To help people with a passion for early child development start a child care business, Coastal Enterprises, Inc. is offering its Child Care Business Lab for a fourth consecutive year. CEI is currently accepting applications for the 2023 Child Care Business Lab, which will begin in March. Applications are open to anyone living in Maine and are due on March 4.
“The time is right to start a child care business in Maine,” said Jennifer Sporzynski, SVP, Business and Workforce Development at CEI. “An unprecedented amount of grant funding is available through Gov. Mills’ Maine Jobs & Recovery Act to help people start and grow child care businesses. Securing a grant reduces the amount of money someone needs to borrow and ensures they start their business on firm financial footing.”
The Child Care Business Lab is a six-month cohort or group-based program that provides entrepreneurs with the tools they need to open a successful child care service — from creating a business plan to developing policies to securing start-up funds and coaching through the licensing process. Three groups are starting in March: people interested in opening a home-based child care business (Family Child Care Group), people interested in opening a child care facility located in a commercial building (Facility Child Care Group) and English language learners in Lewiston (Lewiston Group).
The Family Child Care and Facility Child Care programs consist of workshops conducted live via Zoom, in-person sessions, on-demand online learning sessions, one-on-one meetings with a business advisor and personalized coaching sessions with a child care mentor. Each program will include people interested in starting for-profit, nonprofit and cooperative child care businesses. At the conclusion of the program, participants will have completed all the requirements to be licensed.
The program is offered free to all participants, thanks to funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Bill and Joan Alfond Foundation, the John T. Gorman Foundation, the Maine Community Foundation and the Lumina Foundation.
The application and more information are available on the CEI website at ceimaine.org.
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