We’re already catapulting our way through 2022 and I know that finances are top priority for many of you. I’ve written this blog focusing on tips for creating a successful finance routine in your childcare biz.
Any of these sound familiar? Perhaps you’ve been struggling in the past to keep on track with incomings and outgoings? Or maybe you constantly miss deadlines for taxes? Does your in-home daycare business have trouble collecting payments from your clients?
If you answered “yes” to any of the above, read on as I dive in and take a look at some ideas to help you get set up for success in 2022!
Time to get stuck into my top ideas for creating a successful finance routine, Ninja!
1. Separate your accounts!
It’s super important that you keep track of your business and personal finances. Set up a different bank account for your in-home daycare so you can manage your money better. Head to your local bank or credit union and open a new account.
Whenever you’re making payments for the business – resources, food, equipment, your team – do them from this account. Pay yourself from here too, so it’s really clear to see where you’re at financially. It helps you see what’s coming in and going out!
It also has the added benefit of making you feel more professional, and present yourself as a legitimate business to your clients. Keeps things on a serious level.
2. Pick a “money day”
One of the things that really helped me when I initially set up my home day care was allocating one day per week to focus on finances. Getting into a routine of checking your accounts, keeping on top of budgets and bills is key to making it all less scary.
Choose a day that’s maybe a little quieter and block out a couple of hours in your planner or Google calendar. Then spend that time going through invoices, paying bills, chasing payments and all of the things that used to get piled up and eventually done (badly) in a panic! Keep on top of your finances like this means that you’ll feel more confident in your decision making and when tax returns are due!
Set the scene for your fab finances day – diffuser on, door closed and keep focused! Let’s get into the habit of checking in on our finances every week.
3. Choose an accountant who understands Childcare!
A good accountant is worth their weight in gold! In my honest opinion though, it’s important to find one who understands how a childcare business works. Someone who is knowledgeable about the childcare industry! They’ve got to know what can or can’t be written off and they’ll be able to help you get the most out of the tax return.
Take the time to find the right accountant for you!
4. Have a budget
You might be killing it on your home budget, but do you keep that separate from your business? No?! Well now is the time to start. You need to keep things neat and tidy, so it’s easy to see what came out of where. Don’t mix up your budgets!
Try to make your day care finances and budget independent from your personal budget! Keep all receipts organized and filed away for your in-home daycare. Have a system in place to store and organize things, making it easier to find things when anyone asks.
It’ll save time and money if you keep things separate! Make your life and your accountant’s life easier by starting now! Keep reading for more tips for creating a successful finance routine!
5. Automate as much as you can!
Y’all know I’m all about the systems and automations. Why wouldn’t I love ’em?! After all, they’ve helped me grow from a home daycare into a multiple facility childcare business! But you don’t have to be bringing in the big bucks to put these things in place.
You can ensure you get paid as quickly as possible by automating! Quickbooks or PayPal (others also available!) can help you set up an automated invoices for your clients. These apps can bill them each month and makes them paying you more simple. They’re super easy to adapt and make changes for those times you’re putting your prices up. And you can set up reminders to ensure parents don’t forget to pay.
These don’t cost too much – a small percentage. But it’s worth it to take it off your to do list!
And finally, I’d highly recommend reading Profit First. Wanna know more? I wrote a blog about it here!
I hope you enjoyed reading my tips for creating a successful finance routine! Do you have any more tips to pass on?
Have you heard that we have a course starting next month?! Yaaaaasss Ninja! It’s time to learn! Find out more about our Phenomenal Foundations Course here.
While you’re here…Did you know that you can schedule a 20 minute chat to see how we can help you start and scale your childcare business?
And don’t forget that you can find strategies and tips to move your childcare business forward by joining our community! You can hang out with like-minded and aspirational daycare owners in there and I go live regularly to talk about topics that’ll help you grow. We’re an army of childcare professionals who are sharing ninja-sharp skills to transform our businesses into childcare empires! This is Childcare Ownership all Grownup! Join us for more tips on how to make your childcare business the success it deserves to be!
If you prefer Instagram, we share ideas and tips there too. Or maybe email is your thang…JOIN OUR 💌 MAILING LIST HERE.
Also if you’re looking to reduce overwhelm, get organized and achieve your goals this year, you can get your 2022 CHILDCARE BUSINESS PLANNING SYSTEM right here.
One of the questions I get asked the most by people looking to start a childcare business is: “How do I find money for my childcare business start up?!” And it’s a great question! Not all of us have money in the bank to get started, right!? So I wanted to share with you some ideas about how to get those dollars flowing!
