From IT to nursery owner

Dilpreet Singh has always been passionate about the importance of education and planned to start a school in India when he was younger. Now, after a career in IT and after becoming a dad, he is going back to his first love and starting a nursery.

Dilpreet studied IT and telecommunications in India and did his master’s in the UK before working for Open Reach and then moving to the education sector, working on HR and learning management systems at Queen Mary University of London, where he had studied.

He says he needed to get ‘established’ before he could pursue his dream. In the meantime, he was trying to start a family with his wife. They went through IVF without success and then started the adoption process for his son. 

As part of the process they were encouraged to visit a nursery. It was a lightbulb moment for Dilpreet. Starting a school seemed an unlikely prospect at the time, but maybe he could set up a nursery and give children the fundamental skills and foundations that would stand them in good stead throughout their education. 

He started saving funds and raising money. Dilpreet picked the Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery franchise after doing his research. Although a franchise is not cheap, [Franchise costs vary, but the initial franchise fee is £40,000 + VAT and franchisees need significantly more liquid capital to invest in the business] Dilpreet thought a franchise would offer him the support he needed in a sector where there are so many compliance and safeguarding issues and that they could hold his hand, given he had no experience in the sector.

Franchise support

Dilpreet started his franchisee journey last March. He then had to identify a site for his nursery and get planning permission, have surveys done and sort out legal issues. The lease agreement was signed in summer 2023 and building work began. Dilpreet said that his life became busier and busier as the opening approached in June. 

Initially, he was running the nursery alongside his IT job but by January this year he realised he needed to be on site and couldn’t do both jobs at the same time. He left his job in March to put his total focus on the business.  

Dilpreet says Monkey Puzzle has been very supportive. He praises in particular the excellent quality manager who checks in regularly and the franchise manager who visits monthly.  He also talks about the help he received with finding a site and dealing with planning issues. In addition he was impressed by the marketing and training support. Monkey Puzzle did all the initial marketing work.  He adds that the Monkey Puzzle name helps to draw parents as they know it is a quality brand. Other franchisees also offer advice and pool resources, for instance, the bring down uniform costs. 

Asked what has been the most challenging aspect of the business so far, Dilpreet says he found appointing a manager very stressful and that, despite the government recruitment campaign, it was hard to find the right person with the right experience. While he acknowledges that pay is an issue when it comes to recruiting staff, he believes a bigger one is wellbeing. He is keen to show staff members that he cares about them and two members of staff have their children at the nursery at a large discount. He says: “We can grow rapidly, but not build staff rapport, or we can do it slowly and focus on staff wellbeing. Employing people is a responsibility. I want to keep my staff so they are my main focus.”

‘Free’ childcare expansion

There have been a lot of reports about the problems facing the childcare sector of late and worries that expanding ‘free’ childcare to nine month olds from September will make the sector’s staffing and funding problems worse. 

Dilpreet says the term ‘free childcare’ confuses parents and creates certain expectations. “The term should be ‘discounted’,” he says, adding that many nurseries in the Wokingham area where he is based only take children for four or five days a week because of the funding issues. The ‘free’ funding for children of eligible parents under three is only for 15 hours a week in term time and they can only afford that if parents are able to pay for extra hours. Dilpreet, however, offers two days a week for younger children. 

He is also critical of the fact that different councils offer nurseries different rates and that the pre-school rate is so low compared to babies, meaning the ‘free’ hours are a loss-maker for nurseries unless three and four year olds do more than the 30 subsidised hours a week. He says Monkey Puzzle has helped him to understand the pros and cons of the new expansion policy, which came in just after he had become a franchisee, and to negotiate his way around it.

Dilpreet thinks it is important to educate parents about how the system works and about what nurseries are for: not just childcare, but preparing children for school and for life, giving them the skills they need for the future and building their confidence. He also has to explain to them that, although the nursery has a small garden, it makes the most of that space and supplements it with regular outings. “We turn the negatives into positives,” he says. 

Dilpreet says he is enjoying his new role, although he is not drawing a salary yet. He is already thinking about future growth, but says: “We’re still a baby. We’re still learning to walk, still crawling. Once we start running we will grow.”

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