Are you ready to make 2023 the most successful year yet for your Early Childhood Education business? We’re kicking off the new year with ten actionable ways you can set your childcare business up for success this year and beyond. Read on to find out more. 

The new year is a perfect time for channeling new energy and focus into your business. Check out the following strategies for running a successful company this year. Let us know which ones you’re going to implement by leaving us a comment at the end of the article. We’d love to hear from you!

1. Re-Evaluate Your Mission and Vision

The clean slate a new year provides is ideal for re-evaluating your mission and vision for your Early Childhood Education business. Remember, your company’s mission statement summarizes what you do, who you do it for, and why. Here’s an example of a mission statement for a childcare business:

Little Learners Academy exists to provide the highest quality education and care for children from birth through five years in order to help them grow and develop to their full potential. 

Your company’s vision statement summarizes where your company aspires to go and serves as a forward-thinking declaration of what you hope to build into the future. Here’s an example of a vision statement for a childcare business:

Sweet Angels Daycare aspires to build upon our growing reputation as the leader of quality childcare for infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children in Western New York. 

Once you have created, re-evaluated, or refreshed your company mission and vision, be sure to communicate them with your employees, the families you serve, and the public. 

2. Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals 

Setting goals in the new year comes with the territory as an entrepreneur. We recommend abiding by the time-tested acronym, “S.M.A.R.T.” goals, which means when you set goals for your childcare business, they should be:

• Specific – Clear, concise, and well-defined
• Measurable – Able to be evaluated based on useful metrics 
• Achievable – Attainable outcomes
• Realistic – Within reach and relevant  
• Timely – Set with a start date and end date in mind 

Instead of setting goals for the entire year, opt for a shorter timeframe, such as quarterly increments, to give yourself the opportunity to check in, re-evaluate, and set new goals as needed. 

3. Optimize Your Schedule with a Planner or Calendar

Make the most of your schedule by keeping track of appointments, meetings, deadlines, and other timely information with a planner or calendar. Whether you keep a hard copy planner or calendar, or choose an electronic or online version, be consistent about using these tools to organize your days, weeks, and months for the year ahead. We recommend keeping your calendar accessible, writing down all the essential information pertaining to an event (date, time, location, and purpose), and setting reminders for yourself so you don’t forget important upcoming to-do’s. 

4. Check in with the Professionals 

The beginning of the calendar year is a good time to check in with professionals who support your business operations, including your accountant and lawyer. Prioritize meeting with your CPA as early as possible ahead of tax season, your accountant’s busiest time of year. Touching base in January can help you make tax preparations and look ahead to the new fiscal year and plan accordingly. 

5. Consider Your Budget

Looking back on last year’s budget, honestly evaluate how things went for your company financially. What worked well? What needs to change in 2023? Here are some practical tips to implement with your business budget in the new year: 

• Work with a professional accounting service. An accountant can help you clean up your books and create easy reports that you can access on-demand, streamline your invoicing and receivables so you can save time, decrease errors, and create seamless cash flow, manage your payroll processing, help you with tax preparation and compliance, help you with quarterly and annual forecasting, and much more. 

• Review your business budget on a regular basis. Make time once a week, or at the very least once a month, to review your books. Use this time to go over your financial statements, reconcile bank statements, enter any missed transactions, and more. Regular check-ins with your financials will make it easier for you to keep your books up-to-date and stay on track with your budget. 

• Keep business and personal expenses separate. If you don’t already do this, the new year is the right time to start. Separating business and personal expenses makes good financial sense. Doing so helps you avoid mixing up transactions, and if you run a corporation or LLC, you won’t be held personally liable for business debts, which could be the case if you mix business spending with personal spending. 

Read more tips for optimizing your business finances in 2023 here and here. 

6. Organize Your Workspace

One straightforward and sometimes overlooked way to set yourself up for success in the year ahead is to organize your workspace. Clear the clutter, minimize mess, and reduce overwhelm by carving out some time to ready your workspace for the new year. Organize and file documents, shred obsolete paperwork, and clean and tidy your desk. Give some attention to your digital workspace too by going through your email inbox, unsubscribing to unnecessary emails, following up on pending communication, organizing digital files, updating usernames and passwords, ensuring your digital information is properly stored and updated, and so on. These small tasks add up to a much more enjoyable, streamlined, and efficient workspace for you, which means more productivity and better outcomes in 2023. 

7. Update Your Website

January is an ideal time to update your childcare company website. Do inventory on your business website and make updates to the existing information as needed. Did you refresh your mission and vision statements, make changes to your hours of operations, take new professional photos of your team, or add services to your current childcare offerings? Now is the right time to note these changes on your website to reflect the most up-to-date information for existing and potential clients. 

8. Invest in Your Childcare Center 

Looking forward to the year ahead, assess how you can invest in your childcare center facility. Budget and plan for modest improvement projects, like equipment upgrades, repairs, replacements, redecorating, and so on. Also consider whether it’s in your best interest to make capital improvements, like a new playground or roof for your facility. Talk with your accountant about how you can budget for this year’s projects and whether there are any tax implications to consider. 

9. Invest in Your Team  

In addition to investing in your childcare center, ask yourself how you can invest in your employees. Do you need to make any new hires to ensure your business is operating at its full potential? What about your current employees? How can you meet their needs for morale, communication, ongoing training and professional development, a great work culture, and unity as a team? The time, effort, and resources you invest in your team will prove invaluable to you in the new year. After all, your team members are the people who can help propel your childcare company to new levels of success if you invest in them. 

10. Invest in Yourself 

Finally, remember to invest in yourself this year. What makes you feel fulfilled personally and professionally? How can you take care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially so you can be at your best and thrive in 2023? Only you know what fills you up. And only you know what drains you. Figuring out your strengths and weaknesses, learning how to set boundaries, and having realistic expectations for yourself can help you grow and flourish. 

We hope you will implement some or all of these ten strategies for success in the year ahead! The Honest Buck Accounting team enjoys partnering with childcare business owners by providing a variety of professional accounting services. Reach out to us today!