Building design is important whether you are considering building a new program or buying an existing one. Program efficiency in the daycare industry is inherently linked to building design. I have a great deal of experience in designing new centers, in redesigning existing centers, and in creating daycare centers out of physical plants that were formerly used for other purposes. (i.e., office suites, places of worship, physician centers, etc.....)

Consider this example. An investor had the potential to move into space in a strip center that had formerly held a day care. The former tenant had operated for less than a year before becoming insolvent. Not only was the space already beautifully painted and carpeted, but the landlord was including furnishings which had been repossessed from the former tenant. The investor wanted to analyze why the former tenant had failed and what were the prospects for a new investor.

An in depth analysis of demographic data indicated that the area was ideally suited for the type of day care center the investor was interested in, both in regards to numbers of children and median household income. The location was found to be acceptably placed in regards to traffic flow in and away from nearby neighborhoods. In interviews with the landlord it was found that the former tenant had received complaints regarding the lack of a curriculum based program, but that most parents who had chosen the center seemed happy with it.

An inspection of the property revealed that, while a good deal of money had been spent on redecorating, the former tenant had made little actual change to the physical plant. Most of the classrooms were renovated office space, and the common areas were what had been a moderate size community meeting room. When the configuration of the classrooms was analyzed, high level of inefficiency were revealed. The most glaring instance of this was the infant room. The room was determined to be large enough to contain five cribs. Because the infant rate was the highest in the center, the director decided to maximize its occupancy. Unfortunately, the staff to child ratio for infants, in that state, was 1:4. This caused the director to double the staff in the room to accommodate one extra infant. Cost/Benefit analysis revealed that, in its current design,this room would lose at least $3,500.00 per month of operation. Most other rooms were found to contain various degrees of inefficiency. At least one other room was found that could not attain positive cash flow in its current configuration.

A written report detailing findings suggested that the former center had failed due to (1) inherent structural inefficiencies and the failure to redesign the physical plant, and (2) having offered an academically poor product in a neighborhood where academic excellence was a primary goal of the parents. One element had caused many parents not to choose the center, and the other had caused a significant drain on cash flow in the center's critical startup year.

Every Year The Majority Of New Businesses Will Fail.

In Many, Failure Is Built Into The Project Design.
This Does Not Have To Happen To You.

Contact Me