HOW TO START YOUR OWN
DAY CARE CENTER
These days, a high percentage of working mothers with preschool age children who
might ordinarily stay at home and care for them must seek income to help make ends meet.
Many experts predict this trend to increase through the turn of the century. For this
reason, the popularity of wellmanaged day care facilities continues to skyrocket.
Analysts expect this trend to continue, claiming that as more and more young parents have
positive memories of the time they spent in day care centers and the learning experiences
they enjoyed, they will in turn enroll their youngsters in such facilities.
Profitable day care centers are much more than glorified babysitting services.
Social researchers have found that the most important years in a child's development are
those from one to six. Thus, the exposure to the world in which he lives, the instruction
he receives, and the habits he forms during those years will definitely affect his ability
to learn and properly adjust as he progresses on through his years of formal education.
Mothers of today--usually better educated than their own mothers--are more aware of these
factors and want the best for their children. They are demanding the structured
preschool education and learning stimulation offered by modern day care centers. This
is an understandable desire of the mothers of preschool age children--even those who
aren't forced to work outside the home.
Other factors will also make your daycare operation become a success. Even though
many large companies finance and operate their own day care centers for employees'
children, studies show that most working parents prefer to leave their children closer to
home than near where they work. Thus, privately operated day care centers in residential
neighborhoods should not be worried too much about competition from the few company
operated day care centers.
The first step toward startup of a profitable day care center is to understand
what makes them profitable. There are a lot of day care centers operating with full
enrollments of 35 to 65 children, but just barely breaking even. This is generally the
result of regulations imposed by the state government that cause exorbitant overhead
costs. Basically, you'll need facilities to handle 150 to 200 children in order to realize
annual profits in the "before taxes" bracket of $100,000.
Check with your state and local government regulatory agencies. Many licensing agencies
require day care centers to provide a minimum square foot area per child, both inside and
outside the building, plus at least one hot meal per day. A licensed teacher for every 15
to 20 children and a licensed nurse on the premises may also be required. Be sure to know
the regulations in your area, and design your business plan to meet these regulations.
Actually, you can begin by operating a babysitting service, and use your profits
and experience to establish a quality image. We recommend that you do start small-----with
a baby sitting service--and build upon your progressive successes, unless you have a great
deal of money to invest in the beginning.
Once you're beyond the babysitting stage--away from your home and backyard--begin
to build a real day care facility. You might try locating in your church or one of your
area's civic club facilities. Also, investigate the possibilities of renting or buying a
vacant house. A large ranchstyle home with a large backyard would probably suit your
needs at this stage. Be sure you have zoning approval from your city before expanding your
business in a residential location and finalizing your plans.
You may find, if you have your business plan in order, that a church or labor union
will sponsor your business or even offer financial backing. Arranging some sort of
partnership or sponsorship agreement with an established local organization will solve a
lot of problems for you, not only in acquiring space but also assisting with startup
costs and approval by the city government. Incidentally, a day care center is an ideal
business for absentee ownership or a group of professional investors. Keep this fact in
mind as you organize your plan and seek financing.
Generally, a "shoestring entrepreneur" in this business will do very well to
locate in a vacant convenience store, or even a vacant grocery store in a larger shopping
center. The zoning will be in your favor, plus you+ll have adequate parking space and less
expense in partitioning or remodeling the building to suit your needs.
A portion of the facility can even be designed as an indoor playground. Ideally, your
day care center should be located on a main thoroughfare with the building set back from
the street. It is best to locate on the right hand side of the street as the traffic heads
towards the major business or industrial areas of your community. In larger metropolitan
areas, this would be on the cityside of the "bedroom" communities. In
smaller communities, you can locate just about anywhere except in the downtown area.
If at all possible, plan your facility with something similar to a hospital or motel
entrance. This can be a circular driveway curving from the street to your door, usually
with a covered dropoff point, and continuing back out to the street. Your
longterm parking space would then be located in the center of the "U"
between the driveway and the street. Strive to make parking as convenient for the parents
as possible. Help them to drive right up to your door, to dropoff or pickup
their children, and move as quickly back into traffic as possible. A rushed parent would
be able to drop off the child with only a few steps into your facility and easily gain
access back onto the main thoroughfare.
