Preliminary Efficacy and Feasibility of a Business Leadership Training Program for Small Child Care Providers

It is important to equip small child care providers with business and administrative operations skills so that they can avoid shut down and provide quality child care services in a sustainable manner. This study provides initial efficacy and feasibility of the Small Business Innovation Course program. The goal is to contribute to a deeper understanding about strategies to support the business operations of these small child care providers serving young children from high-poverty communities. There were 34 small child care business providers enrolled in the program and pre–post evaluation suggested significant changes in participants’ self-efficacy on business management skills. Emerging evidence also suggested that many participants were able to apply new knowledge (e.g., budget and marketing) and implement practices to promote business functioning. Discussion and implications are provided.