Nailing Your Center Systems: 6 Things to Make Your School Attractive to Buyers

We have a saying at HINGE: “It’s best to sell when you’re performing well!” This should sound obvious to most business owners—your business is always most attractive to buyers when its firing on all cylinders. This means your business runs well day to day, you have a reliable team in place, your facility is well taken care of, and you have sufficient systems working to enhance your programs.

Having all of your systems and processes buttoned up in advance of your potential sale can save you a lot of stress and give you peace of mind. Here’s where we suggest you get started:

1. Staff Paperwork
   Many states granted quite a bit of leniency during Covid, including conducting virtual inspections and looking over fewer documents. Did your school drop the ball during this time? Paperwork can drive us all crazy, so make sure to follow the old adage and “touch each paper once.” Upload important documents to your HR platform so you always have them at your fingertips. Use a system like DocuSign to save time and ensure your documents are reviewed, signed, and submitted prior to new staff starting.
   

2. Children and Family Information
   Files for children and families should also be uploaded to appropriate platforms and flagged to remind you when updates are needed. Take the time now to get these organized and consider the use of DocuSign or similar for parent agreements, contracts, and other essential documents. Make sure all child and family hard copy paperwork is secured in a locked file cabinet and anything uploaded to a platform is password protected. Pro Tip: Add cyber security to your insurance policy.
   

3. Hiring Processes
   Automating your hiring systems will make your life much easier as you prepare to go through the selling process. Be sure your hiring ads are consistently updated and you have a steady flow of interested candidates that you can hire, onboard, and train quickly.
   

4. Financial Systems
   It is always important to keep financial information up-to-date, especially regarding tuition billing, deposits, and past due accounts. Both parents/guardians' payment information should be current, ACH accounts correct, and billing systems set to automate as frequently as possible. ProCare, Kangarootime, Intellikids, and other billing platforms have many filters designed to help catch errors quickly.
   

5. Enrollment Processes
   A customer relationship management, or CRM, system can filter interested leads into your sales pipeline and automate enrollment building for your school. Just make sure to set a process for following up with leads and getting them in for tours. You can use your platform's filters to target particular ages, start dates, and schedules so you are full at all times. Schools with CRM systems are particularly attractive to buyers.
   

6. Website
   Is your website up-to-date and representative of your brand? Buyers researching your school will likely start with your website. Update your Covid protocols and hours of operation. Call out any enhancements you’ve made with Covid funding. Add current photographs of your staff, facility and children (with permission, of course.) We suggest investing in photography that shows off your school’s people, classrooms, and outdoor spaces while reflecting your brand and quality. You can also use these photos for CRM campaigns, hiring and enrollment ads, and parent thank you gifts.

If you want more information on how you can tighten up your systems and processes to become more attractive to potential buyers, contact Kathe Petchel from our Client Relations team at kpetchel@hingeadvisors.com. Kathe is always happy to hop on a call for a consultation.