Advertising will make or break your business. Depending on your city sign ordinances
and your finances, go all out with your sign. Advertise the name of your day care center,
the hours you're open, whether you accept dropins, overnighters, or
weekenders, and of course, your phone number. Your sign should state all essential
information, and serve to convince passersby that you can handle their childcare
problems whenever the need arises. If you initially locate in or through the sponsorship
of a church or labor union, the sponsor can assist you tremendously by including a mention
of your services in their membership bulletins and by passing out circulars or flyers.
You'll need to decide on your regular day care hours. Generally, these are from 6 a.m.
through 6 p.m. You'll also need to decide whether you want to offer breakfast for the
children. If so, you'll have to plan for a cook and food supplies for morning meals.
You'll already be set up with kitchen facilities and a cook because of the noon meal. If
you do decide to offer breakfast for those parents not wanting to feed their children at
home, you'll be able to add $8 to $12 per week to their billing. By buying your food
supplies in bulk, you'll be able to realize greater savings in overall food costs, and
reap a modest profit. Midmorning and midafternoon snacks are required in some
states, but even where they're not required, they are pretty much standard fare in most
day care centers. Fresh fruit, cookies, and juice are the usual snack foods served.
You'll definitely be providing a hot meal for the children at noon. This entails a
cook, children's cups, utensils, and dishes, menus planned with the aid of a nutritionist,
and the purchase of bulk food supplies. You'll also have to have kitchen help and
facilities for washing the dishes. These are just some of the important overhead costs you
must plan for, and of course you will work to keep them as low as possible. As you should
know by now, the greater your overhead, the more children you're going to have to take in.
The more children you take in, the greater your space requirements. Meals can be served
into large warming trays and wheeled to the classrooms for serving to the children by the
teachers. Children may eat at the same smallsized tables at which they work and play
during the rest of the day.
All profitable day care centers operate according to planned routines. The day is
broken down into onehour segments, with preplanned curricula--much the same as
classes at a public school. A typical day begins with a play period from the time the
children arrive until about 9 o'clock. For this, you'll need indoor sand boxes, toys, etc.
From 9 to 10, the children are separated into groups--generally by ages--and you hold a
reading or storytelling session, with a midmorning snack and break time
scheduled sometime around 10:00. For the younger children, this might include a
midmorning nap. After group time, a learning session is usually held. Typically, this
is the time when guests are invited in to speak or entertain the children.
Work with your local Chamber of Commerce, civic clubs, and city administration for
guests. Children will especially enjoy visits by policemen, firemen and others who talk to
them about citizenship, show films, and teach them about the things they do in the
community. You can also get upperclassmen at your local colleges to visit and demonstrate
such things as drawing, working with clay, building with wood, making things out of paper,
and hundreds of other talents or skills they might be learning. The important thing is to
bring "outsiders" in to talk to the kids about what goes on in their world.
Noon to one o'clock is generally lunch and cleanup time. The hour between 1 until
2 pm can be a rest period. Many facilities have cots that are set up on which the children
rest. Others simply have small mats that are placed on the floor. The lights can be dimmed
and soft music played to give the children and teachers an opportunity to recharge their
batteries. After rest period, move into an afternoon learning session. You might offer the
rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic to older children. Younger children can be
allowed to play in different areas of the classroom set up as a play kitchen area, space
for playing with cars and blocks, etc. Teaching chores can be handled by college students
studying to be teachers, retired teachers, or unemployed persons with teaching
certificates. It's not so much a session to teach proficiency as a time to stimulate
interest in formal education. A basic goal of most day care centers should be to instill
within each child a confident desire to learn more about the world in which he lives.
Thus, each child should be full of plans for "when I get to start big school I'm
going to. . ."
About once a month, your afternoon learning session should be a tour or a trip to some
local attraction that will be interesting as well as educational for the children. Again,
you're making the idea of learning not only interesting, but also an exciting adventure.
These trips can be anything from a walk in your immediate neighborhood to loading all the
kids into cars or onto buses and taking them to the zoo. Carefully check it out first, but
on the whole, you'll find most businesses in your area will welcome opportunities to show
the children around their offices or factories. The same thing quite naturally applies to
your city offices, fire department, police department, and radio or television stations.