I’m NOT a financial pro, so these are tools I’ve used myself or my coachees have tried out.
The childcare industry brings in BILLIONS of dollars to the economy every year. It’s pretty much recession proof too, because who doesn’t need childcare?! Which means that there’s cash waiting to invest in new childcare businesses…
Read on to find out how you can get your hands on the financial support you need to finally start your childcare business and start living the life you love!
First thing first…
I need to ask you a question: how are you planning on setting up?
Do you actually need to set up a center? Or could you begin in your home? Are you setting up as a franchise? Will you need a center?
A little bit of money and a lot of perseverance is how you grow! I started as a home daycare because I didn’t have thousands of dollars to hire a space or invest in a franchise. And that is a great route into the industry. I’ve been able to grow and thrive. And so can you.
Should you start small?
Don’t stress about not having hundreds or thousands of dollars. You do not NEED huge amounts of cash to start your childcare business. Many of the owners I know started out with a simple daycare run from their front room! And once they became more established, they were able to find investors or access money to grow.
So I want you to think really carefully about how you start out. Don’t put off starting something you know you’ll love and feel passionate about just because you’re not cash-rich!
Grant money
Grants are great because you don’t usually have to pay the money back. At the moment, there seems to be grant money in most states to support childcare businesses to stay open and grow. These tend to be for businesses that are already established. However, there’s no harm in investigating! Perhaps your local government agencies have something available for start up childcare businesses. Even if they have nothing to give you, they can be great for sign-posting you to other grants.
Look at grants outside the childcare business arena – small business grants, community grants… There are lots of options and sometimes it’s smaller amounts that you can put towards training or furniture.
Loans
Not always something people are keen on (I know I stayed away!), but loans can be a good way to getting your foot in the door. Go to your own bank and open up a conversation with your finance experts there. They might be able to help you set up and they can point you in the right direction for grants and further support.
Do not go to a loan shark or take out a loan where the interest rates are sky-high! A reputable and responsible bank or financer will ensure that your repayments are affordable and sensible. A loan could be the leg up that you’re looking for.
Side hustle
Perhaps you might want to look at getting a second job or doing a side hustle to gather the money you need to get started. This isn’t an option for everyone, but working a few extra shifts means being able to save cash. You can then put this directly into savings for your new business venture.
If you do have the time to spend 6 months working a second job or side hustle, then it’s a great way to plan for saving. Set yourself that deadline so you don’t get stuck and not start your childcare business.
Find a partner
If you have someone who wants to partner up with you – perhaps they’d rather be in the background while you’re doing the front of house! A great partnership can do amazing things for a business. Sometimes the partner just wants to invest, and that’s cool. But they might want to be IN the business, so you’ve got to be clear about roles. Playing on each of your strengths can be hugely beneficial.
Whatever you do on this front, make sure you’ve got it all in writing!! A partnership break up can be ugly if you don’t have things laid out officially from the get-go!
So if you’re wondering how to find the money for your childcare business start up, save some of these ideas and then dive into the video below for more!
Watch my YouTube video now to answer the biggest question I get asked about the childcare business: ”How do you find money to start one”?
Join me inside as we tackle some ideas to get those dollars you need to finally get started!
And to help you figure things out, here’s my Side Hustle Checklist to download now! Go and get some inspiration on what you can quickly do to get the start up funds you need.
If you’ve loved this post, please leave me a comment below, or share the lessons you’ve learned so far!
I’d love for you to join the community over on Facebook, where you can hang out with like-minded and aspirational daycare owners. Dive in for more tips on how to make your childcare business the success it deserves to be! Or if you prefer Instagram, we share ideas and tips there too. We’re an army of childcare professionals who are sharing ninja-sharp skills to transform our businesses into childcare empires! This is Childcare Ownership all Grownup!
Is it time for you to grow your finances and finally begin building your wealth? One of the reasons I set up Childcare Ninjas – my mission if you will – is that I really want to encourage everyone in this community to become financially literate in their childcare business. I want women like YOU to be bringing in the money you want to make.
For years, money has been a taboo subject – particularly for women – and I want to make sure that doesn’t get in your way! It’s a topic that often makes us feel stressed or uncomfortable, so the more we talk about it the less hush-hush it’ll be.
In this blog I’m going to share with you some of the things you need to consider when it comes to finances. Because when we KNOW, we can GROW!
Why do we need to learn about finances?
