Starting a Day Care Business - No Kid Stuff, This!

Starting a day care business provides a great entrepreneurial opportunity if you love children. It could be the best thing you can do to earn an income. The size can range from a small home based operation on a shoe string budget to a large commercial center. It's up to you to decide the course of your business - either choosing to remain small by creating work only for yourself or growing into an enterprise with large revenue.

Oh, before we go on, let's set the record straight. Starting a day care business is not the same as the babysitting you did as a teenager. Providing a day care service is a very real business. You need to choose the services you will offer, identify the target child segment, and generally consider all those aspects that you would in any other line of commercial activity. Since the work involves caring for someone else's children, it takes responsibility and serious commitment. Starting a day care business also has some specific requirements, which you need to be aware of.

Plan resources: Determine the child-care needs of your community. Choose a site that is appropriate and affordable - it could either be your home or a commercial location. Estimate your startup costs and identify the sources of funds. You will obviously need to open a banking account for your business. If you plan to hire people to help, decide on an optimal staff-to-child ratio and recruit accordingly.

Complete the paperwork: You need a license to run this business, and it can take several months to get all the paperwork done! Requirements vary from state to state; hence it is best to get in touch with a local child-care licensing office.

Equip yourself: Get yourself trained adequately to deal with crisis situations like injuries and fire. Contact your local hospital for first aid classes. Make sure you have a medical kit and fire extinguishers handy to deal with emergencies. Seek professional advice on whether you need any further training and certification. Once you business is licensed, it might be subjected to surprise inspection, so make sure you comply with all regulations! For example, do you follow prescribed guidelines while deciding the kids' menu? Are their play areas safe and secure?

Seek benefits: You will find that there are many support groups that may be helpful. For example, "Save the Children", a non-profit organization, provides free nutritional workshops, advice, and reimbursement of food expenses.

Finally, for the more mundane "business-like" matters, use this checklist s a guideline:

1. Hire an accountant to help you with money matters. Taking care of your books is almost as important as caring for the children in your charge. You never know when the IRS decides to pay you a surprise visit, so hang on to every receipt!

2. Research a bit before you set prices. Be clear about payment terms - it's best to put things in writing.

3. Be firm about day care timings. Some parents can be habitual late comers, and will expect you to be understanding at all times. The sooner you dispel this notion, the better.

4. Consult an expert before starting a day care business. Some of the websites that offer help and You'll also find...
'The Daycare Provider's Workbook', 'Start & Run a Home Daycare', 'Starting a Child Care Center - The Indispensable Guidebook for Starting a Day Care or Child Care Business' interesting reading.

Most important, be prepared for minor problems which might crop up from time to time. Starting a day care business isn't child's play, and will bring its share of challenges. And more than its share of joy!