The Day Care Facility Closed Today–Where Does My Kid Go NOW?!

     In a newspaper today was an article of a day care facility abruptly closing– with no notice to the staff or clients!  How could  this happen?  How come nobody knew?

      According to the newspaper article, the facility, built in 2011 for almost 400 children did a great business initially, however, never appeared to “cash flow” adequately and sufficiently for continued growth and operation.  Sadly, staff as well as customers did not know anything until they reported for work and had customers ready to drop off children for care when they read the sign in the door notifying everyone of the immediate closure.

        This is a sad state– not only for the business owner, but for the employees and the customers who relied on safe, reliable and stimulating child care.  However, how did the owner not see this coming?

          A business plan, a strategic plan and a careful review of the operating budget is necessary to maintain business viability.  Cash flow analysis is one of the most important parts of business operations– does the business have money to continue operations?  This is something that must be carefully monitored all the time.  If indeed, adequate funding is unavailable, then immediate changes should be made to operate within the funding constraints that the business experiences.  One way in which to insure that this does not happen is to begin very conservatively, and then increase operations as additional funding is made available. 

          Business  consultants provide a vital role in helping business owners manage a business.  Having a “fresh set of eyes” review operating budgets often times finds errors or other challenges that should be resolved for future operations.  If a business owner thinks that he/she has a challenge, it is always better to have a consultant review the problem than let it fester until it is so far gone that resolution is impossible.  In this case, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.