Our Story

We bought a struggling nursery for £150,000 in 2011 and sold it for £4.5 million in 2019.

We would like to show you how we did it, and help you do the same.

Hi, we are John and Deborah

We bought Scamps Day Nursery in Macclesfield in 2011 for £150,000. At that time, the nursery had occupancy levels below 50%, low staff moral and no profit. The nursery had been established 25 years earlier and had run out of steam, ideas and money. In 2019 we sold the nursery for £4.5 million

Our Journey

01

THE START

in 2019 we bought a nursery that had been in business for over 25 years and was struggling to break even.

02

OUTSTANDING

Within the first 9 months we achieved Ofsted Outstanding, the first time the nursery had ever been Ofsted Outstanding.

03

THE FIRST YEAR

Within the first 12 months we increased the nursery's profit by over £75,000.

04

OCCUPANCY

Over the eight years the nursery occupancy increased from 48% to 100% with a sizeable waiting list.

05

FEES

We increased the nursery fees each year and they became the highest in the town and almost 25% higher than our closest geographical competitor.

06

THE SALE

The nursery we bought for £150,000 in 2011 we sold the first day it went on sale for £4,500,000 in 2019

What we did

01

THE BIG IDEA

We had never owned or ran a nursery before, but our expertise was in education and business. Our BIG idea to create a sustainable, highly successful and therefore profitable nursery was to focus on excellence in child development. Everything they did was aimed at optimising every part of the day so that every child would not only be happy and safe but excited, challenged, supported, and encouraged to learn new things and develop socially, physically and educationally.

02

THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT

We Created an approach and an environment that gave our staff a sense of purpose and pride.
We knew we couldn’t achieve our goal without having a team that shared our passion for excellence and took great pride in everything we did. The team’s constant focus was the development and welfare of every child in our care. From the first thank you from a parent to the awards that followed, the team knew they made a real difference to our children’s futures.

03

STRUCTURED TO SUCCEED

We Structure the nursery business to succeed financially.

We bought a nursery that was set up to fail financially. There are many factors in a nurseries profitability, including the level of fees, the occupancy and the staff costs. But there are many more things, including room and age ratios, that make a significant difference to the amount of profit the nursery generates.

04

PARTNERSHIPS WITH PARENTS

As parents of three children, we knew how important the communication between the nursery and the home is. We also understood from our research that close cooperation between the nursery and families has significant positive outcomes for children. We set out to bring families into the daily life of the nursery as much as possible through extensive communication, including detailed daily Facebook updates, a parents committee and room-specific weekly and monthly newsletters..

05

OCCUPANCY MATTERS

When we first bought the nursery, the occupancy levels were around 48%. This was unsustainable given the size of the nursery and the number of staff. Our number one priority was to increase the occupancy level, which we did through several initiatives, including advertising, press releases and open days. We leant to our expense that some were far more successful than others. Except for family recommendations, by far and away, the most successful and cost-effective way to increase occupancy is by having an amazing website.

06

INVESTMENT IS CRUCIAL

We continually increased the nurseries profitability, which we then reinvested back into the nursery.

Over the eight years, the nursery changed from being severely under-resourced, with limited opportunities for the children, to a nursery with every resource the team requested and the programme needed. The children loved it, the parents appreciated it, and the staff were proud to be part of it.

How we did it

01

THE IDEA

We developed an idea that would make the nursery stand out from the competition and implemented it relentlessly.

02

POSITIVITY

We developed a culture where staff felt safe and valued. All negativity was banned; the nursery had to be an oasis of positivity.

03

STRUCTURE

We developed a financial structure and nursery ratios to succeed.

04

PLANNING

We meticulously planned every part, of every day, of every week, to ensure that every day was special.

05

SYSTEMS

We built systems and processes over time that ran every detail of the nursery.

06

FRAMEWORK

We built a framework that lasts and succeeds months after the sale.

A ONE - TO - ONE PROGRAMME

How we
can help you

WE'VE BEEN THERE

Unlike many other consultancies, we have been through all and any of the problems you are facing. We know the difficulties, the worries and the frustrations. We also know the joy and satisfaction of happy children and grateful customers.

THE PROGRAMME

We have built a detailed programme that is delivered weekly and provides you with the advice, training and support you need to succeed in the way that we have.

IT'S PERSONAL

The Outstanding Day Nursery Programme is a personal one to one programme that works alongside you to develop your culture, and the systems and processes needed to achieve the levels of success we did.

Overcoming our biggest problem

When we bought our nursery, the Number 1 problem was money – or rather the lack of it.

Joining the Outstanding Day Nursery Programme costs a minimum of £1,000 per month; we know that is a lot of money to find, especially during the current pandemic.

So our first piece of advice is FREE

As discussed earlier, the most cost effective way of increasing occupancy, income and profitability is by having a website that makes you stand out from the crowd. We would strongly advise that if you are interested in joining the OUTSTANDING NURSERY PROGRAMME and achieveing the same things we achieved, you do so after following our first piece of advice and have ensured that your website is the best in your area. In our experience this more than pays for the cost of the programme.

Two Choices

YOUR NEW AMAZING WEBSITE

The Outstanding Day Nursery

Website

To start your journey and have a website that increases your occupancy, income and profitability please click the box below.

THE PROGRAMME

The Outstanding Day Nursery

Programme

To register your interest and learn more about the Outstanding Day Nursery Programme and let us join you on your exciting journey please click the box below.