Sunday, January 3, 2010

Child Care

When developing the business plan for your child care center, there are a few key decisions to make at the beginning of the process. The one that may have the greatest impact on the speed and cost of the process is whether you and your partners will create the plan yourself, share the work with a business plan writer, or outsource it entirely to a business plan consulting firm.

Writing the Plan Yourself

The advantage of creating the plan yourself is that, as the business's manager, you must be in a position to understand the market opportunity, to decide how the business will run, and to know the financial drivers of the business in any case. Since you will have to spend time to understand these elements, documenting them in a plan is just one more step.

However, you lack understanding of the proper plan format and face an even greater hurdle in the creation of a financial model for your plan in Excel.If that is the case, make sure to use a business plan outline from a reputable source or, better yet, a template suited to the child care industry that you can adapt for your company.

Hiring a Writer

If you feel unsure that your writing skills are good enough to create a successful plan, hiring a writer may be the route to go. Be careful to work with someone with experience and the ability to show multiple writing samples. Also be clear on the extent to which you will rely on this person. Will the writer simply put your notes into narrative format? Will the writer be responsible for market and competitor research?

Will the writer need to create the financial model and therefore demonstrate experience with Excel and financial concepts? As the responsibilities grow, you move from simply needing a copywriter skilled with business language to an experienced businessperson with MBA-level skill.

Hiring a Consulting Firm

Using a business plan consulting firm ensures that you have a partner that will guide you through the preparation process rather than requiring you to guide them. Generally, such a company can do much of the research for you and should be asking to get your feedback a number of times during the creation process. Speak to past clients to learn about both the process and product of the firm.

Understand how working with the firm can increase your capacity to lead the company from what you learn during the writing process.Are you looking for more advice on how to start a child care business or develop child care business plans? Call 877-BIZ-PLAN to learn how Growthink can help you build your child care business.
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