Hi everyone! I'm curious as to how all of you started up your daycare? I am currently a teacher and have been for the past 5 years now. I think this would be a fun and great way to be able to stay at home with my child when that time comes. We don't have any kids as of right now.

Here's my big question. I wasn't sure if I should start the daycare up before I have my first child or wait until after I have a baby and then after about 6-8 months when I was ready start up the daycare? My husband is going to be working on finishing the basement and I originally wanted to have everything up and running by June 2011 so I could start enrolling kids either over next summer or in Sept. 2011. We were also thinking about getting pregnant this spring so then I was thinking that if I get pregnant in the meantime and have my own baby in 2012 would it make things really complicated? I don't like the idea of closing down the daycare for only 2 weeks when I have my own baby. What advice do you all have!? Thanks so much again!

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My son was born seven years after I started child care. I lost half of my clients within two months time so it was pretty tough being a new Mom and building my business back up. A year later I moved and did a BIG renovation on the basement level of the new house. That was another difficult time.

You deal either way. Most people I know that do child care start after their second child is born. That's when the cost of child care becomes more expensive than what the Mom can make in the work force and child care is a way to make money from home.

It's not going to be easy either way. In all the years I've done child care I have never seen SO many people doing care. You being a teacher will help draw clients but most likely you are in an area that is saturated with providers so really research to see if there is a market for what you want to offer.

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Nannyde, I love reading post by you because I love rules and I think you do too.
Anyways, I am so glad that you are honest about the current child care market. I have not openned yet and I just see so many daycares out there and I get so discouraged. I am glad you dont sugar coat it like everyone else I ask.
I am a LPN right now and I also work at the nursey in the church. I dont know if I could talk about my daycare while at work at the church because of issues of interest but I am hoping that my being an LPN will make parents more inclined to use my services.
We need my income that I make now as a nurse but I would need 4 FT children to make the same money doing daycare, so why not I said. It has been a dream of mine since a little girl, I dont want to regret not doing it.
Any advice you could give someone so excited to start but depressed by all the competition? How do I shine?
Thanks

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When you say you are a teacher do you mean a four year degreed teacher or a worker in a day care center that they call teachers?

whoops that was for the OP

Being a LPN is AWESOME and you should use that in your advertising. Parents of newborns LOVE Nurses. I'm a RN and it has taken me to many places in my career.

Can you make some t-shirts up with your logo and wear them to Church when you work in the Nursery?

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I am a highly qualified dual certified teacher for Massachusetts. Masters in Special Ed and a BS in Elem. Ed.

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Thank you for your honest advice here. I did a lot of thinking last night and opening up my own home daycare would be such a perfect fit for me. I can completely see myself doing it. I would only need 2-3 kids to earn a little extra income so I wouldn't have to go back to work full time. I was thinking of getting everything all set and ready to go with the daycare and then after I have my baby start advertising to line up some kids to enroll into my daycare. I wouldn't be able to afford to stay at home and do nothing and wait until I have a second child to start this. The absolute most I could stay home for would be a year and then my baby would have to be put into daycare anyways, so I figure why not run one myself!
I spent all day yesterday calling other home day cares in the area to see what their rates are, what's the max children they have at one time, do they offer food, diapers, wipes or anything like that. I received a lot of helpful information. You really need to do your research on this and do it well! My husband owns a web design company on the side so he will help me design my own website for the daycare when that time comes and he will also help me with the advertising and marketing since he's a business man anyways. So I think he will be a BIG help in this process! Love the hubby!!
I also spoke to someone about what my next steps are and signed up for the Provider Meeting to get me started.

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Yay on the website

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You will be fine.

Go for it. You have something that few providers have. You just have to find clients that will pay for your education.

Have you considered just a preschool?

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nannyde,

Thanks for the encouragement! You're great and you REALLY know your stuff!
You mean run a preschool home daycare? I didn't know I had that option, good to know if I understood you correctly! haha I was thinking of only taking 3-4 year olds anyways.

Another quick question, would I charge people more due to my qualifications and certifications? And around how much....when I called around yesterday I saw a range from 40-55$ a day. But then I also know of someone else who charges 310$ for infants for 1 week. That's seems high but what do I know!

Also, does the size of your house, yard and neighborhood matter anything in the pricing? Thanks once again!!

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Oh yeah you can charge more. Heck yeah

Now think about you integrating your baby into this. That's important. You may want to start out with multi level age groups and then once your kids hit the preK age then go all prek all the time.

Your rates ... as a newbie I would say start at the start at around 50 a day and then work yourself into the 55 a day as you get further along. A newbie usually has to start at or below the normal range and then work up. You have the education to start higher.

Word of caution: Be careful about the focus on your special education degree. You DON'T want a house of BD kids and there are a TON of BD kids out there. You don't want to have your whole day be violent kids when you have a baby in your house.

You don't have to have a fancy house. If you have a middle of the road house you will be fine. Just draw from any surrounding areas that are higher income.

If you want you can p.m. me and I'll give you my phone number. I can talk you thru the start up stuff.

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im not one to sugar coat anything either but i just want to add...

i'm in a town of only 2000, 7 miles up a dirt road from the center of town. i was told to forget it , i'd never get any business. there were to many providers right in town, charging dirt cheap. (not licensed, i might add) exactly one year later, i'm full and have a waiting list. i'm now in the process of expanding my license and looking for an assistant. so it all depends on the quality of your program, and if you can offer what parents are looking for. good luck!!!

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melskids - sounds great to me! I'm hoping with my qualifications and experience that it will help me out a lot. I also liked nannyse idea about making it into a preschool daycare. We also live in a very nice, quiet neighborhood on a cul-de-sac with a nice yard. Set far back from the road. I'm hoping that this will help as well, but who knows. Either way I would be doing this after I have my first baby. And I'm wicked nervous about that! I don't know if I should just hire an assistant right off the bat or what. Totally stumped! I know this is still a ways off but I really want to have it all planned out well in advance! I'm glad you're doing so great! That's makes me hopeful!

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I started up my business after I had my first two boys and 14 years later and three more boys my business and going. I even moved states and had to get my license again but my business right now is full and I enjoy doing it and being able to be with my kids most days. I mean summer is tough but somehow we all get through it good luck

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Just wanted to agree wholeheartedly with the bolded text. When I started out I advertised my degree in psychology. I ended up with ADHD, ODD, aggression, and autism all in my first 6 months. I don't want to sound ignorant, but I only had ONE child without some diagnosis. I will never advertise like that again.

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Yup

I have had to deal with that with being a RN. I had to make a decision about how many of my slots I could do special needs and what special needs I could take without it substantially altering the care of the other kids and the financial cost in staff time. In this small of a business even one special needs kid can end up taking the lions share of your staff time.

It's not just the care of the kids. You have SO much more time in parent conference, reporting, documenting, insurance, and adapting your program. It really really adds up quickly.

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I appreciate all of this advice! Def. won't be advertising my psychology or Sped degree! That would be a living hell!!

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maybe you could say it in another way, like "degree in education"

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I started my daycare while I was pregnant with my second. I interviewed while I was in my last trimester - I did all the licensing requirements in the first and second trimester - it took about 6-12 months to be fully up and running.

If you can now, I would get the classes, trainings, meetings etc out of the way - get your license...then have the baby then interview and sign families

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