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Starting Your Day Care Business

Starting Your Day Care Business

 

DayCareUniverse.com

 

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3 Steps To Learning How To Start A Daycare Center

So, you want to learn how to start a daycare center but where to start?  Let’s assume you know nothing about the day care industry except that it involves children!!!  That’s pretty much the position I was in when I started my day care 10 years ago and I spent a year and a half researching and learning within the day care world including day care centers and home day cares before I got going.  Before you go running for the hills in dismay allow me to cut short the research time a little with some pointers on how best to prepare for the exciting adventure that is ‘Starting a daycare business’. Read on »

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Day Care Licensing And Day Care Certification Tips

 If you wish to start a day care you need to find out about day care licensing and day care certification.   There is a procedure involved in getting your day care licensed and the more prepared you are the more seamless it will be.  Learning about the requirements for a day care license is a great way to discover exactly what is required and whether or not you are fully ready and able to embark on a business in child care. 

 Licensing requirements, regulations and applications vary from state to state and internationally.  Details for your particular area can be found here: USA http://nrc.uchsc.edu and Canadian licensing and regulations information can be found here:  http://canada.gc.ca/othergov/prov_e.html.  UK information is handled by Ofsted: www.ofsted.gov.uk/childcare and in Ireland contact your local HSE Pre-school Officer plus the Childcare Authority can provide relevant contacts.

 Generally speaking, the day care licensing process is designed to protect the children and ensure that the day care environment is safe, children’s overall welfare is being served from the point of view of safety, hygiene, nutrition, activities and all aspects of their development.  Granting a day care license occurs upon completion of a detailed evaluation of the proposed service which takes into account all of the above. Read on »

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Day Care Regulations and Licensing

Licensing and regulations:

http://nrc.uchsc.edu

Canada

http://canada.gc.ca/othergov/prov_e.html

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Day care Staff Pre-Employment Background Screening

 When opening a day care center, it is essential to conduct pre-employment background checks on all potential staff. These checks safeguard both you and the children in your care. There are two main reasons for performing this step. The first is to verify that the person applying for the position within your child care center is indeed the person they claim to be. The second reason is to research any criminal history that may pose an issue to the children and staff of your daycare facility. Pre-employment background checks can also incorporate a drugs tests to determine if an individual has used recreational drugs. Read on »

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Daycare Franchises? Montessori Day Care? So Many Choices!

The realisation that starting a day care is a pretty enormous task slams into you as you slide your resignation across the desk to your ex boss.  Weighty questions must be tackled, decisions must be made e.g. Montessori day care or Steiner, daycare franchises or go it alone and the to do list continues to grow.

A day care franchise can be a great, no fuss, instant business way to go.  First off you'll get the benefit of instant brand recognition thus making it easier for you to gain customer loyalty.  Generally there will be a development process in place to help with funding acquisition, unit selection, the construction process, getting licensed, training and launching your business. 

Ongoing direction and support for staff may be included in the package along with a proprietary curriculum and building design templates.  Operations manuals will make hitting the ground running a breeze and having the use of a recognized brand for advertising may well mean a busy opening day. Home office support can be part of come franchises also. Read on »

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Fire Safety Program When You Start A Daycare

 Fire safety is a major consideration when you plan to start a daycare.  The safety of every individual who may enter your premises – staff, children, parents and visitors – is paramount and ultimately, your responsibility.  It is vital therefore that you have an effective fire safety management policy as fire safety is achieved via this policy combined with adequate fire safety features in your premises.  Simply, your goal is to effect whatever measure necessary to minimise the risk of a fire occurring and if a fire does breakout to ensure that staff and children are evacuated swiftly and safely. Read on »

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Helpful Links for Child Care Business Startup Ireland

Start up and business support links
www.teagasc.ie/startingyourownbusiness/template.htm - Business plan template
www.pabalto.co.uk- Business plan pro
www.basis.ie – Business plan guide
www.startingabusinessinireland.com
www.etradebusinessireland.com – County Enterprise Boards
www.corkbic.com – Cork and Kerry business support
www.dbic.com – Dublin business support
www.enterprise-ireland.com
www.fas.ie
www.revenue.ie
www.sebic.ie – South East business support
www.shannon-dev.ie – Shannon region business support
www.westbic.ie – Border, midland and western region support
www.wdc.ie – Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, Galway and Clare business support
www.chambersireland.ie
www.cro.ie – Companies Registration Office
www.dohc.ie/agencies- Health Boards

Read on »

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How To Make Your Day Care Stand Out And Be More Profitable!

