6 Things to Check Off Your List Before Opening a Daycare
If you love children, and you’ve had experience working with them, you may be considering opening a daycare center. However, if you want to succeed, you’ll need a solid business plan. You’ll also need to be sure you handle all the legal aspects that must be addressed. To open a daycare center, you must also hire some staff members.
1. Obtain the Necessary Licensing and Insurance for Your Center
Any official business needs a license, and every state has a different set of rules to qualify for a daycare license. Working with children in any state of the U.S. will require a background check. In addition to licensing, your facility will need liability insurance. If you have other people working with you, you will also need worker’s compensation insurance.
2. Secure Financing for Your Business
You’ll need financing to run your business, even if you decide to run the business from your home. Companies need to pay quarterly taxes, and you’ll have other expenses. You’ll need money for toys and other activities, as well as hygiene supplies like tissues, hand sanitizer, paper towels, sports equipment, first aid supplies, and snacks. To get financing, consider a small business loan or look into community advantage programs that are intended to finance companies that benefit underserved communities.
3. Compose a Business Plan and Lesson Guidelines
Composing a business plan will allow you and your staff to have written guidelines for how you intend your business to be conducted. It could also serve you in the future if you need to apply for additional funding. As for lesson guidelines, you can keep these general due to the ages of the children you can care for. Essential topics like the alphabet, colors, numbers, safety, weather, animals, art, and music can be used to create various daily lesson themes.
4. Incorporate Health Topics Into Your Lessons
The children at your daycare center will be from homes that are likely to discuss health topics daily. Therefore, including health topics in your daily lessons won’t seem strange to the children in your care. For example, one week, you could demonstrate how to wash your hands and when to do so. For another health lesson, you could demonstrate to the kids how dentists recommend holding a toothbrush at a 45-degree angle while brushing their teeth.
5. Recruit Families to Bring Their Children
You can begin advertising for prospective students even before you obtain your license. Many parents start their daycare search online before they need it, and your ad may attract future clients. In addition to gathering demographic information about the children, you should collect health information about them. Since over 15% of people in the U.S. had been vaccinated against COVID-19 by early March 2021, many of your students will likely have been vaccinated by the time they attend your program.
6. Hire Staff with Appropriate Experience
Although all of your daycare staff should have the appropriate experience, some of your staff should have the training to work with clients who have special educational needs. According to The College of St. Scholastica, you will find challenges with sensory processing problems occurring in 80% of children with autism. You may want to hire at least one teacher who has experience with autistic children. These children will need additional attention, which may determine staffing ratios and schedules.
Running a daycare center will be a labor of love. Although you may have begun your business out of a desire to help your own children, taking in other children will cause you to see it as a business venture and to hope for a profit. Be sure your legal obligations are handled, and learn as much as you can online about preschool education. Daycare centers can infuse preschool learning with caring and fun, and it can give you joy in knowing you’re making a difference in your client’s lives.