and bathroom for us is not reliable. He suddenly dissapears for some days sometimes such that we won't be able to reach him.He won't answer his phone,not return our calls even when we leave messages.Do you know any good ones? Where are you guys based - where's your development? We are in London,on the side that's close to Essex. The local residents sure look like they kicked up a big fuss.Did they finally agree?,or they don't need to? Interesting that you were an IT consultant.What IT work did u do? I am also in IT - I'm a programmer. Just wondered-hope you don't mind me asking-why is your wife working in nursery then? Does she not want to work with ur building company? What do you think of auctions?That looks like the only place one can really get dilapitated properties from.Also, banks and financial companies would not lend on dilapitated properties in need of a lot of work, would they? I am aware that one would have to carry out some work on it first before mortgaging it.We tried this once or twice but were worried that the seller may/could change their mind about selling the property, after we would have carried out some work on it to make it mortgage-able.

gizzycouplan

i dnt no for sure but i have been doin some research on settin up a new nursery because i would love to start up a bussiness of my own in a nursery to and u should beable to buy your own turf/building and make it ur own or jus qualify for a bussiness and work ur way up till u get to the top which will make the bussines urs ne wy costring alot less if this doesnt help then i am really sorry for wasting your time but i hope i am a little help

gizzycouplan

i dnt no for sure but i have been doin some research on settin up a new nursery because i would love to start up a bussiness of my own in a nursery to and u should beable to buy your own turf/building and make it ur own or jus qualify for a bussiness and work ur way up till u get to the top which will make the bussines urs ne wy costring alot less if this doesnt help then i am really sorry for wasting your time but i hope i am a little help

Setting up a nursery

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