Commercial clarity for Irish early years.

Early iQ is an advisory practice for Irish childcare providers. We measure how the business is actually performing, put a euro figure on what is being left behind, and stay on to help you act on it.

Take the free Snapshot See what the review covers
6dimensions measured, financial to exit
0–100one score, tracked year on year
3 wksfrom first request to report
½ dayof the provider's time
01 — The problem

Most providers know their service inside out. But who's looking after the business behind it?

Running a service means keeping quality, staffing, registration conditions and Core Funding in view every day. Alongside that are the commercial questions: your EBITDA margin, the share of income going on staff, where your fee sits against the cap, and what the business would be worth without you in it.

The accountant files the return. The County Childcare Committee answers the scheme question. Each provides valuable support, but neither brings all the commercial pieces together: funding, fees, staffing, margin and the long-term value of your business.

Nobody sits on your side of the table and looks at the whole business at once. That is the work Early iQ does.

02 — Early iQ 360

A full service, a busy team and years of hard work don't always translate into a financially healthy business. Early iQ gives you the numbers, the evidence and the commercial perspective to understand why.

Six dimensions. One score. A euro figure attached to every finding.

Each dimension is scored from nought to a hundred against anchored sector benchmarks, then weighted into a single Early iQ Score. The weights are fixed and published, so your score this year is directly comparable to your score next year, and to the sector around you.

01

Financial Health

Income mix, EBITDA margin, staff cost ratio, cash position. What a lender or a buyer looks at first.
25%
02

Funding & Regulation

Core Funding, NCS and ECCE drawn in full. Fee set correctly against the cap. Deadlines met. Nothing open with Tusla or Pobal.
20%
03

Operating Efficiency

Occupancy against registered capacity, contact against non-contact staffing, cost per place per week.
15%
04

Provider Dependency

How much of this only works because you are standing in it. Scored function by function, honestly.
15%
05

Growth Capacity

Physical headroom, waiting list, lease length, cash available to move. Whether you could grow if you chose to.
10%
06

Exit Readiness

Quality of records, depth of management, whether the service survives six weeks without you. What it is worth, and to whom.
15%
03 — What the work produces
55
Early iQ Score
out of 100
Financial Health
82
Funding & Regulation
73
Operating Efficiency
56
Provider Dependency
11
Growth Capacity
53
Exit Readiness
33
Confirmed€6,200
Probable€76,950
Identified€83,150

Illustrative. A 68-place full-day service, €523,000 income, 14.9% margin.

You are left with something you can act on in the morning.

  • The written reportYour six scores, what each means in practice, and where you sit against the sector.
  • An opportunity schedule, in euroEvery item banded Confirmed, Probable or Possible, so you know what is bankable and what needs testing.
  • Three priorities, rankedEach with the person responsible, the first step, and the expected return.
  • A valuation indicationWhat the business is worth today, and what moves the number.
  • A two-hour presentationDelivered to you and anyone you choose, and argued out in the room.
  • The scoring model itselfSo you can re-run it next year and watch the score move.
Start here, free

See where you sit before you spend anything.

The Early iQ Snapshot asks fifteen questions about how your service runs and gives you an indicative score across the same six dimensions, with the one thing most worth fixing named at the end. Nothing to look up — every question can be answered from memory.

15 questions 3 minutes No charge, no obligation
Take the Snapshot
04 — Process

Three weeks, and about half a day of your time.

Week one

The request

A short, specific list. Accounts, payroll summary, enrolment, your Hive submissions. Every line has a fallback if you cannot find it.

Week two

The visit

Half a day on site. We walk the service, go through the numbers with you, and ask the questions nobody else asks about how the place actually runs.

Week three

The scoring

Your data goes through the model. Every score is anchored to a stated benchmark, so you can see exactly why a dimension landed where it did.

Week three

The report

Delivered in person and talked through in full. You leave with the score, the euro schedule and three things to start on.

05 — Who we are
Portrait to be placed here

Commercial perspective. Direct sector experience.

Early iQ was founded by Chris Moran, whose experience combines large corporate environments, asset management and strategic oversight with years working directly alongside Irish early years providers. That sector involvement spans Core Funding, the fee freeze, the move to the Hive and Review & Confirm cycles. Early iQ brings these perspectives together to look at the whole business, with an understanding of the practical constraints providers work within.

Everything shared with us stays confidential under a signed engagement. Benchmark data is used only in anonymised, aggregated form, and only with your written agreement.

06 — The practice

Where providers go after the review.

Early iQ 360The diagnostic review. Where every engagement begins.
Early iQ AdvisoryOngoing commercial support on a monthly retainer. We work the plan with you and re-score the business each year.
Early iQ GrowthSecond sites, acquisitions, occupancy and fee strategy.
Early iQ SuccessionPreparing a service, and its provider, for a clean exit.
Early iQ IntelligenceAnonymised sector benchmarking, built from the work.
07 — Fees

Stated plainly, before you ask.

Fees are fixed and agreed in writing before any work begins. Half on signature, half on delivery of the report. There is nothing to pay until you have seen the scope and the data request and decided to go ahead.

The review, one-off
A single registered service€2,500
Two to five sites — €2,500 for the first, €1,500 for each additional€4,000–8,500
Six sites or more, scored individually and as a portfolioQuoted after a call
Ongoing, monthly, thirty days' notice
Watch — every funding deadline tracked and flagged before it lands, an annual fee-cap check, phone and email access, and a call each quarter€295
Advisory — all of Watch, plus a half-day with you each quarter, an annual re-score, and one project a year worked properly€750
Partner — multi-site. Monthly, at group level, in the room for the decisions that matterfrom €2,000

The first month of Watch or Advisory is included with any review, so you can see what it is before you pay for it.

In most reviews the Confirmed line alone — the money we can show you are already entitled to and not drawing — covers the fee. We will tell you before we start if we think yours is the exception.

Groups and multi-site operators. Above five services the work changes shape. Every site is scored on the same instrument and ranked against the others, so you can see which of your services is carrying the group and which is being carried, what the gap between your best and your worst is worth in euro, and what it would take to close it. That is a portfolio engagement rather than a review, and it is scoped and quoted in writing after a short call.

08 — Contact

Every engagement starts with one honest conversation.

Thirty minutes, by phone or video, with no pitch at the end of it. Tell us your service name and how many sites you operate, and we will come back with dates and the data request.

Take the free Snapshot first
hello@earlyiq.ie

Reviews are carried out nationwide. We take on a limited number each month so that every report is written properly.