From my own operating experience

Our family childcare company grew to 14 centers and at one point 10 brands, owning some buildings and renting others. We were serving up to about 2,400 children.

Over time, the number of children supported by subsidy funding in some markets kept shrinking. Some centers were opened or taken on knowing that funding was uncertain, and in some places the funding simply dried up.

We looked at each center honestly and prayed through every decision. We sold the ones where the funding was not there and got out of them. None of the sold locations became competing childcare centers.

We simplified how we operated, including moving away from running our own food distribution to using grocery delivery services, which cost less and asked less of our team.

We also worked through a real challenge with multiple brands in the same towns: each brand needed to be clear about who it served, and our teams needed to measure each brand against its own goals instead of against each other.

We are at 11 centers and over 1,600 children, and we are more profitable with fewer centers and fewer children. We are not full, and we are working on that right now.

We will go down as far as we need to and grow as far as we can. What matters is loving the children first and keeping them safe.

Growth is not the goal. Adapting is. Good decisions in childcare depend on knowing your numbers, your markets, and your funding, and being willing to change.