Lexington, SC Daycare Center Financing: Nap Cots, Cribs and Classroom Furniture

An infant room has its own shopping list: cribs, changing tables, bottle warmers, a refrigerator for labeled bottles, gliders for the staff who feed and rock. A kitchen that serves breakfast, lunch and snacks needs a commercial dishwasher, a range and cold storage. Each of those is a priced item that a financing request can name.

Enrollment swings are the other half of the money picture. A family moves away, a sibling ages into the pre-K room, a new room opens with half its spots filled. Working capital covers payroll and food costs while tuition catches up with the staffing plan.

Payroll is the large line in child care. The 59 child day care establishments in Lexington County, SC paid $19.1 million in 2023 wages to 751 employees, about $25,406 per person and 12.7 people per provider (CBP; our arithmetic).

Growth for a child care provider takes three shapes. A new classroom inside leased space needs furniture, cubbies, cots, toys and learning materials. A passenger van for school pickups and field trips is equipment with a dealer quote. A second location is the larger step, and term financing with a fixed monthly payment can cover its equipment, furniture and added payroll.

Buying the building for a new location is a property purchase and stays outside this site; leasing it and outfitting the rooms are in scope.

Small payrolls are the exception in this line of work: 12 of the 59 establishments under Child Day Care Services had fewer than five employees in Lexington County, SC in 2023, or 20.3% (CBP). A second location means another staff roster, hired before the new rooms fill.

Classroom equipment covers more than tables and chairs: cubbies, shelving, rest mats and nap cots, sensory tables, art easels, and the tablets or check-in system parents use at the door. A kitchen's refrigerator and range, and a van for pickups, are separate equipment quotes. All of it fits an equipment loan request when it comes on a vendor quote.

Illustration only, invented figures: a $28,000 classroom furniture and equipment package at 10% over 60 months comes to $594.92 a month and $35,695.20 over the term. Spread across 60 enrolled children, the payment is about $2.29 per child per week.

Added cribs and cots work the same way. When a classroom needs more cribs, new cots or added equipment, the items go on a quote and into the request. Staffing is a separate cost: new teachers are paid from working capital, not from an equipment loan.

A funding partner reviewing a child care request can ask how full the rooms are and how steady that is. Answers on paper make the conversation shorter.

• Enrollment by room for the past twelve months, with open spots marked
• The waitlist, if there is one, and how long families wait
• How tuition is collected: weekly, monthly, by autopay or by check
• The share of tuition paid by agencies or employers, and how many days those payments take
• Staff hired or planned for each room
• The lease: term left, renewal option and monthly rent

Illustration only, invented figures: 6 open infant spots at $260 a week in tuition leave $1,560 a week unbilled, about $6,760 a month, while the infant teachers are already on payroll. That monthly figure is the size of the enrollment gap a working capital request would cover.

Payroll and kitchen equipment are the two costs a child care provider cannot put off. Teachers are paid every week or two whatever the enrollment, and a broken dishwasher or walk-in cooler stops meal service the same day. Equipment financing replaces the kitchen equipment, and working capital carries payroll.

Illustration only, invented figures: a provider with a $9,800 biweekly payroll waits 30 days on agency tuition payments. Depending on where the first payday falls, that wait spans 2 or 3 payrolls, $19,600 to $29,400 paid before the agency money arrives.

Two more Census counts round out the picture. The 2024 Nonemployer Statistics list 331 child care businesses in Lexington County, SC with no paid employees (NAICS 62441), and 2023 ZIP Code Business Patterns show 14 child day care establishments at a ZIP 29072 address. Other health and care practices are on the industries page; area figures are on the Lexington, SC page.