01
Understanding your numbers
- Cost per child calculation
- Break-even analysis
- Occupancy rate optimisation
- Fee rate review
Resourceful Ruth is a practical consultancy for founders, women entrepreneurs and childcare providers, built on twenty-four years of doing the work.
The specialism most nurseries cannot find
Plenty of accountants will file your returns. Very few will sit with occupancy, funded hours, staffing ratios and cash flow at the same time and tell you which one is eating the margin. That is the piece Ruth does, and almost nobody in the UK offers it on its own.
Nursery Finance Clarity
A fixed piece of work: read the numbers, find where the margin is going, leave you with something you can run the setting on.
Ruth runs nurseries herself, so she reads your numbers as an owner, not as an accountant. Without the jargon, and without the fear.
Fees are quoted after a free first consultation.
- Nursery settings
- 5+
- Nursery settings owned and operated.
- Funding gaps
- £10,000s
- In funding gaps identified for clients.
What Nursery Finance Clarity covers
02
Funding clarity
- 15 and 30-hour funding, demystified
- Funding gap analysis
- Stretched and non-stretched hours
- Supplement and enhanced rate review
03
Financial health checks
- A plain-English review of your P&L
- Staffing ratio cost modelling
- Wage bill benchmarking
- Setting viability assessment
04
For buyers and turnarounds
- Pre-acquisition financial due diligence
- Distressed setting triage
- A turnaround roadmap
05
Training and workshops
- “Know Your Numbers” workshops, half or full day, in person or online
- Finance for non-financial managers: deputies, room leaders and administrators
- 1:1 finance clarity coaching, monthly or one-off
Not sure where to start?
A free 30-minute clarity call will tell you which of these matters most for your setting.
Free guide for nursery owners
5 numbers every nursery owner must know
The numbers that decide whether your nursery survives or thrives. Work them out once and you will see your setting differently.
- 1Your cost per child per hour
- 2Your funding gap
- 3Your wage bill as a percentage of income
- 4Your break-even occupancy rate
- 5Your setting viability score
Explore her client stories
Six pieces of work, in the clients’ own words.
Healthcare
A full process review that broke the deadlock
“Ruth came in to assess our processes, checked the books and offered tailored solutions to help us break the deadlock and scale the business for better coverage. She provided a comprehensive report touching nearly every aspect of the business, from the website, to forms, software and training matrix. Ruth was the full package.”
Bilqees Adedigba
Tender Healthcare Consulting Ltd
Early years
Ofsted readiness, HR and parent communication, all covered
“Ruth’s support through RVA has made a huge difference to the way we run our nursery. We received executive assistant support across social media, HR, Ofsted readiness, parent communication, and nursery administration. It has brought real peace of mind, helped our enquiries and customer numbers grow, and allowed me to focus on leading the setting with more confidence.”
Obehi Adeboyejo
The Montessori House
Consulting
A solution built around how the business actually runs
“Ruth provided a bespoke and tailor-made solution for my business. She is conscientious, pragmatic, and quick to provide solutions to problems.”
Yewande Aina-Marshall
LBG Consulting Ltd
Professional services
Better financial and career decisions, made with someone in the room
“Ruth has been instrumental in helping me make better financial and career decisions. She is direct, yet encouraging, and challenges you to achieve nothing but the best.”
Dewunmi Odesola
Alpha Ideas Ltd
Beauty and wellness
Personal money and business money, finally kept apart
“I was given an amazing money and event tracker to organise both my life and my business finances. This opened my eyes to how I handle cash and separate personal finances from business money.”
Theresa Alimi
Lush Beauty and Wellness Ltd
Professional services
Practical steps on communicating with a team
“Ruth gave me practical steps on how to communicate effectively, along with valuable ideas I could apply to see improvement.”
Keet Ajayi
OTEVA Ltd
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
The Resourceful Ruth experience
End-to-end services
Six services that run from the first conversation through to the systems left behind. Ruth reviews the business model, streamlines the operation and gets you to the point where you understand your own numbers. The work is meant to keep paying off after she has gone.
Industry know-how
Twenty-four years across banking, finance, IT consulting, hospitality, tourism and early years education. That mix is why a nursery conversation can move from ratios to cash flow to software in the same hour without losing the thread.
Ongoing support
A monthly arrangement for owners who would rather think out loud than wait for the next crisis. Framed the way Ruth frames it: a trusted sounding board, clarity and better decisions, accountability and action.
24
Years of experience, across six industries.
- Banking
- Finance
- IT consulting
- Hospitality
- Tourism
- Early years education
Twenty-four years, in six industries
Ruth is a British-Nigerian entrepreneur who has worked in banking and finance, in IT consulting, in hospitality and tourism, and in early years education. She now works with founders, women entrepreneurs and childcare providers.
Explore the six services
Delivered online, in person in the UK, USA and Nigeria, or a mix of both.
Business Clarity & Strategy
Where the business actually is, what is holding it still, and the two or three moves that change the picture this year.