Rather than just spending up your check when it comes in, we need to learn what to do to make the money work for us! We want to manoeuvre ourselves into a place where we start to become wealthy, where we don’t just strive but get to thrive financially in our business and our lives.
In order to do that I believe there has to be a learning curve, to seek out the education that shows us how to use our finances in a positive way and be able to continue growing them. Oftentimes that isn’t the information that’s handed down, you need to be purposeful about seeking it out.
Many of us received the opposite, growing up with negative thoughts and ideas about money and wealth. This takes time and effort to unpick and unlearn.
When it comes to finances in business, I was (once upon a time) the kind of person who’d throw all my receipts and invoices in a drawer and “deal with them later”…and then the drawer got all jammed up because it was overflowing with paperwork…I wonder if that’s ringing any bells for you there, Ninja?
The trick when it comes to great financial management is consistency and small, simple systems. This took me so long to figure out, and that is why I am super excited to be giving you this guidance, so you don’t have to waste time figuring it out!
But why do you need to grow your finances?
And the reason this matters is that money is not shared equally across the globe. Nope. Did you know that the world’s richest 1% – those with more than $1 million – own 43.4% of the world’s wealth? And of those, men have more of a share than women, and there is massive inequality in terms of race, language, religion.
So when a load of us women in childcare start growing our businesses and creating WEALTH for us and our communities we are rocking the boat! We are shifting the wealth share and making the lives of people in our areas better! What’s not to love, Ninja?!
I want to encourage each and everyone of us to build our wealth and create overflow and abundance in our lives!
Figure out the language of finance
Part of the reason we shy away from talking about money is that the finance industry bamboozles us with words that we don’t understand. So before you get started with trying to sort out your finances, I’d recommend getting familiar with the language.
There’s absolutely no shame in googling words you don’t recognize or listening to some finance books on audiobook. You could even reading a paper copy and have a thesaurus handy for any unfamiliar words.
We weren’t taught this stuff in school, so it’s time we took things into our own hands! Let’s grow your finances together!
What do we know about finances already?
Take a minute to sit and figure out what you DO know. You might already know how to pay in checks and cash them, for example. You may be au fait with internet banking. How about pay roll and taxes?
Perhaps you ran a product-based business before you decided to open a daycare, or maybe you were the treasurer for the PTA and kept immaculate records on spreadsheets for the bake sales and jamborees. Whatever your experience, don’t belittle it! You’ve picked up skills over the years and you can flex those muscles again, just in a different way.
Once you know what you DO know, then you can start to look and learn the things you DON’T yet. And it’s okay to admit that we don’t know stuff!!
Time to separate your money
Don’t mingle your money! Especially if you’re an LLC. You need an EIN to set up your own business account. Do it in your name or under a business name – doesn’t matter! But you need it separate. Lots of first time business owners make the mistake of using their day-to-day accounts when they start up, and it just creates utter chaos when you are trying to figure out incomings and outgoings.
Keep it simple. One account for the childcare business, and another for your personal business. Read about the way you can manage finances and the Profit First method here.
Create financial goals to grow your finances
So I know you’re probably familiar with the idea of goal setting – “In 5 years I’d like to have a second daycare”, “In a year I’d like to build an extension onto my current childcare space”, “By the time I’m 40 I want to have a new home, car and at least 30 employees”… And these are great. Being ambitious and stretchy in our goal setting is AWESOME! However, you want to be ultra specific with financial goals.
Make sure you set income goals because you want your business journey to be focused and not meandering all over the place. Attach a number to your goal. For example, “In a years time I want to be bringing in $60,000 so I can build that extension and develop my childcare space”. You don’t wanna travel without a destination!
Break down your financial tasks
Daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly. Keep track of receipts, keep track of all incomings and outgoings on a daily basis. Weekly – on a Friday – you can get your financial tasks done (like filing those receipts!). Your accountant will love you for it. Build these tasks into your workflow!
Get some financial help!
I cannot emphasize this enough: get an accountant and a book keeper. They’re not the same thing!
Your accountant can support you with taxes and figuring out your financial journey. I tend to check in with mine and update them on new things I’m doing in case that impacts my taxes. But at the end of the tax year is when they work their magic. And the bookkeeper makes sure all your expenses are accounted for and you work together all year long. They’re financial fairy godmothers who can help you stay on top of things!
Build relationships with people at your bank. Talk to the teller and the bank manager, and don’t feel intimidated by anyone. It’s key to connect, so that you can ask questions and learn from them as experts about how things work.
When you have a new project coming up or are looking to expand, their expertise can be so valuable to decision making.
