Starting a Daycare: Are you ready?

Before you can go forward with your decision to start a daycare, you need to evaluate yourself, your location, and your situation.

To evaluate yourself can be tough, but it’s best to know if you are cut out to run a daycare. Are you in good health and have lots of energy? Do you have a genuine love for children and enjoy being around them? Are you organized enough to keep financial records? Do you listen well and appreciate feedback (both good and bad)? Are you willing to sacrafice for the needs of the daycare? Can you handle tantrums and other child misbehaviour? Do you have a positive attitude, even under stress? Do you have a good sense of humor? Are you motivated? These are just a few questions that need to be answered, but in reality you really need to think long and hard about this decision. If you decide to go ahead, you will be partly responsible for the development of the children under your care. You need to take this responsibility seriously.

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Starting a Daycare: Why bother? Get a real job.

Why bother opening a daycare in the first place. There are many places to go out and get a “real” job. Why start a daycare?

There are many reasons why people decide to open a daycare. The most common reason is that a parent wants to be home with their children and starting a daycare is a good solution.

Another good reason why many people open a daycare is that they are helping other parents in their community. Parents really appreciate the services that a quality daycare provides. Running your own business and providing a quality service that people appreciate can be a very rewarding experience and will give you a great sense of accomplishment.

Whatever your reasons are for starting a daycare, just remember that you will have a profound impact on the lives of the children, so it is important that you do your best to provide no less than the best.

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Starting a Daycare: You’re not babysitting, it’s a business.

Make no mistake about it. Starting a daycare is a business. It is very important that you take the business side of your daycare just as seriously as the care of the children.

Preparing to start your daycare business will require many decisions on your part. Are you planning on running the daycare out of your home? Do you have adequate space, or an isolated area for the children? How many children can you care for at any given time? What age group does your daycare cater to? Do you have policies and procedures in place for emergency situations, suspected child abuse/neglect, parent no show, etc? What type of training and/or certifications will you need? These are just a few questions of the many questions you’ll need to answer before starting your daycare.

You will also need to realize that this is not a 9-5 job. You’re the boss and most small business owners work on average 16+ hours a day. You’ll also have times when your business will take precedence over any other responsibility you have, such as when a parent calls and says they’re going to be 2 hours late. You can’t refuse to accept this. Everything else will have to wait until the child is safely in the arms of their parent.

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