Originally Posted by JungleGym4028:
I'm curious what ultimately happened here? Did you end up opening that daycare?! 
No, I decided against it mainly because it didn't make business sense at this stage of my career. I wasn't worried about my lack of experience, but I was worried about how long it took. There's high opportunity costs in terms of lost salary, medical coverage, benefits (like paid paternity leave), etc.
There's also higher risk leaving the security of a corporate job. I can't imagine being a new daycare owner trying to navigate this environment, trying to keep the business open while keeping the children and staff safe.
I absolutely think a daycare is a viable business, especially one with an amazing and positive purpose, but in my situation it just didn't make sense.
Originally Posted by sunshst:
Why don't you test the waters first by opening a small daycare and have only your wife work while you still keep your current job? After 1 year of running small daycare if you are full and if you manage to build a waiting list for your daycare apply for large license. Only once you manage to get your large daycare full I would consider quiting current job.
She makes more than I do
Financially, it'd only make sense with a large daycare (judging from cost per headcount). Success obviously isn't guaranteed, especially since neither of us have any professional experience working with children. But success IS guaranteed to take a long time even if we were smart and lucky enough to survive as new small business owners. And that time is expensive