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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Anyone go from DC Home to Center?
Christina72684 10:34 AM 03-18-2014
A DC center is closing near by and there's another one that closed a couple of years ago and is for sale really cheap. I was just curious if anyone has ever went from owning a home to owning a center and if they could tell me about it. Like how long they owned their DC home first, how long it took them to prepare and open the center, how many kids did they start out with at the center, how long before they got comfortably full, etc.
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Sugar Magnolia 11:45 AM 03-18-2014
I did not start out as a home based daycare, went directly to center.....
I would recommend you buy the real estate, if you can, as opposed to renting.
The main consideration is do you have a directors credential? I think all states require them. If not, can you obtain one? Hiring a director would be expensive.
If the site in question has already been a center, I'm sure it's already zoned appropriately, but please check with your city/county first. Another important consideration is does the building need renovations and how much will they cost?
Is it a large facility? Really big centers are hard to fill. I would try to investigate why the previous center closed. Remember, if the previous.center had a terrible reputation, you will need a LOT of advertising and signage that screams "UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP".

I started small, 3 kids, one of which was my own. It took time to build my clientele, several weeks to get to 10, about 5 months to each capacity of 15.

And remember the primary directive of tall estate....location, location, location.
Helping others open centers, especially small ones, is my goal. Hope that helps!
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Sugar Magnolia 11:49 AM 03-18-2014
Mine took 14 months to get approved. But that was due to a zoning change.
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