How much will it cost?
Nurseries can be bought from anything from £20,000 for one that has been run in a rented hall, where you're buying the name and goodwill, and up to millions for a purpose-built freehold property with staff and a list of names waiting for places. A typical price with freehold is more likely to be in the hundreds of thousands range though. The best place to start searching for a nursery on the market is through agencies or the trade press or on websites. In terms of agencies Yorkshire agency Dowling Kerr is one of the largest in the UK with hundreds of nurseries on its books and it's a good place to start. The price you pay depends on how many children the nursery is registered for.
Revenue
Prices will vary across the country, becoming most expensive in the South East. It will also vary according to how old the children are, as it costs more to look after babies than toddlers in terms of staff and area.
A total of 75 per cent of your fees from the children go on fixed costs. Staff and premises are likely to be the biggest costs but food, nappies and equipment all add up.
So a successful nursery could generate a good profit of a couple of tens of thousands plus, depending upon how many children you have and where your business is based. But remember that many of the costs are fixed, so expansion is the only way to grow the business.