Building a new day care center is undoubtedly the most difficult investment option available. However, it is frequently the best, and most economic, way to have exactly the center you want at exactly the right location. Here are some elements of this type of project to be aware of:

Cost: To create a center that is a sound and profitable investment will typically range from $850,000.00 to $1,500,000.00 depending upon location and how elaborate a center you want. Cost in certain areas are edging toward $2,000,000.00 and higher.

Time: I have seen these projects take as little as six months to build or well over a year. Difficulties in zoning can be especially time consuming.

Location: The single greatest factor in your child care investment is location. Parents typically do not leave their children very far from their home. While some companies have had success with offering day care at parent's work sites, this is still a specialty product and is not the norm for the industry. My Doctorate degree dealt very heavily with the study of demography and I personally conduct the demographic analysis used to place each school I design.

Design: While many companies will only use one building design, I prefer to design each building to fit the land on which it will be built and to meet each investor's vision. Following this, I alter the design to meet its specific overhead costs. For example, an investor may start a project with a school designed for 150 children and planned to make a specific level of profit. Once costs are estimated for the project, I often suggest changes in room sizes needed to alter the total capacity of the center to keep the center in line with the profit margin the investor originally set.

Furnishing & Equipping: Furnishing and equipping a large child care center is a major project. There are only a few large scale provides for this type of furniture and there are frequent delays associated with receiving all of the material. Decisions to be made include: quality and expense of material, color coding versus not color coding, quantities of items per room, stations versus open room, etc.. Furnishing & equipping your school should cost between $50,000.00 to just over $100,000.00.

Staffing: Large day care centers are also large scale employers. It is not uncommon for a large center to have 20 to 30 employees or more. Some investors utilize mostly full time employees and provide incentives for long tenure. Others focus on a work force of mostly part-time employees. Efficient designs exist for both staffing patterns.

Security: Security in the day care industry is becoming a hot topic. I can guide you in creating several different security features for your center.