Business Overview:

If you’ve been thinking of starting a daycare in your home, you’ll be pleased to know that the demand for daycare services continues to rise. With so many parents working outside the home, opening a daycare is a service that multitudes of families will be grateful for. Many parents have grave concerns about the quality of childcare that is found in larger facilities, and they often prefer a small, home-based daycare business where they know their child will receive plenty of specialized, one-on-one attention. Because of this, it’s a great time to create a daycare business plan if you love children and want to work at home. The startup costs are low and the rewards of impacting a child’s life are great. While most states require home-based daycare businesses to be licensed and some require the staff to be certified, the application process is usually quite simple. You can contact your local municipal office to determine their exact requirements.

A Day in the Life of a home-based daycare business owner:

This article brought to you by Business Ideas! If you enjoyed this article, make sure to subscribe to the Business Ideas Newsletter to get ideas sent straight to your email inbox.There are several types of daycare. If you choose to have an all-day program, then your day will start quite early because parents need to drop their children off before they go to work. Your day will be spent overseeing the children, monitoring any staff people you have working with you, and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of every child in your care. On the other hand, you could decide to have an after school program. In this situation your workday will not start until after school was finished. That might be at noon if you are accepting kindergarten-aged children or mid-afternoon if you are only accepting children older than those in the first grade. Part of your day might also be spent interviewing the parents and children that want access to your daycare, to educate them about what it is you do and to see if their child would be a good fit in your program.

The Good:

• Very low startup costs.
• There’s a very high demand for this service.
• Great satisfaction in impacting a child’s life.
• You can customize the business so that you work with the age group you want to: newborns, toddlers, preschoolers, or a mixture.

The Bad:

• Most states require a daycare license, though it is not difficult to obtain.
• You may have some children that need more discipline and guidance than you feel comfortable providing and conflict may arise with the parents.

Resources:

• Child Day Care Association
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Childcare.gov
• National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care
• Child Care Aware

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