Do you love caring for children? Does spending your day finger painting, reading Dr. Seuss, and playing ring-around-the-rosie sound enjoyable? Then opening a daycare might be just the thing for you, and this guide can show you how.
To start a daycare business, we talked with Lindsey Roemen, owner of Lindsey’s Family Daycare in Larchwood, Iowa, and Shalonda Owens, owner of Fruitful Trees Learning Center in Columbus, Ohio, about their experiences as daycare owners.
Lindsey says working from home and being able to stay home with your children are great perks to daycare ownership, but it also takes a special person. “You have to be a kind, patient person.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, daycare businesses will see some of the fastest employment growth out of all industries through 2020.
An in-home daycare offers the obvious perks of working from home and spending time with your children, but even if you don’t have any little ones of your own, an in-home daycare can be a fun business for anyone who loves kids. Working parents will always need someone to look after their children, meaning a daycare business will never become obsolete.
You can skip a lot of steps of starting a daycare by purchasing a daycare franchise. But for most people, this option is cost prohibitive: The cheapest franchises start at $59,000 and can cost up to $3 million.
This guide will focus primarily on how to start a daycare center in your own home, which has many benefits: fewer expenses, more flexible hours, and convenience.
The first step to starting a daycare is to contact your state Daycare Licensing Agency. “You have to call your state and see what is required of you,” says Lindsey Roemen. “Every state is different and has different guidelines."
Not all states require licenses, but you almost always need to complete a registration, depending on how many children you will be caring for. Daycare.com gives a comprehensive overview of each state’s licensing requirements, so one of your first tasks will be determining what kind of licensing your state requires and how many children you plan to care for at once.
“There are a lot of people who quit daycare or dropped their numbers down because they didn’t want to be registered,” Lindsey says. When you have a better idea of what your state requires, it will help you identify your own business plan.
Another consideration is your Home Owner’s Association (HOA), if you belong to one. The enrollment numbers at Shalonda Owens’ daycare, Fruitful Trees Learning Center, were limited by her HOA. “Where I live, my HOA will not allow me to have over six kids at one time,” she says.
Here are some possible licensing requirements:
– Physical space: a minimum square footage per child, both indoor and outdoor, depending on age.
– Health requirements: annual medical examinations for staff and/or children; immunization records.
– Fire regulations: a posted evacuation plan in each room and regular, documented fire drills.
– Education or training requirements: certifications in Early Childhood Education, ongoing professional development for staff. Lindsey was required to have an Early Childhood Education degree or several years of experience in childcare.
Once you have carefully read the licensing requirements, make an appointment with licensing specialists to ask questions and review the procedure for obtaining your license (if you need one). It might be helpful for them to visit your home as well.
Now that you have reviewed the licensing regulations in your state and determined if starting a daycare is a feasible option for you, it’s time to look at other daycares in your area. This will be your competition and colleagues.
Compile a list of daycares in your area with the following information:
– Enrollment numbers (how many children do they care for?)
– Ages of enrollment
– Hours
– Tuition cost
– Location
Ask yourself: Where is the gap between community need and existing services? What needs aren’t being met? If there is a saturation in your area of facilities offering full-time care for two-to-five-year-olds during traditional, weekday hours, then maybe your home daycare could offer very early morning, overnight, weekend, or evening care, or specifically care for infants up to two years old. By identifying the existing daycares in your area, you can determine what your community needs and what will make your business successful.
In addition to knowing the competition, it is beneficial to know the other daycare providers in your area. When Lindsey had surgery, all the home providers pitched in to cover for her and take care of her children while she recovered. “We back up for each other,” Lindsey says. “We get together once every other week and talk about what we’re doing.”
To obtain information about other centers in your area, you can contact your county licensing office, spend some time searching online, or browse the Yellow Pages.
Now that you have a plan, it’s time to set the wheels in motion.
Choose your location:
Picking the location for your daycare may be necessary if you don’t plan to run it out of your home.
Purchase equipment:
In addition to toys, you may need sheets, mats, blankets, child-sized utensils, plates and cups, high chairs, step stools, and booster seats.
Purchase insurance:
Insurance is vitally important when starting a daycare. You need property insurance to cover your business equipment and liability coverage in case you are sued.
Marketing is an important step for ensuring your home daycare thrives.
Here are some questions that can help you identify your client base and how to reach them:
– Who are your potential clients?
– Where are they?
– What are they currently doing for childcare?
– What can you offer them that is an improvement on their current arrangement?
– How do you compare with your competitors?
Once your daycare is operational, continue to seek out accreditations like the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) or National Association for Family Childcare and other professional development opportunities to improve your knowledge base and your reputation as a child care provider.
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