If you love working with children than starting a home daycare maybe good for you. I was a childcare provider when my children was little. I was home anyway raising them. So why not start a home daycare? It made plenty of sense to me. And I’m sure it make sense to you also.
When I had my daycare business I was much younger. I had plenty of energy. I want you to take into consideration that having lots of energy is not enough to have a successful business. Other requirements are:
- Good record keeping skills
- Being a risk taker
- Manage a staff
- Be professional and business minded
Daycare is Needed
Today’s world is not like it was many years ago. Years ago the father went out to get the bacon and mommie to cooked it. You know what I’m mean……lol. Nowadays there are many single parent households. Plus with inflation, it’s getting harder to be a one income family. People are waiting longer to retire. Grandparents may not be able to provide childcare. They are too busy working themselves.
Do You Have Enough Space?
When I had my daycare business I lived in a one family house. I used the main floor of the house. The state you live in may require you to have a certain amount of square feet of space per child. You will learn what that is when you apply for your license.
I also suggest you speak to your landlord, if you have one. Tell your landlord about your intentions on opening a homebased day care. You never know if the landlord needs to address a couple of things before you do.
Get Licensed
In some states you must go to an orientation before you apply for a license. It makes sense to me because they explain all the hoops you have to jump through to be licensed. After an orientation you will know if you really want to start a daycare center. It will inform you of all the safety requirements. And the best ways to care for the children.
When you apply for your license get ready for your life to be an open book. They will do a back gound check on you and everyone in your household whose over the age of 14. They want to know your medical information. They definitely want character references. If you have been arrested they want to know that too. Which is all good to me because we are dealing with precious little lives here.
Once you get licensed by the state you live in and the Department of Social Services it means your home is deemed safe and meets health and safety standards. When you are licensed you will be able to use your child care expenses as business expense deductions when you file your income taxes. Parents can be referred to you by the licensing program. You may be eligible to receive money back for the food you serve to children in your daycare through the Child Care Food Program.
What Age Group?
Do some research. You can find out how many children, within a specific age group, live in your area. How many daycare centers are there already in your area? Is there something they are not doing and you can?
You may want to think about what age group you prefer to work with. You might want to stick with toddlers and up because you will be able to go on outings easier vs. caring for infants. But on the other hand, you may want to take care of infants because they are more likely to stay with you longer until they go to school.
Also, you may want to think about taking care of the older children especially if the parent works at night. No one wants to leave the children home alone at night. Night childcare can be very lucrative.
What Is Your Policy?
Your police and procedures are a very important part of your business. Once you have them established it will be clear to all parties involve what to expect.
Let me tell you about one of my experiences. I took one of my parents to court because she owed me money for childcare. As a matter of fact, we ended up on a tv court show. I sued for X amount of money but won a different amount because of what my contract with the parent stated.
You need to be clear on what your expections are and have it written down for all to see and sign.
Marketing
So let’s imagine you jumped through all the hoops with success. You got all you needed to open the doors, Congratulations!! Now you should market your business. Every business should be online. Even if you just have a facebook page. A website is even better.
With your own website you will be able to promote your business with articles about how you run your daycare. Also what the children are learning. You can have a newletter keeping parent up-to-date with the happenings of the daycare. Like for instance, any future trips, picture day or dress up day or dress down day.
You can use your website to inform parents about different issues concerning children. You write reviews about different products parents buy for the baby.
The list can go on. I hope you see where having a website could lead you. I am talking about expanding your homebased daycare by leaps and bound though the online world and make money through your daycare’s website.
If you would like more information about why taking your business online makes cents, READ THIS.
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