before getting into this business, i would like to some feedback on the revue on the daycare business ? how much can a daycare business make ? any tips or help would be much appreciated .

Reply

It depends on a lot of factors.
- How much will it cost to run your business? Food? Art supplies? Curriculum? Extra utilities?
- How many kids will your state allow you to watch?
- How much can you charge in your market?
- Will your children take any of those spots? Mine take 2, so I get income from 6 of my 8 spots.
- Taxes
- Accountant
- Assistant
- Professional Development classes
- Cost of certifications
- Yearly re licensing costs ($400 in my state including business license, inspections etc)

Reply

Working 55 hours a week I make $12.23/hr

Reply

It does vary a lot. How many families can you have legally? Are you able to stay full? What are your business expenses? I think it would be really hard to know without actually sitting down and doing some math. And then some things are still hard to factor. I have been back in the business for a year and a half and just got my second family. But in some areas you might fill up in a few days.

Reply

About $9.38 an hour in 2012 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care...kers.htm#tab-5

Factor into this long hours. I worked from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Also factor in that you are often not at full capacity. If a family leaves with little or no notice it may take a while before you find another client.

Pay is low but I still liked it. Some benefits are that you are your own boss, you save on childcare costs for your own child if you have any, you work at home, you don't commute, etc.

Paywise though, not good in most cases. It also depends on your area's rules. We can only have 6 legally. Some providers on here can have 10 so that makes a big difference. When my friend had a center she said rent also went up every year so factor in that for centers.

Reply

As others have said, it's going to depend on a lot of factors and your location.
I'm in an area where childcare is in high demand, so I am usually always full, have a wait list and can comfortably take the time to pick/choose who I want to interview.
My license allows up to 12 children in varying ages (including my own).
However, I offer organic foods, which leaves my grocery budget taking a big chunk of my profits. But, that's important to me.
The awesome thing is pretty much anything can be a tax write off. We just redid windows, water heater, furnace, air conditioning and fencing to our home and have a pretty big tax write off for it.
It's by no means a high paying job, but can be a high reward job in a very personal way.

Reply

I can take six full-time and two part-time. I have a variation of this right now. I am usually full. I also offer about 90% organic but I'm on the food program and my food is covered. Before expenses I make around $43,000. In home providers have a ton of expense right-offs. I'm open M-F with one Friday per month I'm closed. I'm open 7am-5:30pm. I'm working on becoming a group family child so I can hire someone to work with! I don't like the isolation.

Yes, you have to find out what the demand is in your area. You will have to advertise, advertise, advertise unless there is a really big demand in your area. You need to estimate your income by not assuming you will have all full-time children unless your area has a large enough demand you can charge for full-time even if kids are not there 5 days per week.

You will have to calculate start up costs, extra lights and water, and any improvements such as a fence. Also new equipment like porta-cribs, mats (kids bring sleeping bags here), art supplies, toys, business supplies, licensing requirements, etc. There's more...there are always extra expenses!

I do well financially for my area. It's rural and a lower income area.

Reply

does anyone mind sharing their revnue for their daycare business and how they adversest themselves ? is daycare business a good income/profitable business ?? please help

Reply

Like we have said as far as income it can vary a ton from week to week and month to month. It really depends on your enrollment and your expenses. Someone else sharing their revenue won't help you, so please don't base anything on that. Someone else's revenue will likely be nothing like yours. I will tell you that it is hard to make a living doing it if you are a single parent, I couldn't afford to do this if I didn't have a husband who works. Some providers are able to make it work being single parents, but it is not easy!

Reply

We won't be much help. Like every new business venture, you have to study the market in your area and develop your own plan. You can't simply go on an internet board to see if you can make money and how much. It's impossible to predict because each state and area are so vastly different.

You can make $60 a week for 50 hours in some areas and $400 a week in some areas. It's that broad of a range.

You also need to be certain you know how to take care of kids. Caring for other people's kids in a group is completely different than caring for your own. There's virtually nothing in common.

You have to do the work yourself.

Reply

This is such a good example of how out numbers won't help you -as it has so many factors. I make more than my dh does at his hotel management job. If something happened to him the kids and I would be fine financially even before life insurance, but if something happened to
me my husband would have a much harder time financially. I live in a state where I can charge a good amount ($650 a month), and always am full. But there are other providers in my area who I am sure are as good of providers but aren't as good at self promotion so I have a wait list and they are always advertising.

Like nannyd said - make sure you have the skills. Group care is very different than being a SAHM But I love it.

Reply

how much do you guy charge them so i can have an idea of the fee ?? its the payment biweekly or monthly ?? do the parent pay you every two week or monthly ?? and i know this out of subject but does anyone recommend any good starter kit out there that will help me ?? thank you all so much !

