Child care center business guide
Illustrative case · Private preschool for ages 3–5: four rooms, assumed licensed capacity of 48; no infant care · California, United States · illustrative private preschool under a Title 22 staffing assumption
Explore this business · Overview
A California preschool for ages three to five, with four classroom groups. Enrollment is constrained by an approved site and staffing in whole-group steps; the assumed 48 places are not a license.
This child care center case requires $346,000 of illustrative opening funding, including $110,000 in cash. Modeled first-year sales are $647,900; the monthly ramp and paid roster determine how much of that becomes cash. Use the five linked guides to examine the assumptions before adapting them to a real project.
Observed SBA industry evidence
Lending activity in the broader category
| Recorded SBA category | NAICS codes | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child Care Services | 624410 | 821 | 985 | 1,010 |
Child day care records cover other ages, jurisdictions and operating formats, not only California preschools. These are loan records, not unique businesses, local customer demand or a count of newly opened businesses. Undisbursed commitments and canceled records are excluded.
Explore this industry’s amounts, terms, lenders and outcomes. Topic counts use the recent SBA-description grouping; the wider explorer uses its own explicitly listed editorial code sets.
Source: SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA files, snapshot 30 June 2026. Recomputed from original records on 1 October 2026. FY2025 is the most recent complete fiscal year in these files. Definitions and exclusions.
What this business actually does
This case is a private preschool in California serving children aged three to five under a specified Title 22 staffing route. It is not a national daycare average and does not cover infants, school-age care or a Title 5 program. Those distinctions matter because staffing, premises and qualification requirements drive both capacity and cost.
The center has four planned classrooms and a director who is not counted as a classroom teacher in the model. Enrollment grows in whole children. Classroom payroll increases when an additional group is opened, rather than changing smoothly with every new child. The model therefore shows a business where more revenue can temporarily produce less cash.
Before treating a premises listing as a childcare opportunity, establish whether the site can support the desired licensed capacity and layout. A financial model cannot grant that capacity. Licensing, fire and building requirements, qualified staff availability and a realistic enrollment pipeline must be resolved together.
Illustrative operating case. Private preschool for ages 3–5: four rooms, assumed licensed capacity of 48; no infant care. Existing leased child-care premises, assumed 48 approved places across four rooms. Actual usable space, fire clearance and licensing must support that number; no subsidy receipts or Title 5 program assumed. All figures are before income taxes. Costs and demand are planning assumptions unless explicitly identified as observed evidence.
Who this operating format fits
Use this case to assess a preschool format with a defined jurisdiction and age band. The crucial question is whether attainable enrollment and tuition can support the required roster throughout operating hours. A building with room for more children is useful only when licensed capacity, staffing and demand support opening the additional group.
The inputs that drive the case
| Input | Case assumption |
|---|---|
| Assumed approved places; must be verified for an actual site | 48 |
| Children per qualified teacher in the selected staffing route | 12 |
| Open hours per classroom / week | 50.0 |
| Additional qualified float/relief hours / week | 40.0 |
| Mature share of licensed places requested | 92.0% |
| Monthly full-time tuition assumption | $1,550 |
| Food cost per enrolled child-month | $110 |
| Other supplies per enrolled child-month | $35 |
| Payment processing / sales | 3.0% |
How to use the evidence
| Evidence | What it establishes | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| SBA administrative records | Lending activity in the mapped broad industry. | Startup cost, demand for your site or your chance of approval. |
| BLS and operational sources | A dated occupation benchmark and specific equipment/regulatory context. | Local staffing offers, an installed quote or site approval. |
| Executed operating model | How the stated assumptions connect to capacity, profit, debt and cash. | Verified trading performance or a lender-approved forecast. |
The SBA panel above uses the broader recorded industry. The financing guide connects the illustrative request to eligible uses and evidence a lender may need. Loan records describe financed businesses; they are not a census of all businesses or a prediction of demand.
Evidence to gather for your own project
| Decision | Evidence to gather |
|---|---|
| Licensing scope | Jurisdiction, ages, proposed capacity, application status and qualified director. |
| Site and works | Lease, layout, approval dependencies and itemized fit-out estimates. |
| Staffing schedule | Qualified classroom staff, breaks, relief and director responsibilities. |
| Enrollment evidence | Tuition offer, signed starts, realistic conversions and classroom allocation. |
| Cash and delay plan | Opening commitments, monthly scenarios and classroom-step sensitivities. |
The free business-plan library currently contains the two original pilot examples. A full narrative plan for this format is a later release; these guides do not claim to be a completed application.
Validate licensing, age mix and attendance
Confirm authorized spaces and staff qualifications with the relevant authority. Collect inquiry-to-enrollment conversion and payment terms by age group; the assumed 48 places are not a license.
Use actual observations to challenge the case before signing the lease or committing the fleet. The opening funding requirement is $346,000 under these assumptions. The material-cost review shows which major purchases remain unresolved.
Explore this business
This edition contains five planning guides. A full business-plan example for this format is not yet published.
Sources and scope
- Operating-case methodology · Checked 2026-10-01 · Authored illustrative assumptions and a 60-month model. Budget allowances, prices charged, demand, payroll, rent and financing are not observed local averages.
- SBA — 7(a) & 504 FOIA · Checked 2026-10-01 · June 30, 2026 snapshot. FY2023–FY2025 approval cohorts with PIF, CHGOFF or EXEMPT status. Broad industry activity, not startup costs, search demand or approval probability.