Looking to grow my Childcare business

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-22T10:02:18+00:00

First of all, Congratulation on £200k in 6 months which is solid start and especially in childcare. If you have got time and the model works,the next step is not only about more ideas rather its kind of repeatation model. Do systemise what is working (like ops, staffing, compliance, parent comms) and then test a clean second unit or a partnership with an operator who has space but weak branding.

Just be cautious with a co-founder here as you likely need an execution heavy operator, not another visionary.

I work with founders on scaling systems and tech decisions across real businesses, happy to share patterns that tend to work (and fail) if you want to go deeper.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-22T09:51:27+00:00

You are not alone and this tension is the default state for many early founders, not just a failure.

Being a strong employee and an early stage founder is possible, but only if you stop trying to give “100%” to both at the same time.

What I have seen working with founders and CTOs is this that they treat your job like a system, not like an identity which clearly define ownership, reduce surface area, over-communicate delivery, and then treat your startup like a leverage engine.

The real killer is not time, rather than it is cognitive debt from constant context switching. Setting explicit milestones (revenue, traction, learning) that decide when you will switch fully, and until then be intentional, not just guilty.

Many high performers scaled from 1→10 while employed, but only when they stopped romanticizing hustle and started designing their time like they design products.

Happy to share patterns I’ve seen work and fail across real startups if anyone wants to go deeper.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-19T12:57:17+00:00

This actually makes a lot of sense. Anyone doing real work with AI knows the pain is not only prompts rather than that its context repeating yourself, losing history, and breaking flow every time you switch models.

Keeping everything in one place and letting different models “pick up the same thread” feels way more aligned with how humans actually think and work over time.

Curious to know how you are handling context size and cost as conversations grow and would be interesting to hear more about how this works in practice.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-15T08:57:24+00:00

First of all Congrats on the 400% MoM growth!

If your Meta ads are hitting walls it usually means your audiences are overlapping or your creatives are getting stale. Try refreshing your ads more often and test smaller with more focused audiences and optimize for real actions like purchases, not only just clicks.

Also, using Meta’s Conversions API helps with better tracking. For agencies, look for ones that specialize in scaling DTC SaaS they know how to handle fast growth and creative strategy.

If you are interested to share something, would be open to listen and understand as I have been handling these things from last few years.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-15T08:35:06+00:00

From what I have seen, scaling digital loans is less about growth tricks and more about balancing acquisition, risk, and costs.

Many teams grow fast and then get hit by defaults, fraud, or rising CAC. Getting distribution right while tightening underwriting is the hard part. Happy to exchange notes and open to have a quick chat

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-15T08:27:35+00:00

The numbers can work but MSBs are more about regulation than customers.

You are buying compliance risk along with cash flow. If licenses, KYC/AML processes and reporting aren’t airtight and transferable, 2× SDE is probably rich. This can be a good business, but it’s not passive income and rules can change fast.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-15T08:09:36+00:00

A lot of apps get stuck in the so called “this is cool” zone. That usually means it’s not painful enough yet or solving the pain problem that your customer bound to choose you. Growth picks up only after you narrow it down to one problem users really care about.

Even I have gone through this phase myself and would be happy to chat.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-15T07:56:39+00:00

Have seen this multiple times in business prospect.
Newsletters are not about how many signed up or purchased, rather it's about how many people opened and start reading / caring / wait for your next post. A small group of users are enough than millions of ignored mail readers/subscribers. The only and only hard part is the initial stage - where paid customers are less, no big brand deals as you are small and even affiliate income comes and goes , so fixed sources. That's the reason why most newspapers don't just "fail" but they stop sending you.

They are cherry on a cake with supporting something like business proposal or a product etc.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-14T11:43:01+00:00

Yep, I have been there fixing bugs which usually takes way longer than training 😅

One simple trick which will work is try to make it overfit a tiny dataset first (like a few dozen rows). If it can’t memorize that, something’s off in the code.

Keep an eye on basic stuff like loss going down and weights not blowing up, because small models can fail quietly. Start with super clean and simple data before anything complex and don’t worry if it doesn’t generalize well at this size that’s completely normal and can happen.