What this covers
Cutting through the noise to define priorities, so you know what to do next and what to stop doing.
- Strategy
- Direction
- Focus
Financial Clarity & Planning
Your numbers read back to you in plain English. What comes in, what leaves, and which of it you can do something about.
What this covers
Pricing, margin, cost structure, cash flow and long-term planning.
- Finance
- Pricing
- Profitability
Childcare & Early Years Consultancy
Nurseries and early years settings, from occupancy and funded hours through to Ofsted readiness and the office admin behind it.
What this covers
Ruth’s deepest specialism: Ofsted readiness, EYFS compliance, nursery acquisition, operational turnaround and staff development.
- EYFS
- Ofsted
- Operations
- Compliance
Operations & Systems Design
The forms, the software, the training matrix and the handovers. Written down once, so the setting does not depend on memory.
What this covers
Workflows, compliance frameworks, technology adoption and process documentation. Built to work without you in the room.
- Systems
- Process
- Compliance
- Scale
Team Development & Leadership
For the decisions you cannot delegate and the team you need around you. Direct, and on your side.
What this covers
High-performing teams, leadership pipelines, accountability structures and staff retention.
- HR
- Culture
- Leadership
- Retention
Multi-Venture & Growth Strategy
A plan you can hold someone to, with the numbers that tell you early whether it is working.
What this covers
Strategic oversight for owners growing a portfolio of businesses, or more than one site.
- Portfolio
- Growth
- Multi-site
- Scale
Ruth publishes no price list. Fees are quoted after a free first consultation.
Two ways to work together
Not sure which fits? Start with the free discovery call rather than picking a package. Ruth will tell you honestly.
Track 1
Business coaching
For the leader who needs clarity, confidence and a plan.
For founders, business owners, women entrepreneurs, nursery and childcare leaders, and anyone running more than one venture.
-
1
Discovery call
Free, 30 minutes, online. No pressure and no pitch, just an honest conversation.
-
2
Clarity audit
A short questionnaire on your goals, your challenges and what success would look like.
-
3
Coaching sessions
Six sessions of 60 to 90 minutes, fortnightly over three months, online.
-
4
Accountability and review
Email check-ins between sessions and a final review. You leave with a strategic plan.
Track 2
Business consultancy
For the business that needs strategy, systems and expert input.
For nursery and childcare businesses, growing SMEs, acquisitions, turnarounds and businesses getting ready to scale.
-
1
Initial enquiry
Send a short overview of what is going on and Ruth will arrange a scoping conversation.
-
2
Business diagnostic
A structured review of operations, finances, team, systems and strategy, online or in person.
-
3
Strategy and delivery
Hands-on implementation with an agreed scope and timeline. Not a report left on a shelf.
-
4
Review and ongoing support
A closing review and forward plan, with monthly or quarterly support if you want it.
More ways to work with Ruth
Three things Ruth offers alongside the six services.
Fixed piece of work
Nursery Finance Clarity
Occupancy, funded hours, staffing cost and cash flow read together rather than one at a time. The specialism very few consultants in the UK offer.
- Cost per child and break-even
- Funding gap analysis
- Due diligence for buyers
- Training for your managers
Monthly
Ongoing Support
A trusted sounding board. Clarity and better decisions. Accountability and action. For owners who do not want to wait for the next crisis to think. Not limited to nurseries.
- Monthly calls with clear priorities and actions
- Email or WhatsApp support between calls
- Finance, pricing, systems and growth advice
- Review of your forms, templates and spreadsheets
Speaking
Keynote Speaking
Talks for business conferences, women in business programmes, early years events and faith and community gatherings.
- Signature keynote: Foundations for Success, Building What Lasts
- Parenting talk: Raising Children for Today’s World
- Keynotes, panels, fireside conversations and masterclasses
Ruth Oseme
A British-Nigerian entrepreneur with over twenty-four years across banking, finance, IT consulting, hospitality, tourism and early years education. She helps founders, women entrepreneurs and childcare providers review the business model, streamline operations and understand their numbers.
The work is practical and unsentimental. She reads the books, walks the process, writes it down, and tells you what she found. Clients describe her as direct, conscientious and quick to hand back something usable.
“I don’t just build businesses. I build systems, teams and legacies.”
What Ruth runs
New Beginnings Day Nurseries
The nursery group Ruth leads across Yorkshire and Staffordshire.
Resourceful Virtual Assistants
Sector-trained virtual assistants placed with UK childcare businesses.
Lilyrose International School
A British National Curriculum school in Lagos, Nigeria, founded by Ruth.
Lilyrose Homes
The property company behind the childcare group’s long-term asset strategy.
She speaks at business and community events in the UK and Nigeria, including BALM, African Business Association events such as CLIMB25 for ABA Yorkshire, and RCCG conferences.
Let’s talk about your next twelve months.
The first consultation is free. If it turns into work, the fee is quoted after that conversation, never before it.
- Phone
- +44 7846 408545