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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