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Starting a daycare business might be for you if you love children as much as caring for and playing with them. But before you do, it’s essential to understand what you’ll need to prepare to take in children in your care. You already have the foundation if you have the patience and the right attitude to be around them. The following information is what you’re going to need to supplement that.
If you want to know how to start a daycare business, contact the daycare licensing agency in your area. Licensing is the first step to ensure that you’ll be compliant and able to build your business around state laws.
You must first learn about the guidelines and see if your state has unique requirements. Some states don’t even require a license. But you’ll need to register your business first and give information on how many children you plan to take under your care.
Licensing is required in states where daycares take on five children and more. Plan and decide how many you’ll be in charge of to help determine if you’ll get a license.
Take Early Childhood Education Classes
Starting a daycare business doesn’t require you to have any experience in the business. But you’ll be taking charge of children who won’t have the same understanding as adults. Knowledge of early childhood development will help you provide children with the proper support and care. It’ll also help you understand each child's needs more. It’ll also help you develop age-appropriate play-based activities to help kids learn and have fun.
It’s recommended to get a degree in early childhood education. You can inquire at your local community college or search online. The course will let you in on how a child thinks and behaves and the unique needs they have to get the proper care.
Apart from that, you’ll gain skills to set your brand and separate your business from your competitors. Parents will be expecting valuable services from your capable hands, so you must meet them halfway to keep them coming back.
Develop A Daycare Program
Determine the needs of your community. You can accept infants if care for babies is scarce in your area. Look into state requirements because some will only allow up to two infants in daycare. The care for pre-school age children is more common. There might also be competition in your areas, such as centers and other federally funded programs.
Decide what curriculum you’ll offer. There are different kinds of curricula that you can develop for your daycare business. Here are some examples:
Play-Based Learning
Your goal is to help children to develop social and emotional skills. Instead of lecturing, you facilitate learning that encourages exploration and discovery. The play-based curriculum doesn’t require a mandatory facility.
Academic
Here, the children will spend the day learning the alphabet, colors, numbers, and shapes; learning how to write; and participating in other academics. The instructor will provide worksheets and guide the children through age-appropriate art projects.
Montessori
Montessori curriculum emphasizes teaching self-discipline, independence, and committing to responsibilities. The children in the classroom are of varying ages and have assigned workstations.
Reggio Emilia
The children learn based on their interests along with their parents and teachers, who provide various ways for them to learn and also document the progress of the children.
As you can see, developing a program is important in establishing a community daycare.
Create A Daycare Business Plan And Do Market Research
After developing a program, the next step is to create a solid business plan. It’s where you decide if you will look for a building or build the business at home.
It’d help if you also did market research to determine the needs of your community. With this, you’ll also need to look into the requirements for financing, staffing, the marketing plan, and more.
You can also look for good sources on operating a business if you’re a beginner. You’re likely to pick up tips, know the answers to questions you haven’t thought of, and learn from some examples.
Work On Financing Requirements
If you have a down payment saved for a facility to lease or buy, it’ll be easier to begin your business. But if you don’t have a significant amount of money, you can decide to lease first.
You can also check franchising from a reputable daycare brand to help you design your facility's layout, such as operations, the design, and the floor plan. But know that franchising could cost you more upfront expenses than buying or leasing a traditional school.
Weigh your pros and cons to get the financing you can repay in time so that you can continue running your daycare business even if you experience financial strains.
Final Thoughts
Being a daycare business owner can be a very rewarding job. You can make lasting relationships with the children and parents in your community while also making a positive impact on the lives of many.
It takes work, though; organization and commitment to running a successful daycare center cannot be overlooked. Hopefully, the five steps we have discussed have given you an overview of some of the tasks you will need to devote time and energy to if you are considering opening up your own daycare business.
Starting such an endeavor is exciting yet daunting, but rest assured that with research, dedication, and passion, it can be done! So find your inspiration, create plans to tackle each goal one by one, and start your journey towards becoming a daycare business owner today!
Have you ever thought about starting a daycare business?
Krystle Cook – the creator of Home Jobs by MOM – put her psychology degree on a shelf and dived into a pile of diapers and dishes instead. She is a wife and mother to two rambunctious boys, sweating it out in her Texas hometown. She loves cooking, DIY home projects, and family fun activities.
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