Parenting Center Business Plan

A Mother’s Place is a new company targeted to open in downtown Santa Cruz. We will provide a family-friendly environment with high quality customer service to meet the daily emotional, physical and social well-being needs of mothers, young children and other family members.

The principal, Emili Willet, the proud mother of a nine-month-old son, wants to fulfill her passion to help and support other mothers in the community. Emili has a Master’s degree in Child Development from Harvard Graduate School and fifteen years of progressive management experience working with children and families. Most recently, she served as Chief of Operations of a childcare management company in the Silicon Valley, and as a Finance Account Manager for the largest corporate childcare center in California for Cisco Systems. The Cisco center was a start-up project to serve over 500 children, and employed 125 teachers and administrators. Emili wants to run a business that will provide a service to families, and that has a fun atmosphere, innovative and top of the line products, a supportive environment and high quality customer service. She feels that Santa Cruz lacks this service, and thus provides an excellent opportunity for her to utilize her skills, expertise and experience in child development and finance management, and at the same time, continue to exercise her passion for working with young children and families.

A Mother’s Place will provide a full range of services, including parenting and childbirthing classes, children’s play programs, “Mommy & Me” classes, fitness and yoga pre-natal classes and coordinated birthday parties.  In addition, it will have a retail store with high-end products for babies and young children.  All of these services and products will be provided by employees who are skilled and experienced with parenting and have child development knowledge.   This place will be the ONLY company in Santa Cruz county that provides all of these services in ONE location with easy access from a freeway, convenient parking and high quality customer service.

Sales projections for A Mother’s Place are estimated to begin at $513,000 in the first year of operation, increasing to $863,000 by the end of the third year. Our net profit will increase over the next three years.

1.1 Objectives

The objectives for A Mother’s Place are outlined below:

1. To demonstrate how quality juvenile products will benefit new mothers and families.
2. To create a family-friendly space that provides pregnancy resources, parenting classes, playgroups and fitness programs.
3. to obtain revenue of $860,000 by the end of third year of operation.
4. To increase sales by 20% per year through superior customer service and word-of-mouth referrals.
5. In retail sales: to have a customer return rate of 60% by the end of first year.

1.2 Goals

In order to achieve these objectives, A Mother’s Place has the following goals:

1. With a strong and viable business:
• The first year of operation will bring in total revenue of $510,000.
• Second year of operation will bring in total revenue of $665,000.
• Third year of operation will bring in total revenue of $860,000.
2. The company will provide services and products that have been rated as “top of the line”, and highly recommended by experts in the child development field.
3. The environment of A Mother’s Place will be inviting, professional, and adhere to the highest quality customer care, promoting a strong customer base in all services the company provides.
4. Sales will increase by 20% from first year to second year, through superior customer service and effective marketing strategies.
5. The return rate of participants in the classes and play programs will be 15% annually.

1.3 Keys to Success

The keys to success in our business are:

• Superior Customer Service: Each employee will have experience with our products, and in parenting.
• Environment: We will provide a clean, upscale, odor-free, enjoyable environment conducive to giving professional trusting service. 
• Feeding support:  We will provide a nursing room to allow mothers to breastfeed or bottle feed their child in a supportive environment, thus allowing them to continue shopping.
• Convenience: We will offer clients a wide range of services in one environment.
• Location: We will provide an easily accessible location and parking for customer convenience.
• Reputation: The principal’s expertise, credibility, integrity, and knowledge from 15+ years experience of working with young children, her Master’s degree in Child Development, and her experience as a mother will establish our high reputation from the beginning. 

1.4 Mission

For the community: A Mother’s Place will provide a family-friendly atmosphere in which customers will gain expertise, resources and emotional and social support through a wide range of services.

For the employees: The company will allow the staff to enjoy the satisfaction of providing quality services to young children and families.

For the business: A Mother’s Place will provide an economically viable business for the principal.