Starting a day care can be a pretty daunting and intimidating task for some people especially if you have never owned a business before, since there is so much stuff to know. However, with the right knowledge and preparation, you can fulfill your dream of starting a day care that will be successful right from the start. Like we said, there is a lot to know and you are probably ready to do some research and reading on the subject, so we have put together a couple of tips and reminders so you don’t accidentally make a “newbie” mistake that could potentially cost you customers- or even worse, your business! So without further ado, we will be covering everything you need to know about starting a day care in this article.
Day care centers can effectively be split into two categories; the ones that are operated out of someone’s house, and then on the other hand you have the day care centers that are operated in a purpose built building, that was designed just to be a day care. If you are looking to start a day care center, you will have to decide which is best for you. Using your house for the day care center may be the easier and more economical method, but anybody who has seen Daddy Day Care will be able to tell you that things can get pretty messy if it’s in a house. However, they probably weren’t too well prepared to handle lots of kids in the first place, so if you are well-suited to be working with kids, there really is nothing wrong with using your house for the day care center. Parents may even provide it because there is an element of trust and “home-feeling” when you are taking a kid to a house, rather than some building.
Once you have decided where you will be operating your business from, it is time to start hiring worker! It should go without being said that you are going to want to hire people that are good with little kids and have the know-how to clean up after them. For example, a high school student who has a baby brother or sister makes for an ideal candidate as a day care center employee, since they already have lots of experience with kids and don’t need to be paid a whole lot of money. You shouldn’t have your entire day care center running on high school students though, because they won’t be able to work all the time, for obvious reasons. For this, it would be smart to look for people who have experience being a “nanny” at a household, since they are very similar jobs and you are sure to get a lot of experienced potential employees when looking for this type of person. And last but not least, make sure you can trust the people you hire. There is a lot of potential legal trouble you could get into if one of your employees messes up with a parent’s kid, so hiring responsible and mature people is certainly a must.
Above are just two of the most important things to remember when starting a day care. Remember that it can never hurt to give it a try if you already have experience running a small home-based business before, as this type of training can prove to be invaluable when working with kids. So if you put enough money, time and effort into starting a day care, you can soon have a very successful business that will provide you and lots of others with a good, steady job working with little kids.
