A once-struggling Long Beach preschool business owner increases profits by 25 percent thanks to expertise from the SBDC. Dinuka Ranasinghe studied law and passed the New York Bar exam, but after realizing law was not her passion, she decided to pursue her dream: working with young children. She began studying early childhood development and in 2008 purchased a preschool in Long Beach, California called Kid Works Children’s Center.

Challenges
When she first visited Kid Works Ranasinghe, “immediately fell in love with the school and knew this is what [she] wanted to wake up and do every morning.” Threatened by a cash crisis, Ranasinghe faced the possibility of losing her newly acquired business. “I wanted to run a quality preschool, so I kept spending money on making improvements,” Ranasinghe explained. Then in 2014, a parent at the preschool referred her to Mike Daniel, former director of the Small Business Development Center hosted by Long Beach City College.

Best Advice
Daniel and SBDC Business Advisor Laura Lara helped Ranasinghe budget, manage her finances, find the short-term capital necessary to keep the business afloat, and develop a plan to increase long-term revenue.

Client Impact
Soon after implementing her new business model, Ranasinghe began seeing a significant change in the bottom line. She added a Spanish dual-immersion afterschool kindergarten program and launched a summer camp in July 2015.Thanks to help from the SBDC, sales increased by 25 percent in less than a year. Ranasinghe retained her seven original employees and all of her customers; Kid Works now operates at full capacity. In the future, Ranasinghe plans to improve the school, purchase new furniture and equipment and hire more employees.