When making the decision to go into the child care business you first need to consider a variety of important factors that can help you to decide if child care is the right business for you.
Owning and running your own child care center can be an extremely satisfying and rewarding experience, but not everyone is cut out for working in this industry. Below are some of the factors that can determine whether an individual is suited to this business.
Before taking the plunge and getting set up with your own child care business ask yourself the following six questions.
Child Care Business Success Factors
1) Do you have leadership skills? As the manager of a child care center you will be taking on a leadership role with both your staff and the children.
2) Are you hardworking and organized? Setting up and managing a child care center requires a lot of effort. You must be able to manage your time and resources in a way that maximizes productivity and keeps things organized.
3) Are you in good health? It is a fact of life that children get sick more than adults and colds can spread around daycare centers like wildfire. Being fit and healthy will ensure that your immune system is strong and that you can avoid getting sick too often. Good health will also give you the energy to lead the business lifestyle of a child care center owner.
4) Can you keep cool in a crisis? To be successful in daycare or any business for that matter you should ideally be someone who will not panic in an emergency.
5) Do you have sufficient funding to start the business? You will need to ensure that you have enough cash to cover your living costs in the early stages as well before your business becomes profitable.
6) Do you enjoy working with children? Are you able to take responsibility for, and take care of other people’s children like they were your own? Depending on the age groups that you are working with you may have to take care of them physically, discipline them, educate them or play with them.
Once you have decided that you are suited to opening and running a child care center you can then consider the following four factors to come up with a basic business model before proceeding with the preparation of a business plan.
Other Basic Child Care Startup Considerations
1) Home-based or rented premises? Running a commercial daycare business requires a large investment and you may be best to start off with a home-based service and then work up to eventually opening in rented premises. Wherever you open your child care or daycare center make sure that you are in compliance with local zoning laws.
2) What kind of legal structure will be suitable for your center? This will depend on many factors and you should seek advice from an accountant or lawyer before deciding to go with a sole-proprietorship, a partnership or a ‘limited liability’ company. It is likely that you will also be required to have a business license to run a daycare in your state.
3) Location. Is it possible to run a small child care center from your home or will you have to rent commercial premises? Even though many organizations such as companies, universities and hospitals have set up daycares on-site many parents still prefer to use a service closer to their home. So the question here is, do you set up close to where families live or close to where parents work?
4) Operating hours. You really need to do some market research to find out some more about when your services will be needed by local people. Some parents may want to drop children off very early in the morning before they go to work and others will want to pick them up late so it is likely that you will have to be open for long hours. If you are not interested in such long hours you could target mothers who are working part time and only need your services for part of the day. Depending on the size of your market their may also be the opportunity to offer weekend care if parents require it.
Successful businessmen and women take time to carefully evaluate an opportunity and to make sure that it is compatible with them. Understanding the factors that will improve your chances of success is the key to making a great start. Ensure that opening a child care center is a positive and profitable experience for you by knowing exactly what you have to do to succeed.