 

You can make your day care stand out from the crowd, set it apart from the competition and as such, keep it full to capacity with children of happy parents. In order to achieve this desirable end you can take some small, cheap, easy to implement steps that will guarantee results.  Some take a little effort, others a little thought and some a little money but that investment in your business will supply you with unique selling points that will ensure the success of your day care. 

 So, a prospective parent arrives at your door brim full of cynicism and thoughts filled with negative day care tales – how do you get across to them that you are the real deal, that you provide quality child care?  Effective policies will indicate to parents the philosophy of your service and how your agreed and consistent methods of doing things will ensure the wellbeing of their children. Your policies are clear guidelines as to exactly how your business is run and should outline every procedure for every eventuality. Read on »

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How To Start A Daycare Business

You want to be with your kids, you need an income, you want to be your own boss - you want to know how to start a daycare business.  You've looked at all the dubious self employment options and you keep coming back to the idea of starting a day care business.  But it has remained an idea.  Why?  Fear of the unknown, fear of taking the risk, fear of falling at the first child care hurdle.

If you want to start a day care business my advice to you is remove the fear.  Get a taster of the child care business first and see if it is a profession you would enjoy. Immerse yourself in a day care environment for research purposes.  Get a job or offer your services at a day care or child care service.  Try to find one that will allow you to bring your children with you or get a kindly family member to do your child care while you are researching.  Do whatever it takes toget the time off work.  Remember, this is your day care dream future you are planning. Read on »

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How To Start A Home Daycare

You are wondering how to start a home daycare and don't know where to begin.  The list of things to do will seem overwhelming and unending.  You have your research, your business plan, designing an area, acquiring staff, obtaining clients and countless other tasks.  However, it is equally important you lay the groundwork now for the effective management of your day care business once you are up and running.  This article provides some tips on how to do just that.

It goes without saying that you have designed your area with the children in mind.  You designated an area where the children would be watched over, where games and activities could take place, where the children could eat, and where the children could rest if they so desired. Did you stop you think about incorporating a specific area where you could work with no distractions. In order to manage your home based day care business, it is important to have a small work area designated specifically for where you can conduct the operations behind the business. This is where you deal with taxes, staff paperwork, regulatory issues, advertising etc. This is your control center.Try to focus on keeping all things business separate from all things personal. If you start mixing up appointments, calendars, tasks, and so on, your business is likely to
suffer. You should make sure that the daycare business is a completely different persona from your personal life. This holds true when it comes to emails, telephone lines, and even business supplies. In order to effectively manage your home based day care business, be sure that business is kept separate in all aspects.

Time management is vital, particularly in a home daycare.  If you are not fastidious about organising your time you will become disorganised, inefficient and frazzled with little pieces of you spread
all over.  Timetable your day with core slots of time devoted to the day care and within those slots schedule specific activities.  Assign quieter parts of the day to complete domestic chores enlisting family members to help out.  Don't forget to factor in breaks and relaxation time for you too.  Child care is a tiring business and you need to keep fresh and energised. Read on »

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Katy's Day Care Saga!!

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ClipsAhoy.com

Anyway, my own personal story is probably quite typical.  I had a great career in electronics but when my third child was born I was faced with having to find someone outside of my family to care for my kids so I could work … a *gasp* stranger!   The thought scared me to death so I resigned as an electronic technician and started my daycare (before quitting, I made sure I had at least two children lined up so I wouldn't be without income). Read on »

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Links To Child Day Care Licensing and Start Up Information UK

Daycare Trust
21 St George’s Road
London SE1 6ES
Tel: 020 7840 3350
www.daycaretrust.org.uk

Department for Education and Skills (DfES) Publications Centre
0845 602 2260
www.surestart.gov.uk/publications

Read on »

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Links To Day Care Licensing And Start Up Information USA

Licensing and regulations:

http://nrc.uchsc.edu

Canada

http://canada.gc.ca/othergov/prov_e.html

  Read on »

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My Canadian Day Care Start Up Story!

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Many of us provide daycare in our own homes- it is a home/family business. Others have a separate facility.

