How to Open & Run a Day-Care Center
Day-care centers are perpetually in high demand, because the number of working mothers is constantly on the rise, divorce rates tend to stay high, and the economy tends to demand that both parents work in order to pay for basic living expenses. Consequently, opening and running a day-care center is an excellent business opportunity; however, it is not for everyone. In addition to being entrepreneurial, the effective day-care owner and manager should be of a temperament suitable for working with lots of children for long hours.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Determine the need for a day-care center in the location you seek to open and run one. To determine the need, consider contacting several families through the local schools or municipalities and set up a focus group. At the focus group, learn about the average age of the children, the typical occupations of the families, the standard work hours and, most importantly, whether the families would like a day-care service and what they are willing to pay to have one.
-
2
Create a budget that includes obtaining the facility for the day-care center and meeting the requirements for obtaining a license to run one. Typically, a license will be awarded from a local government; therefore, visit the local municipality early on to receive a checklist of requirements that must be met before the day care may operate legally. These usually include meeting a certain health and comfort standards (e.g., nutrition of food, air conditioning and heat) in addition to a personal background check.
-
-
3
Purchase liability and accident insurance before opening the day-care center. Contact the local municipality and/or other day-care center owners for advice on insurance.
-
4
Review the locations, facilities, and other amenities of day-care centers in the area. To be competitive with them, you will need to update the features of your day-care center accordingly. For example, if the competitor accepts only 1-year-olds to 5-year-olds, then consider taking on toddlers and 6-year-olds as well.
-
5
Hire a staff with a suitable temperament for working at a day-care center. Some of the most important criteria are patience, compassion, empathy, creativeness, attentiveness and attention to detail. For example, a patient staff member who is not attentive or detail-oriented may be willing to work with kids individually, but may be an ineffective manager of the playroom, risking the safety of the children. Thus, be very critical in the hiring process.
-
6
Be reliable and ensure that the day-care center is always fully operational in accordance with the stated hours of operation. In other words, if the day is supposed to be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., then it must always be open and fully operational at those hours, roughly 100 percent of the time. Were a parent to depend on the day-care center and suddenly not be able to drop off her or his kids as expected, then the parent would likely seek out a new day care in the near future.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit children image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
