I Am Lean LLC

SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strength Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats. Now SWOT analysis has been around for years helping business owners of all sizes prepare better strategies to run their organizations. However, SWOT a newer method for daycare business owners to adopt because they typically do not run their business using annual strategy sessions. Childcare businesses have the same pressures as other businesses to compete for clients who compare and contrast one daycare program over the other. And like any other business, a daycare could use a more structured way to set goals and objectives for the coming year.

The purpose of this article is to teach you:

But before we get started, welcome if you are new to I Am Lean. We help daycare owners spend less time in the center to pursue other passions. We care about helping daycare owners systematize their daycare operations which include their strategy each year, operating procedures, and training plans. Out of my care to give small businesses in my neighborhood the same advantage that big businesses have, I decided to quit my corporate job and start I Am Lean. Lean is a methodology that saves time, energy, and space, the three things that once spent is very hard or impossible to get back. 

Want to know more? I invite you to accept our free gift and book one of our live demonstration sessions.

Why is a SWOT Analysis important to complete for your daycare business?

A daycare like any other business has blind spots, areas of threat, concern, or opportunity that can have a profound effect on the business if ignored. For example, if the daycare owner was not made aware that an elementary school was built across the street from the daycare, this blind spot could represent several possibilities for the daycare. It could be a threat if the school was also going to offer a preK program. It could be an opportunity to partner if they wanted children who attend the daycare to then attend their school. It could be a strength to have school so close to their location. Or it could be a weakness if the school specialized in performing arts, but the daycare didn’t offer any performing arts classes as a feeder program for the school.

A SWOT analysis would be perfect to consider these blind spots and carefully plan how the daycare will overcome them. This is an excellent time to listen to what staff has to say because they hear from parents day in and day out about what is and isn’t working. You may find out that many parents have been keeping kids home due to lack of transportation or many parents are late due to limited transportation. Knowing this information could lead to the opportunity of your daycare providing transportation as an option for parents.

When in the planning process should SWOT Analysis be completed for your daycare business?

A SWOT Analysis should be done before the year begins. For Daycare businesses this may mean from the beginning of the school year, September to June, or August to May. The SWOT Analysis is your guidance for how to have a successful year, the projects that will be completed, the effort and body of work that should be done. Therefore, you need to plan to start and complete the SWOT before your year begins.

A SWOT Analysis should be completed after the reflection portion in the strategy planning process. If your daycare has never created a strategy or completed a reflection, don’t be alarmed as this is all new territory for the daycare industry. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, a daycare is still a business that has to function and earn a profit. Proper strategy planning is vital for running any profitable business.

In the summer or near the beginning of the school year, put out any project plans that were completed. Compare the plans to the goals that were set in a meeting with staff and leaders. Ask yourself what went well, what didn’t go well, and why. The answers to these questions will be great preparation for the SWOT Analysis portion of the planning.

Who To Invite to the SWOT Analysis Session

A good SWOT Analysis will be made up of all the people who can help you answer the following questions: What are our strengths? What are out weaknesses? What are our opportunities? What are our threats?

• You are definitely going to invite your center’s advisors or board of directors, if you have one, because they bring to the table industry wide knowledge, concepts, statutes, and experience.
• Your staff and/or leadership team should also be invited.
• You should be sure to invite everyone who helped lead a project from the previous year, even past contractors.
• You should also invite your financial advisor or any other extended team members as they will have valuable insight to share.
• You may even consider inviting a parent or two to attend the SWOT Analysis to hear about the things that they value and feel like you are good or weak at.

If you would like me to post an article teaching you how to do a reflection session or specifically why you need to invite certain people, please leave a comment.

How to prepare for the SWOT Analysis Session

The daycare owner will choose a facilitator for the session. It is important that the daycare owner is not the facilitator because we want them to participate as much as possible. The daycare owner can then schedule a meeting with staff and board members and notify the facilitator of the date, time, and location. Ensure to plan plenty of time. 2-4 hours is sufficient to hold the session from start to finish. The meeting should be in a large conference room with plenty of wall space. The goal is for everyone to collaborate to share ideas for what are the daycare strengths, the daycare weaknesses, the daycare opportunities, and the daycare threats.

Before the SWOT Analysis session begins, the facilitator should host a reflection session to discuss the goals from the previous year, the projects completed, and how the year ended off. Bring your reflection information to the SWOT Analysis Session and post it on the wall for review. If you would like me to post an article teaching you how to do a reflection session, please leave a comment.

Next post the strategy metrics for the upcoming school year. If you need help deciding on metrics or creating a strategy please leave me a comment or contact me. The facilitator should create an agenda for the meeting ensuring to divide up the time into twelve parts. Here is what a sample agenda might look like:

1. Reflection Review
2. New Year’s Clear Direction Statement and Metrics
3. Introduction to SWOT Analysis and Today’s Activities
4. Rotation 1: SWOT
5. Rotation 2: SWOT
6. Rotation 3: SWOT
7. Rotation 4: SWOT
8. Lunch Break
9. Strength Review
10. Weakness Review
11. Opportunities Review
12. Threats Review

Once the meeting is scheduled, the room is book, and the agenda sent out to everyone’s calendar, the facilitator can gather the following supplies: 1 Pack of 3M Wall pads. (These are especially my favorite since I used to work in the Post-It Note laboratory at 3M), markers, post-it notes, and order food for the staff. Finally ensure that you have a time keeper or something to buzz or beep.

How to Host The SWOT Analysis

On the day of the SWOT Analysis, the facilitator can post one wall pad on each side of the room. Label each one with a different letter of SWOT. Make sure the reflection is posted as well as the metrics for the upcoming school year. Set a space for the food and ensure to tell everyone what time the food will be served.

Begin with the agenda and follow it. The reflection is up first on our mock agenda. You just want to give everyone a review of what you found. Next, introduce the team to the clear direction statement and this year’s metrics. Then explain to them what a SWOT analysis is. Tell them that they will be divided into four groups and each given packs of post-it notes and markers. Tell them that when the timer starts they will have at least 10 minutes to post their ideas on their wall pad. When the timer buzzes or beeps, they are to move clockwise to the next wall pad and post their ideas.

This is one way to facilitate the meeting. Another way is to have the team focus on one wall pad at a time and have everyone write post-its then put them on the wall pad. The facilitator could then group the post-it notes together in an affinity exercise then have the team report out on what the group came up with.

Repeat this process, following the agenda until all of the letters of SWOT have been reviewed.

Setting Goals for Your Daycare Business

Now that you’ve completed the reflection portion and SWOT analysis with your staff and leaders, you can use the data and information you’ve collected to create projects and expand metrics. If you have never chosen metrics for your daycare business, you can select metrics in the following categories: Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, People. These are the indicators that every business can use to determine how they are doing year over year. I have found daycare businesses to also have metrics in the categories of Communication, Curriculum, and Social as well.

Come up with at least one metric to track within each category. For example, in the category of safety, your reflection could have shown you that 30 children who had injuries that required more than 1st aide last year. The SWOT Analysis could have further indicated that several parents withdrew their children due to safety concerns. You can set a goal this year to reduce the number of severe injuries by 70%. Your staff could then come up with project or policy ideas that would address the root cause of the injuries based on what was discovered in the SWOT analysis.

For more information about how to implement standards into your childcare business check out this article , watch this free video.

If you are eager to dive deeper into this topic and get results faster I invite you to accept our free gift and book one of our live demonstration sessions.