I learned a lot from speaking to my city's registry of daycare providers.(Co-ordinatead Access for Child Care   www.cafcc.on.ca ) They provided me with a large binder handbook, regular newsletters, government regulations, tax help, a help line for child car providers. All for free.  They also provide courses at nominal rates. I talked with a lot of providers in my area. That and talking here on this site has given me  a lot of information and knowledge. And like a lot of people- I learned from my mistakes. Read on »

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Obtaining Finance for Your Day Care Business

Opening a day care is a dream nurtured by many people for
many reasons.  Some of these individuals may work in a day
care center and believe they could do a better job with
the added benefit of becoming self employed.  Many stay at
home parents figure they are already doing child care what
difference would a few extra kids make except an increase
in income. And lots of people are just straight tired of
nine to five working for a boss who doesn't care about
them.  So they dream.  But, most of these people that want
to establish a child care business never succeed in doing
so due to a lack of funding.  However, there is hope and
this article will introduce you to ideas on how to obtain
the financing required to start a day care business. Read on »

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Opening A Daycare Center - Magical Marketing Event

When opening a daycare center you are constantly and desperately looking for ways to market your new business.  One of the most effective marketing events you can organize is an Open Day.  I held one when opening my day care and it proved to be my most successful marketing endeavor reaping rewards to this day.

When you start a day care you should plan to hold this event just prior to, or shortly after opening.  Showcasing your amazing day care service is the primary reason for holding an Open Day allowing potential customers to view your facility and ask questions.  My big day was particularly fabulous and impressive (I’m very modest) so I figured what better way to give you some tips than to detail exactly what I did to create the perfect Start a Day Care Open Day. Read on »

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Rhonda's Day Care Story

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 ClipsAhoy.com

I was the 2nd born of a large family of 6 children. My family was very nurturing, and children have always been very special, loved, and cherished. My mother was a stay-at-home mom, and did casual babysitting for some years for friends and a few other people, for extra spending money. (Not as an organized career of child care provider.) There were always extra children around at our house! I always had a special love for little ones. In our middle-school years, my younger sister and myself held a “Little School” in our basement for the many neighborhood kids. We read books, did simple counting games, and color, number, and letter recognition games, as well as some simple addition. It was a big hit and the kids were always asking when we would have “little school” again! I also was a popular babysitter in my teen years. Among my regulars were two families with twins, and several large families. Read on »

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Start A Day Care - Website And Blog

So,you want to start a day care. I'm a huge advocate of having a website and blog to support your day care business. I have connected with a lot of clients that otherwise might not have found me or might have overlooked my service in favor of one of the above. They might have overlooked my service in favor of a bigger, better, faster, shinier, more centrally located day care.

People were impressed with my website; with the pictures, information and 'glimpse inside' that it offered. They liked the beautiful setting, the family run element and our montessori program. They felt like they knew us already thanks to the 'personal touch' effect of the website.

Having an online presence has many advantages in terms of marketing and simply communicating with current and potential clients. It is not difficult to maintain or create a website and a professional look can be easily achieved. A vibrant, regularly updated site and blog can sell your business better than anything else. Include lots of information about you and your day care and ensure your site is easily navigated.

The early stages involved quite a bit of work ensuring all my keywords and tags were effective, submitting to online child care and business directories but the work paid off. Most google and other search engine queries for day care in my area will have my business listed in the first few results.

Pictures of your day care should abound, both interior and exterior - nice bright shots of your playrooms and playgrounds. Help parents understand what your day care offers by incorporating details of important policies, your educational curriculum and what you charge. You can include downloads of your day care contract and parent handbook - the more information you provide the less questions they're going to have.

Having a blog associated with your site is a lovely idea and keeps both present and future clients updated and involved. I just recently revamped my site adding a blog (I use wordpress and highly recommend it) and am already reaping the rewards and hearing lots of nice feedback. Consider having a staff page with pictures and mini biographies of your carers (even it it's just you). People love that personal touch and feel that you are less of a stranger to them. You can start a day care..and market it too.}

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Starting A Day Care Center - Marketing Locally

You're starting a day care center and you don't want to spend a fortune, you just want to market your day care effectively in your locality but the burning question remains; 'How do I do it?'.  Believe it or not, it is not impossible and simply requires a little work and ingenuity.  Your first port of call should be the printers with your stationary order which should comprise the following;

- Letterheads
- Business cards
- Small flyers/brochures for distribution. These should offer a tantalising taste of all that is good about your day care including;
 
- Your contact details
- What your day care offers in terms of curriculum, additional services e.g. afterschool, drama classes etc.
- Let the flyer be a vouchere e.g. present the flyer and get one week free.
- Anything extraordinarily special about your day care that makes it stand out from the competition.

Think about paying a couple of kids or even enlisting the services of a flyer distribution company to distribute flyers on cars (focusing on cars with evidence of
child activity).  Don't break the law so double check the appropriate city ordinances before you go plastering your town with advertising paraphenalia.

Check with your post office about doing a mass mailing and ensure you target housing developments with a young family population (although I have many Gran'ma's receive my flyer and recommend my service to their kids!).

