The model
Every number, and where it comes from.
One centre, eight staff, two revenue lines and a fixed cost base you can hold in your head. Move the inputs and the answer moves with them.
Run the centre before you fund it.
Break-even lands at 18% of capacity — 15 ECD learners and 74 learner support members. At full capacity the centre turns R893 333 a month.
Model a centre
One month of trading
- ECD tuition — 60 learners
- R150 000
- Learner support — 360 slots a week
- R312 000
- Affiliate discount — 5%
- (R23 100)
- Revenue
- R438 900
- Rent, VAT and utilities — 240 m²
- (R58 080)
- Delivery staff — 4 × R26 000
- (R104 000)
- Executives — 4 × R33 800
- (R135 200)
- Training benefit — 8 × R5 000
- (R40 000)
- Costs
- (R337 280)
Monthly surplus
R101 620
23% margin
R1 219 440 a year
Capacity
A delivery practitioner is paid R26 000 at this level, an executive R33 800. At full capacity those become R40 000 and R52 000.
The ESD ticket
- 24 months rent, VAT and utilities
- R1 393 920
- Furniture and fit-out
- R150 000
- Mentorship and incubation
- R500 000
- Working capital
- R500 000
- 8 × ECD NQF4 learnerships
- quoted at intake
Total establishment
R2 543 920
Before the skills development component, which is quoted per intake and may be paid separately as SD.
Modelled from the business plan assumptions below. Illustrative, and not an offer, a forecast or a guarantee. A real centre is quoted on a real lease, a real site and a real intake.
Eleven hours of use out of one lease.
Most ECD centres empty at two o'clock and pay rent on an empty building until seven the next morning. The Early Rise day is built the other way round: the same 240 m² and the same 8 people carry a morning programme, an afternoon programme and a weekly seminar.
Staff hours are staggered to cover it — executives 07:00 to 16:00, delivery staff 09:00 to 18:00, 45 hours each.
- 07:00 – 09:00 Reception and delivery — executives on the floor The executive team receives every child and delivers the first two hours. All eight staff are qualified ECD practitioners, so the day opens at the highest ratio it will see.
- 09:00 – 14:00 ECD programme — delivery staff Four delivery practitioners at one to 20. Executives move to executive duties: enrolment, parent seminars, staff development, compliance.
- 14:00 – 18:00 Aftercare and learner support — two slots Two two-hour slots a day, 10 a week. Each practitioner oversees 20 learners as ten peer twinships; 80 seats are available in any one slot.
- Weekly Parent seminar Executives train parents in learner support at home — the quality loop and the enrolment engine in the same room.
Four practitioners set every ceiling in the model.
80
ECD learners
4 delivery staff × 20
80
Seats per aftercare slot
The same four practitioners, after two o’clock
800
Learner-slots a week
80 seats × 10 slots
400
Subscribed members
At the 2-slot weekly minimum
Five readings we had to make — and made in the open.
- VAT is applied to rent, not to utilities.
- The plan reads "R180/m² + VAT + utilities @35/m²", so VAT sits on the rent line only. Occupancy comes to R58 080 a month for 240 m².
- Floor area is set by peak concurrency, not by total enrolment.
- The largest number of learners on the floor at one time is 80 — the ECD roll and a full aftercare slot are the same size. At 2 + 0.5 + 0.5 m² each, that is 240 m².
- Paid capacity is the average of the two programmes.
- Staff bonuses run off "paid capacity". We read that as the average of ECD occupancy and aftercare slot occupancy, so neither programme can carry the bonus on its own.
- The ECD programme does not break even on its own.
- At a full ECD roll of 80 and no aftercare, fees reach R200 000 a month against a cost base that has already passed it. Learner support is not an add-on in this model — it is what makes the morning affordable.
- The timetable, not the market, caps the afternoon.
- 800 learner-slots a week is the ceiling: 80 seats × 10 slots. At the 2-slot minimum that is 400 subscribed members. Beyond it, the answer is a second centre.
The whole business plan, on one page.
What families pay
- ECD tuition
- R2 500 per learner per month
- Aftercare / learner support
- R200 per two-hour slot
- Minimum subscription
- 2 slots a week
- Affiliate discount
- 5% per referred child, per month attended and paid
- Weeks per month
- 52 ÷ 12 = 4.33 — how weekly slot income becomes monthly
The building
- Teaching floor
- 2 m² per learner present in a slot
- Office
- 0.5 m² per learner
- Common areas
- 0.5 m² per learner
- Total footprint
- 240 m² at peak concurrency
- Rent
- R180 per m² plus VAT at 15%
- Utilities
- R35 per m²
- Occupancy cost
- R58 080 a month, all in
- Furniture
- R150 000, once
The people
- Establishment
- 4 executives, 4 delivery practitioners
- Hours
- 45 a week — nine a day, five days
- Executives
- 07:00–16:00
- Delivery staff
- 09:00–18:00
- Ratio
- 1 : 20
- Base pay
- R5 000 a month
- At full paid capacity
- R40 000 delivery, R52 000 executive (+30%)
- Training benefit
- R5 000 per staff member per month, once the centre is profitable
The establishment cost
- Rent carried
- 24 months
- Furniture
- R150 000
- Mentorship and incubation
- R500 000
- Working capital
- R500 000
- Learnerships
- 8, quoted per intake