Setting up a nursery

[Gangle]

This is a bit of a bonkers idea but have started to look at nurseries for DS 20 months and finding that there is a HUGE gap in the market for good nurseries in North London, especially bilingual or French speaking ones. I've been far from impressed from the few nurseries I have visited and started to wonder what was involved in setting up our own nursery. I have several friends in the same position who may also be interested. Is is worth looking into or an entirely bonkers idea?

I've been looking for a suitable site for the last two years, the last one I looked at Planning scuppered it by insisting they put barriers in the street, and wanting air purification tests etc. It's a nightmare finding the right location and fulfilling all planning constraints and extremely expensive I reckon a 40 place nursery will cost between 250 - 300K all in. You may be better off buying one already up and running that has expansion potential. Won't even start on Ofsted local LA requirements thats a whole different story, but the main issue is it can take Ofsted up to 26wks to register so potentially you will have premises / staff and pay overheads for upto 6months without earning a bean.