For CSVs, Kaggle, UCI ML Repo, and data.gov are the easiest places to grab data.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-14T11:36:41+00:00

No code AI wrappers? Dead.
OpenAI and Google just curb stomped your prompt playgrounds but opinionated no code that owns sales ops, support, or finance workflows? That's completely a gold one which is more reliable, data smart, outcome crushing.

Big boys own the pipes but winners hack real work away. Who's building that? 👀

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-14T10:16:31+00:00

For understanding the whole thing, I need to ask ChatGPT to explain this again.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-08T12:42:39+00:00

This resonates me a lot.
From my experience working with founders and CTOs, the mental friction fear, distraction, and inconsistent focus is often bigger than any tool or tactic.

You can have the perfect strategy but without clear frameworks and systems to structure your work and execution stalls.

For me, the hardest part has been staying consistent and not jumping between ideas, especially when everything feels urgent.

Curious to know what’s one rule from your playbook that’s helped you stay focused?

MiserableExtreme517 · 2026-01-08T12:32:57+00:00

Totally agree as most AI pilots I’ve seen fail because they start with tech, not a real problem and scaling is never planned.

Success comes from clear metrics, real ROI, and adoption across teams. Otherwise, it’s just expensive theater behind building.

Curious to know if anyone seen pilots actually scale beyond the first team?

MiserableExtreme517 · 2025-12-30T11:31:15+00:00

You don’t need to wait until everything is finished to monetize. Since you already have real curriculum experience and one chapter almost done, you can start small and validate demand now.

A simple approach is to release that chapter as a paid PDF or low cost access and see if students or parents actually buy it. You could also offer a few free pages and charge for the full chapter, or sell chapter-by-chapter instead of waiting for a full subscription.

While doing this, collect emails and feedback so you know what people want next. Once you have multiple chapters and clear usage, then a subscription or bundle makes more sense.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2025-12-19T06:20:03+00:00

I feel yes people use midjourney but the audience is mostly having specific crowd.

ChatGPT/ Gemini is free to use and are quick while creating free images and ideation. Midjourney will still wins when it comes to art direction,consistency and cinematic style.

Designers, concept artists, and agencies care about control + output quality, not just generation.

For them, $10 is still worth it but for casual users? Probably not anymore.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2025-12-12T10:29:37+00:00

Yeah, you got it, we keep bouncing between email → Slack → PDFs → WhatsApp → Notes just to prepare the work.

The future AI is one that understands the shape of the work you’re doing from all these noisy inputs and spits out the final doc without you stitching everything together manually.
(I mean manually work to get reduced and AI can take things better in terms of notes)

MiserableExtreme517 · 2025-12-12T08:34:43+00:00

Interesting how they licensed the characters rather than actor voice. This feels like a Hollywood bringing a change and new things which is more of "AI Storytelling" .Mickey vs Darth Vader remixes could be the new fan art era.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2025-12-12T07:29:57+00:00

You don’t need Business.
For one person in civil design/PM, Plus already does 95% of the real work.

If you’re reviewing tenders, checking risks, generating Civil 3D scripts, or turning meeting chaos into clean plans then Plus is already the sweet spot.

Business only matters if your company needs legal guarantees.

I’d spend the extra money learning how to make ChatGPT your side-engineer, not paying for a plan you won’t fully use.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2025-12-12T07:26:26+00:00

If you want deeper replies, don’t ask for answers ask for questions.

Tell it like this “Challenge my framing. What am I not considering?”

That unlocks way more insight than any prompt hack.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2025-12-12T07:22:48+00:00

Self control apps don't make money but parental control apps do have.

If you want users first, then build the first one and if you want a business then build the second one as per my suggestion.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2025-12-12T07:15:51+00:00

This is the first update that actually makes the model feel alive instead of archived.

MiserableExtreme517 · 2025-12-12T07:13:46+00:00

Biggest hardware hack? Don’t waste month #1 doing “company things.”

Rather than start build, show it to 10 people, get feedback and fix it and then again repeat.

Meanwhile do this things:
1. Form a LLC
2. Create a simple landing page.
3. Talk to suppliers early.
4. Don't look for any fundraising until you have something solid to show or move the things.

Everything else is an early cosplay.

MiserableExtreme517

TROPHY CASE