Next it's time for you to step out and do a little leg work and local networking.  On this particular mission think places of congregation for locals, especially
anywhere they have to hang around for significant time periods with nothing to do;

- Any and all clinics where pregnant women attend…do I need to spell it out?
- Dentists and doctors surgeries - those waiting rooms are crammed full of potential clients.
- Let the creative juices flow and think of anywhere you might have a captive audience who would idly pick up your brochure.

Trawl around for;

- Check out public buildings for community notice boards
- Stores that post advertisements (or just ask nicely!).
- Local financial institutions - banks and credit unions often have bulletin boards.

Try to arrange a meeting with the local schools and see if they would allow you to post a flyer on their notice board.  Sweet talk the prinicial or careers officer and try to arrange doing a talk on child care or the day care business for the P.T.A. or a careers class (it's all exposure and building trust locally).

These are just a few easier ways of marketing locally when starting a day care center.  So, what are you waiting for?  Get yourself out there.

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Tips on Purchasing a Day Care Computer

Having the right tools to effectively manage your business is imperative, regardless of the type of business.  This is particularly true if you are planning to open a day care. A vital tool in the daily running of your day care so it runs efficiently is a computer. This wonder machine can be the backbone of your business keeping track of day care payroll, general accounts, your day care scheduling and much more.  I would consider the purchase of a computer to be a necessity when setting up your day care.  Here's a few tips to help you purchase your child care business computer. Read on »

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Why Daycare Regulations Are Good And Necessary

 

Daycare regulations like it or not, are necessary.  Many view them as an inconvenience, designed to make our lives more difficult and a constant reminder of the increasing red tape in our day care businesses.  Although our world in general appears to becoming more bureaucracy happy much of this legislation exists for a reason.  More importantly, much of it is there to help protect those who are most vulnerable in our society.

 Minimum standards of care are the bedrock of daycare regulations despite being seemingly stringent.  Quality, early childcare that is constantly improving and evolving can mean so much more than the rulebook.   My service benefits from my inspections and regulations because I use them as a yardstick, as a guideline for how my service could be improved.

 I don’t view them as a criticism of what I do but as a priceless workbook that inspires and aids me to further improve upon what I am doing.  If I were to hire an expensive consultancy firm to evaluate the effectiveness and quality of my business I don’t believe they would provide me with as much relevant, valuable information.  We get it all through our daycare regulations and inspections. 

 I keep a copy of the regulations for my region posted on the notice board in the entryway to my day care, one on my desk and one in the staff room.  Following my inspections the report becomes my bible, my ultimate focus until such time as I have addressed every issue raised therein regardless of how minor.  Then, I post the report (you guessed it), in the entryway, on my desk and in the staff room with an ‘Actioned’ sticker beside each suggested improvement.

 

In my experience, the ‘points’ raised in the report tend to be helpful tips towards operating more effectively and safely on day to day issues rather than pointing out major violations.   I take these tips seriously and rush to implement them because they are coming from a veritable font of daycare regulations knowledge – your inspections team have been there, done that and wear the tee shirt daily.

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Why You Should Start A Day Care In A Recession

 The experts are very forthcoming with their doom and gloom, the recession is constantly in our faces and fatigue sets in at the mere mention of economics or downturns.  Should you start a day care business in spite of all this you ponder?  Quite frankly, the right day care business could flourish at a time like this.  Tough times for many can be a golden egg for some.  Clever entrepreneurs who have done their homework, identified gaps in the market and filled those gaps not only survive a recession, they profit quite nicely.

 People will always require some form of childcare because people will always need to work to make ends meet despite all talk of downsizing and tough times.  Their income levels and conditions of employment may change so they will in turn be looking to make changes in the day care department.  Sadly, one of the first areas to get hit by cost cutting measures is the area of child care – and a recession is sure to see many people re-evaluating their cost of living.  Expensive, fancy day cares will see clientele trickle out in search of more affordable options. Read on »

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Why Your Daycare Paperwork Must Include A Comprehensive Day Care Contract

Daycare paperwork is a vital component of your day care business and having a foolproof, comprehensive contract in place is essential.  I can't stress enough the importance of spending some time on this crucial document.  Believe me when I tell you that a well crafted contract can save you from much potential grief and gnashing of teeth (I speak from painful experience!!).

Essentially your day care contract sets out your terms, conditions, policies, rules and procedures and, quite simply,  should indicate to all parents who you are, what you do, how you do it, what your expectations are in terms of their behavior and how you deal with complaints and transgressions.  There should be no gray areas, nothing left to chance or misinterpretation. Read on »

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  • Useful Links

  • ClipsAhoy.com
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  • Stretcher.com
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