AKPA UNIVERSITY
Educate. Empower. Elevate.
Sunday, September 13, 2026 · 12:00–5:00 PM ET · Bergenfield, NJ
Stop researching how to open a daycare. Spend five hours actually planning yours.
A live working session for people opening a childcare center — and newer owners trying to make one profitable. You leave with a licensing path, a startup budget, an enrollment plan and a staffing model. Not another folder of bookmarked articles.
Sunday, September 13, 2026 · Republic 23 Lounge · Bergenfield, NJ · Replay for 7 days
We go live in
The session begins Sunday, September 13, 2026 at 12:00 PM ET.
The last six months
You are not short on information. You are short on sequence.
You have the tabs open. Licensing requirements from a state PDF written in 2019, a YouTube video about ratios, three Facebook groups where everyone gives a different answer. You still do not know which agency to call first, or what they will ask when you do.
You have a number in your head for what this costs to open. You are not confident in it. You do not know what has to be funded before you can be licensed, and what can honestly wait until month four — so the whole thing sits, because the wrong guess is expensive.
Or you already opened. You have a beautiful room, a license on the wall, and three children enrolled. Nobody told you that filling seats starts months before the doors do, and now every week of low enrollment is coming out of your own account.
And you have hired. Twice. Both of them were gone inside six weeks, and you are back to opening, closing, covering the infant room and doing payroll at 11 PM.
None of that is a research problem. It is an order-of-operations problem — and it is fixable in an afternoon with someone who has already done it three times.
The five hours
What we’ll cover
Room opens at 11:30 AM ET. Draft running order — Shikara may adjust before the day.
- 11:30 AM
Doors open
Come early, find your seat and say hello. We start on time at noon.
- 12:00 – 1:00
Licensing and regulations
Which agency governs you, the application sequence in order, ratios, and what inspectors actually look for on the day.
- 1:00 – 2:00
Location and startup budget
How to evaluate a space before you sign anything, real cost ranges, and what has to be funded first versus what can wait.
- 2:00 – 3:00
Filling seats before you open
Enrollment strategy, building a waitlist ahead of licensure, and what parents are actually deciding on when they tour.
- 3:00 – 3:15
Break
Step away, eat something, stretch. We pick straight back up at 3:15.
- 3:15 – 4:15
Staffing and credentialing
Where to find people, the credentials they need on file, and the real reasons teachers leave in the first six weeks.
- 4:15 – 5:00
Running it profitably + live Q&A
Tuition structure, billing that gets paid on time, and the systems that keep the business from eating your life.
Not notes — documents
What you walk away with
A licensing checklist for your state
The agency, the sequence, the forms — written down in the order you actually do them.
A startup budget worksheet
Real line items with real ranges, split into must-fund-now and can-wait.
An enrollment script
What to say on the tour and on the phone, from the first call to the signed contract.
A staffing plan template
Roles, credentials required on file, and a hiring sequence that survives your first year.
Your materials packet
Handed to you on the day, yours to keep. Nothing is gatekept for an upsell.
The room
Five hours in a room with owners solving the exact problem you are solving.
Your host
Shikara Smith
CEO, Amazin Kids Paradise Academy
I started from my mama’s house. No investor, no blueprint, no one in my family who had done it — just a license, a room, and children whose parents needed somewhere safe to be at 6 AM.
That became a multi-location childcare brand. I have made every expensive mistake available on the way here, and I am not going to make you pay tuition for the same ones. No gatekeeping. Real game, real results.
- 4
- Centers owned
- 17
- Years operating
- 1,000+
- Families served
- 22
- Owners coached
This is for you if
Five hours will move you
- You want to open a daycare or childcare center and you are serious about a date, not a daydream.
- You opened already and enrollment, staffing or the money is not working yet.
- You will do the work between now and opening — this gives you the order to do it in.
- You would rather be told the truth about costs than be sold a fantasy.
This is not for you if
Please keep your $300
- You are looking for passive income. Childcare is a staffed, licensed, regulated business.
- You want it done for you. This is a working session — you leave with your plan, not our service.
- You want a guaranteed number by a guaranteed date. Nobody honest can give you that.
- You are not willing to be licensed, inspected, and held to ratio. That part is not optional.
Questions
This is your time. This is your move.
Sunday, September 13, 2026. 12:00–5:00 PM ET. Republic 23 Lounge · Bergenfield, NJ. $300, one payment, materials included.