Do not be afraid of asking for help.
Hopefully after reading this blog post you’re feeling a bit more confident about money and talking about how to grow your finances. I mentioned earlier that I use the Profit First method and have been since reading the book, but I’d love to know what money, finance, or business books have made an impact on you? Share your resources in the comments below or come and join in the conversation over on Facebook!
To get you started on managing your finances effectively and efficiently, here’s an extra helping hand from me to you, Ninja:
If you want to hang out with like-minded and aspirational childcare business owners, come and get involved in the community over on Facebook! Join us for more tips on how to make your childcare business the success it deserves to be! Or if you prefer Instagram, we share ideas and tips there too. We’re an army of childcare professionals who are sharing ninja-sharp skills to transform our businesses into childcare empires! This is Childcare Ownership all Grownup!
February is well and truly here! It’s usually a chaotic month due to getting our taxes in order, so why not use this time to fix-up our finance systems? We’re still fresh in the year, and only just getting started — it’s the perfect time to revamp your systems!
Take some time out over the next couple of weeks to really analyse your current systems. Delve into what’s working, what is not working. Could you make things slicker and easier to manage?
In this post I’m going to share some practical tips for revitalizing your finance systems, read on if you’re ready to take action now!
Why do systems matter?
By getting systems all set up, you’re getting processes in place that will help you get more organized. It’s important that you can keep on top of finances, so having systems in place will help you find things at the drop of a hat. If a client asks you something, you can find the answer. When it comes to tax returns, all your information and data is in order. It keeps things simple.
Not only does it get you organized, but having systems helps your staff too. It enables them to know how things work, without having to ask you constantly! Once your systems are running smoothly, you’ll no longer have to worry about taking time off and chaos ensuing while you’re not there. You’ll de-stress, your staff will feel more in control and confident and—most importantly— your business will grow!
How do you work out systems?
If you’ve worked with me before, or you’ve read my previous blog posts, you’ll know I’m obsessed with systems! I love the sense of control and the load it takes off of my shoulders. So how did I get to this point, exactly?
First thing you have to do is break down all the steps and processes that you have in place. Take a good long look at every little step. How is that working for you right now? Is there anything you could change to improve that step? Could you automate it? Once you’ve analysed where you’re at, start adding in the things you’d like to implement to make the systems better.
After you’ve broken it all down, you’ll see you’ve got a plan and a sort of flow chart to guide you through the finance systems you want in your childcare business. (If you need a guide to help you with this process, download your free childcare business map here and get started building your systems.)
How do I fix-up my finance systems?
There’s lots of ways you can fix-up your finance systems, and I’ll be going through this in the Facebook group soon. So for now I’ll just explain how to get started if you haven’t already. Or perhaps you can use it as an opportunity to refresh how things work at the moment.
Financial Tasks Overview: Get total control of your finances by creating a system for your tasks. By ensuring that we do the tasks we need to daily, weekly, monthly, and even quarterly, we are stopping overwhelm and procrastination in its tracks! So break every little task down. No matter how small!
Monthly Bill Report: Doing this will enable you to list all expenses your business has, and begin categorizing it so that a later stage when you have all the Fab Finances templates, you can complete your monthly budget and know exactly where you stand financially at any given time. Simple & Stress-free!
And don’t panic if you’ve not started yet! Head here for my Fabulous Finance templates, so your childcare business can run with ease! Which means you can focus on the strategic part of your business and get growing! Some of the daily templates include Inventory management, invoice tracking, income, and expense management.
What happens when you’ve got systems in place?
You might think that this is all a waste of time. I’ve heard childcare business owners complain about the effort it takes to get all set up. But I promise you that once you’ve found systems that work for you and they’re all in place and running like clockwork it’s a total game changer!
Since I got my systems fixed-up, I have been able to grow my childcare business empire. None of my focus goes on overwhelm or worrying about how things are doing, because I know already! My systems tell me what’s going on and I can take a look any time I fancy. I don’t have to stress about taking time off or if families are going to pay their bills, due to my simple systems and automations.
How do you feel about this? Are you ready to fix-up your finance systems? Or are you feeling stuck?
Come and let us know over in the Childcare Ninja Facebook group! Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing tips on setting those systems up so you can actually grow your childcare business. And I’ll be starting with Finances!
We’re an army of childcare professionals who are sharing ninja-sharp skills to transform our businesses into childcare empires! This is Childcare Ownership all Grownup! Interested in becoming a part of the community? Join us for more tips on how to make your childcare business the success it deserves to be! And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram!