Reply

Okay, so here is why no one can answer you. I live in Michigan - far away from you. Our economic climate is completely different than yours. In fact, if I moved 20 miles south, I would have to charge less for daycare. If I moved 20 miles north, I could charge much more.

Even within a town - the lowest here charges $20 per day. I charge between 27-32. Some centers here charge 40-50 per day.

Once you know what the other daycares are charging, you need to figure out what you are offering. Are you play based? Are you curriculum driven? Do you transport kids? Do you take school age? Before school? After school? Organic food? Non-gmo? No packaged preservative crap? Will you be on the food plan? Will you have a strong arts and crafts program? Will you do music? Will the kids have access to tv or will you be a no tv program?

You asked in the other thread if anyone had a problem with you as a male. I do not. But when I'm interviewing someone to watch my child, they better know what they are doing and have their stuff together. You would get eaten alive in an interview right now. And spit out for good measure. No offense.

I would take 6 months and really study and plan. Read this forum religiously. See what problems come up. Understand what your state laws and guidelines are. Design your program.

The simple answer is: you will not get rich doing this. You can certainly make a good living, moreso in other states than MI, where we are restricted to 6 kids.

Reply

thank you for the help

Reply

Yes, you can't base what we charge to help you. It varies so much by area. I can't even really give you my rate, because I have two families of single mom nurses. So they have a base rate, but sometimes they need all day when school is out or even weekends, and they pay more on those days. But what I can get here is lower than in some areas 100 miles from me. Also, my expenses are a little less, because I don't have to be licensed to have up to six kids. That saves me money, and I pass that on to my clients. If I were to get licensed, I would have to spend a lot of money on some things, and I would have to raise my rates to cover that. In my area that would be hard, because it is already a depressed area, and people either can't, or in some cases just won't pay a higher price.

Reply

thank you , i just needed to know if daycare is a profitable business. i just love kids and i wish to open my own daycare after college. i just needed to know if daycare is a good business to start c:

Reply

For me, it is an ok living. I am making the equivalent of what I was as an office assistant. If I factor in that I am not paying for child care myself, I'm better off financially. Would I be able to do this if my husband wasn't working? Maybe, but I wouldn't be able to find an entry level job paying what I make right now.

Reply

Yes and no. Equally.

Daycare CAN be a highly profitable business IF you have a good business plan and you follow that plan.

IMHO, one of the biggest negatives to having a successful child care business for many providers is exactly what you said above "I just love kids".....

.....NOT that that is a bad thing at all, just that a lot of providers allow their feelings or love of the kids to get in the way of enforcing their policies and the fastest and easiest way to get taken advantage of (and not paid) in this business is to not enforce your policies for fear of losing a family that you just love...

There are two very tricky sides to this business and the provider that can easily navigate the business end while maintaining the emotional side is a successful provider.

Reply

^^ thank you for y'all help . Do y'all any ideas of a great business plan to make day care profitable ? Like hmmm any tips or helpful ideas to make a daycare profitable business ? I want to make daycare business as my career and job. And before I do , I want to make sure it will be a profitable business to make ? Do y'all have any tips to make it profitable and successful ??

Reply

Find out what the daycares around you are offering and then offer something unique. For example, I base my home daycare on what a parent would expect to find in a center. I do a curriculum, have someone come in and teach Spanish lessons 2x a week, we do crafts almost every day (a lot of parent pleasers, and free crafting), I do ZooPhonics with them, I serve mostly organic, but definitely no processed foods, I'm big on vegetables (parents dig that), and I have 7 acres with hiking trails for the kids.

For the outdoorsy parent, I talk up the outside. For the education-driven parent, there's curriculum. For the health conscious, food.

Figure out what you want your focus to be, and go from there. A lot of people on here do things a lot differently from me. You really have to know your area. My area is educationally driven. I have to have a curriculum or I wouldn't stay full.

Where in MI are you planning to open?

Reply

^^ where in Michigan ? I'm still looking for the location and still undecided.

Reply

Stay away from the East side. West is best!

Reply

^^ thank you the tips any recommendations in the west side ??

Reply

If you want bigger, Grand Rapids. Smaller, Holland/Saugatuck/up to Muskegon area. All of the smaller towns are beautiful and on Lake MI. Get ready for awful and awfully long winters, though. You have to make peace with that.

Reply

Any recommendations during the winter ? Any helpful tips starting in Michigan ? Like is it a easy process or challenging ? Anything helpful would be great

Reply

I am in California and I clear $102,000 a year before deductions.

Reply

But you can't call that income without figuring out the deductions. Deductions are your expenses, so you are not "clearing" that amount of money.

Reply