You've finalized your vision of your child care program, selected locations for consideration, done the necessary research of the child care market in your community, and developed a general marketing plan for recruitment of families. Now it is time for you to take all of this information and put it into a single document − the document that will be the heart and soul of your child care center: THE BUSINESS PLAN.

This business plan will enable you to raise the capital, maintain the focus on the child care market in your community, and create a document that your program can follow. In order to provide a complete picture of your program, your operations, and the income you will generate, your plan must demonstrate that you have the expertise and knowledge to operate a successful child care center. Your plan must also illustrate how financial investments will be used, as well as the stability of your child care center as a business. Marketing and services provided to families should be clearly outlined. The plan you create should be concise and accurate. It needs to be written with clarity, and have accurate data and statistics to support your rationale and operational plan. You will need to consider your current finances, and show initial start-up costs, plus first-to-third-year projections of expenses and income. You will need two consultants to help you create your business plan: an accountant for the financial component and an early childhood/child care specialist for the program component.

You should use the following outline as a guide in the concept of your business plan. It goes through each section of your plan step-by-step, detailing what information should be included. Of course, you will provide the special and unique aspects of your plan, based on your individual market or community.

Your cover page should have...

YOUR CHILD CARE CENTER NAME

Name

Address and Telephone Number

(Name of institution or investor you are submitting this proposal to for financial consideration)

Your table of contents page should have...

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Executive Summary

II. Child Care Market Analysis

III. Program Summary

IV. Strategic Planning

        A. Operations

        B. Marketing and Recruitment

V. Management and Staffing

VI. Financial Operations and Projections

VII. Key Success Factors

VIII. Appendix