In this chapter I will consider the other set of calculative agencies in the childcare market: the providers. A major concern in recent literature has been the privatization of childcare services, particularly notable in markets with a demand side funding system. The outcome has been both a proliferation and diversification of for-profit childcare providers, ranging in scale from single owner-operators to large scale shareholder driven corporates. For critics of childcare markets, this diversification has posed a conceptual problem, as while they all in theory operate under a profitmaking rationale, there is a considerable range of business models within what is referred to as the ‘private sector’. Reflective of an increasing desire to produce a more nuanced understanding of for-profit provision, rather than assume it is all morally moribund a priori, there have been calls to explore what different parts of the for-profit childcare sector actually looks like (Press and Woodrow, 2005).

Speaking to this gap in knowledge, in this chapter I examine for-profit providers as calculative agents who deploy different financial strategies to operate in the emergent market. Focusing on two types of provider that have proliferated in Aotearoa New Zealand, namely the individual owner-operator and the consolidated childcare chain, I explore the strategies and economic calculations these actors have made in relation to the work of childcare since 2002. In the process I demonstrate the relational nature of this calculative work, adjusting in response to both the demands of the parent consumer and the interests of government in the sector. Building on the analysis of the previous chapter, I argue that the strategies deployed by these actors in response to state-led marketization are generative of the kinds of competitive market dynamics which have provoked significant criticism during this time.

While the aim of making a profit is important to these actors, ultimately the broader question of finance shapes their business strategies. As I illustrate, the problem of finance for childcare owner-operators manifests in diverse ways; financial management, cashflow, raising capital and securing loans to name but a few. In the first instance, remaining solvent is a paramount concern, but so is extracting a profit.