Ravenwood Business Loans of Waukegan, IL arranges funding through partners for Lake County, IL child care centers and daycare owners: working capital for payroll, equipment financing for furniture, playgrounds and vans, and term loans for expanding into a new room or site. Partners review each request and make their own decision.
| Lake County, IL count: Child day care with payroll | 242 (CBP 2023) |
|---|---|
| Paid employees | 2,472 (CBP 2023) |
| In ZIP 60085 | 36 (ZBP 2023) |
| Nonemployer providers | 1,316 (NES 2024) |
Why child care cash is tight
Teacher-to-child ratios set how many staff each room needs, so payroll is a main cost and does not flex easily with a slow week. Tuition follows the center's billing schedule; subsidy or program payments can follow their own schedule. When those payments lag, payroll still goes out.
Capital needs come in steps: classroom furniture and cribs, outdoor play equipment, a van, and eventually a buildout for another room or site.
Lake County, IL day care by the Census count
| Business type (NAICS) | Employer establishments, CBP 2023 | Paid employees, CBP 2023 | Share under 5 employees | ZIP 60085 employers, ZBP 2023 | Nonemployers, NES 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child day care services (624410) | 242 | 2,472 | 54.5% | 36 | 1,316 |
Source note: employer establishments and employees are County Business Patterns 2023; nonemployers are Nonemployer Statistics 2024. The programs differ in year and coverage, so their figures are not added.
The 1,316 nonemployer businesses in the 2024 file report receipts but no payroll; the 242 employer centers employed 2,472 people in 2023. ZIP 60085 held 36 of those centers.
Small business loans for daycare centers: payroll
Working capital covers payroll when tuition or program payments arrive late. A line of credit suits centers where the lag repeats each month. Size either one from the timing of your own receipts, not from enrollment alone.
Payment-lag arithmetic (hypothetical)
If a center is paid for part of its enrollment a month in arrears while paying staff every two weeks, the gap is about two payrolls' worth of that share of tuition. Your own payment records give the real share and lag.
Daycare furniture financing and equipment
Equipment financing covers cribs, cots, tables and chairs, classroom storage, kitchen equipment, playground structures and surfacing, and passenger vans. Quotes from a supplier, with installation for outdoor equipment, start the review. The post on funding a daycare center in Lake County, IL has a fuller equipment list.
How to get funding for a daycare center expansion
Adding a classroom or a second site is a term loan job, often combined with equipment financing. Partners may review enrollment history, the lease, the buildout bid and the center's financial statements. Ravenwood does not arrange startup programs, so this page is about operating centers growing into more space.
What partners commonly review
- Enrollment and tuition records
- Statements and returns
- Records of program or subsidy payments, if any
- The lease and any buildout bid
- Existing financing
Kitchen and food-service upgrades
Centers that prepare meals on site need commercial refrigeration, dishwashing and cooking equipment suited to meal service. These items are financeable as equipment with a supplier quote; installation and any ventilation work belong in the quote.
Transportation
Centers that run before- and after-school pickups or field trips may finance a passenger van or small bus. Vehicle financing follows equipment rules: a dealer quote, the vehicle's year and mileage for used units, and insurance arranged before delivery.
Reading a center's cash pattern
Partners reviewing a child care request often look at enrollment over the past year, tuition collected each month, and how quickly program payments arrive. A center with steady enrollment but irregular payment timing has a timing problem that working capital solves; a center with falling enrollment has a different problem that borrowing does not fix. Bring enrollment by month, a waitlist count if you keep one, and the payment records for each source.
Related pages
Home health agencies and other care businesses are on the industries page. Census tables for the county are collected on the Waukegan, IL data page.
By Ravenwood Business Loans · Updated
