Buying a child care center in Orlando and Central Florida

• Rooms full or nearly full, with a waitlist, especially preschool rooms, where each teacher can look after more children.
• A credentialed director who isn't the owner and plans to stay.
• Several years of clean inspections.
• A healthy mix of private tuition and VPK, so the center doesn't depend on state rates.
• Teachers who have been there for years, and pay that keeps them.
• Accreditation and the state's Gold Seal Quality Care designation, which brings higher School Readiness payment rates.
• A building, playground and kitchen in good shape, with a long lease or owned property.
• Tuition collected on time by autopay, with little owed by families who have left.

• Inspection reports. Read several years of them, and ask how each finding was fixed. Serious violations can also cost a center its Gold Seal.
• Enrollment. Compare each room's enrollment with its licensed capacity and actual attendance, and check unpaid tuition.
• Public funding. The state and the coalition set VPK and School Readiness rates, not you. Know how much revenue depends on them.
• Credentials. Find out who holds the director and staff credentials. If those people leave at the sale, you may be out of compliance on day one.
• Insurance and incidents. Review liability coverage (including abuse coverage, and vehicle coverage if the center transports children) and any claims or complaints.
• The building. The license is tied to the location. Check fire inspections, zoning, the playground and the lease term.
• Storms. Ask whether families kept paying through past hurricane closures, and what happened to VPK and School Readiness payments.

• How full is each room today, and how long is the waitlist?
• Who holds the director credential, and are your credentialed teachers planning to stay?
• What has come up in inspections over the last few years, and how did you fix it?
• How much of your revenue comes from VPK and School Readiness, and how much from private tuition?
• When did you last raise tuition, and how do your rates compare with centers nearby?
• How often do teachers leave, and how do you find new ones?
• Have there been any incidents, parent complaints or insurance claims involving children?

This region covers Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Sumter and Marion counties: Orlando, Winter Park, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, Sanford, Clermont, Leesburg, Ocala and the large retirement communities of Sumter and Lake counties. Tourism is what the area is best known for, built on the theme parks, the hotels, the vacation rental homes around Kissimmee and the Orange County Convention Center. It's far from the only business. The University of Central Florida and the military simulation and training offices near it support a technology base, and health care is a major employer.

Marion County is horse country, with thoroughbred farms around Ocala, and it has added warehouses and distribution centers along Interstate 75. Retirees in Sumter and Lake create steady demand for medical practices, home care, home maintenance and auto services. The building trades, restaurants, and companies that serve hotels and rental homes do well across the region.

Central Florida is inland, so storm surge isn't the worry it is on the coasts. Hurricanes still bring wind damage and flooding, though: Hurricane Ian flooded neighborhoods in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties in 2022. Ask whether the business or its customers were affected.

Tourism keeps demand steadier through the year than in markets that depend on winter residents, with busy stretches around school holidays. Hotels, parks and restaurants compete hard for workers, which pushes up wages for any company that hires hourly staff. New homes have spread fast in Osceola, south Lake and southeast Orange counties and around Ocala, so check whether a company's customers are in growing areas or older ones. Traffic on Interstate 4 limits how much ground a service company can cover in a day.