Helping you build a successful child care business.
Child care businesses prop up our economy. You are the workforce behind the workforce. You prepare our youngest citizens to be socially adept lifelong learners.
We’re here to help you achieve your dream of child care ownership. Since the 1970s, CEI has financed or advised more than 175 child care businesses. We’ve used that experience to design the Child Care Business Lab and the Child Care Investment Fund.
Since 2020, nearly 30 Child Care Business Lab graduates have opened businesses, creating more than 580 child care spaces.
So we’re ready to help you start & grow a financially sustainable child care business.
THE CHILD CARE BUSINESS LAB
Have you ever wanted to start a child care business & weren’t sure how?
Our Child Care Business Lab was designed for you.
Do you have a passion for helping children learn & grow – and do you want to learn more about the business details of running a child care?
Are you wondering how to make sure your child care business is profitable? Would you like to be coached through the licensing process?
At the CEI Child Care Business Lab, we help people just like you start new quality child care businesses in Maine.
Above all, we want to help you open a child care that meets the unique needs of your community and reflects your personal values. And you won’t have to do it alone.
Entreprenuers often say that starting a new business can feel isolating. For this reason, the Child Care Business Lab is cohort-based.
This means you’ll be learning & exploring in a group, alongside others across the State with similar goals. By joining the Child Care Business Lab, you will be part of an interactive, engaging community – establishing relationships that may last for decades. You’ll be developing a network of colleagues to bounce ideas with. We’re here for you before you open & after you open – to help you & your child care business thrive.
Our Child Care Programming
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“My biggest challenge to opening was feeling confident enough in myself – and I got that boost & an accountability partner from CEI’s Child Care Business Lab.”
– LULE HUSKINS, BLOOM & BLOSSOM CHILDCARE, LLC
Little Bird Child Care
“In 2019, Stephanie was pregnant with her first child and knew that she wanted to return to work after the child was born, but despite searching her town of Calais and the surrounding…”
Little Learners Homestead
“Passionate about farms, food and children, Anna Wardwell, owner of Little Learners Homestead, LLC, in Hampden, Maine, had always dreamed of running a…”
Mis Primeros Pasos
“This fall, we celebrate with Thania Centeno as she realizes her dream in starting a childcare center – Mis Primeros Pasos (Spanish for…”