What are the most important factors to consider while you are setting up your own preschool?

By Sanket Phadke

Setting up your Preschool is a huge commitment and requires a lot of insight, as we all know. And to kickstart your successful Preschool brand, your drive and passion for your Preschool is enough as long as you have these 5 things in mind!

So let’s get started and understand what you need to do before setting up your Preschool business.

1. Choosing the RIGHT location:

No matter how much time you take to finalize the location and the property for your Preschool, it is always good to wait instead of settling down on just any other property. Whenever you choose a location, ensure the people staying in that locality have a good paying capacity. Do your homework and study the competition. It is very important to know what other brands are charging, how big is their infrastructure, how huge is their play area, how many kids do they have in a batch, so on and so forth.

Once you have done enough homework and decided on the locality, it is then equally important to choose the right property. The most important factor is to ensure there is good visibility of your school premises. It’s not necessary for you to choose a property right on the main road, but you must choose a location which is visible enough to people. Your marketing spend will reduce to almost half, if the premises of your school is visible. Do not choose a property which is situated in the interiors.

2. Hiring the RIGHT people:

A Preschool is a service driven business and quality has to speak. When you hire teachers, do not compromise on quality. Communication is a must when you hire a teacher. If the teacher herself isn't fluent in English, you are just inviting trouble. When parents come in for an inquiry, it is always a good idea to introduce your teachers to them. Moreover, teachers are the ones who become the face of the school for parents. A few points which you need to consider while hiring teachers are;

• Should possess excellent communication skills
• Should speak fluent English
• Should be presentable
• Should be friendly
• Should have at least 6 months to 1 year teaching experience

Choosing the right support staff is also equally important. For instance, even if the maids are not fluent in english, teach them a few English greetings like, "Good Morning, Good Evening, Thank you, Welcome, Have a nice day, etc." which they can use while interacting with the parents and the children too.

3. Allotting the RIGHT marketing budget:

The biggest mistakes preschool entrepreneurs make is that they allot a considerably low budget for Marketing. When you are new in the market, your brand will need enough marketing to ensure people know of your presence. Do not show that you are "Admissions Hungry" through your marketing activities. Spend on branding activities where you create a brand and not sell it.

4. RIGHT positioning of your brand:

Do not underestimate your potential in running a preschool. It's very important to trust yourself. You have taken a decision of starting a preschool because you are passionate about it.
When you decide on the fee structure, do enough homework on how much your​ competition is charging. Remember that prospective parents don't take a decision of registering their child in a school on the basis of the school fees. They will always have a budget and accordingly will look for a preschool brand.
For eg. If Mr. Amit has a budget of Rs.70,000 for his child's preschool admission, he will look out for preschools around him which are charging a fee in the range of Rs.60,000 to Rs.70,000. He won’t enquire at a preschool which charges Rs.15,000 or which charges Rs.1,25,000.
As a result, if you charge an annual fee of Rs.70,000, you are positioning your brand for the B category considering A, B and C categories with A being a low fee category and C being a higher fee category. Accordingly, you ought to offer services to the category you are positioning yourself. Parents should see the value for the amount they pay and you must show them it through your various USPs.

5. Maintaining the RIGHT parent connect:

All your marketing efforts are needed only in the first year of your operations. Once you have a base of 40 admissions in the first year, you will have an additional 40 enrolments in the second year through word of mouth, provided you are able to give that quality of service to the parents in the first year. However, most preschools do not consider this and hence feel the need of extensive marketing in the second year as well.

Remember that the kids who enrol in your preschool in the first year become your brand ambassadors. These kids are not your customers, they are your consumers. Their parents are your customers, and if you keep these 40 parents happy, they will spread word about your Preschool brand amongst their friends and relatives.

At Creative31Minds, we are always here to help you in setting up your Preschool effectively and with much less hassle. Our My Preschool portal caters to every need that a budding Preschool Owner has. Right from setting up your marketing plans, maintaining communication with your parents, updating them about tests and assignments through the app, developing the right curriculum to providing you with guidance through our Preschool Coach guidance videos, we have got you covered!

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