On days when you don't have a trip scheduled, your "learning session" might
be a film or program related to nature, particularly animals. The advent of the video
cassette recorder (VCR) has opened endless possibilities. Nap time and snack time will
fill a period for younger ones, and books and quiet games will occupy older children who
do not take a nap. When the nap period is over, the children can be allowed time in open
play, art, or other activities until their parents come by to pick them up. Whenever
possible, you should encourage the children to be outside during play periods. If you have
lots of playground equipment, you won't necessarily need to have organized games, but you
will have to have a playground supervisor--someone to watch the children and see that they
don't get injured as they play. You can hire parttime help for this chore, perhaps
from the local colleges, for minimum wage. If your city ordinances do not cover the
specific age requirements of a playground supervisor, you might be able to hire students
from your neighborhood high school. Select all the people you hire relative to their
affinity with children and their dependability. Be aware of today's climate of extreme
concern in protecting children in day care situations.
Your playground will require a fencedin area. Drive around and look at the
playground equipment in the playyards of your public schools and at other day care
centers in your area. You should have the basic sand boxes, swings, slides, and jungle
gyms as you used growing up. But you can also be creative and original, provided your
equipment meets safety standards. Several companies sell sturdy, hardwood playground
equipment built with railroad ties, automobile tires, climbing poles, etc. The company
will send qualified technicians to your location to set up the equipment and guarantee its
safety. Speak with your city's park and recreation manager for more details or a listing
of such companies.
Some states require that you have a registered nurse on the premises at all times.
Generally, however, the main thing you'll need is medical information from the parents and
a written procedure to follow in case of accident or illness. If you have secured parental
consent in advance, when a child is injured you can quickly take him to the nearest
medical center while another staff person gets in touch with the parents and explains what
happened. If the parent cannot be present at the medical center, all information should be
passed on to him or her as quickly as it is available. If a child becomes sick at school,
you will need to call the parents and have them pick the child up immediately.
It's a good idea to have all your helpers certified in a Red Cross First Aid course and
have a wellequipped first aid kit on the premises. The cost will be minimal to you,
and it may even lower your insurance premiums. If your state requires you to have a
fulltime nurse on staff, you should be able to hire registered nurses who are either
not working or are looking for extra income. You might be able to "hire the
license" of a registered nurse. You pay a small fee to hang her license in your
office, and she agrees to be available to serve your needs whenever you call.
Most day care centers are currently charging from $50 to $85 per child for a five day
week, plus $5 to $10 more for breakfast, with another $2 per meal when they serve an
evening meal to the child. Require each week's fee in advance, and don't let parents fall
behind in paying for your services. By having your customers pay in advance, you'll
eliminate a lot of bookkeeping, time, collection problems, and you'll have operating funds
with which to run the business. Offer to accept payment by the month, in advance. This
offer will be based on a four week month, collecting for twelve, four week months. Thus,
the parents receive one free week every third month. You, however, receive needed
operating capital in advance.
Every profitable day care center requires a sharp manager or director. This person
might be yourself or someone you hire for the job. He or she will be the key to your
success. The director should have a special love for children, an empathy with people, be
an excellent judge of character, be sales oriented, and have an outgoing personality. As
much as anything else, this person must have the ability to listen to and really hear what
other people are saying without acting on preconceived opinions or making snap decisions.
This person must have the success of your business in mind at all times, always seeking to
build and maintain an impeccable reputation.
Your director will be responsible for the hiring and supervision of your entire staff,
as well as the budgeting, scheduling, and daytoday operation of the business. It
is imperative to the success of your business that you have the very best person you can
get in this position, regardless of the cost. A good director for a day care center will
command a salary equal to experienced teachers in your public schools, plus fringe benefit
allowances such as free enrollment for their children and medical and dental insurance.
When a prospective client calls to ask about your services, you should explain how you
operate and extend an invitation to them to bring their child in so that the two of them
can be taken for a tour of your facilities. Once in the center, your manager or director
can take the parent and child on a tour, all the while explaining the advantages of the
center's structured learning and play program as compared with the average
babysitting service. It's important to have the child along because as he sees the
other children at play, he will be drawn to them, thereby influencing the parent to decide
that your center is the right place for his child. After the tour, steer the parent back
into your administrative office and propose enrollment of the child. Begin by asking where
the parent works, what hours, and if he or she ever has to work overtime. You then
ascertain the hours they'll want to drop off and pick up their child.
Strict procedures are absolutely essential regarding the pickup of any child.
Frightening as it may be to contemplate, we have all read accounts of strangers (or
noncustodial parents) kidnapping a child. Printed forms must be provided, and
authorization signatures must be compared when anyone other than the legal guardian takes
a child from your care. You will learn these requirements from your licensing office. Our
advice to you is to follow them meticulously.
Prepare a professionally printed, quality brochure listing your rates, services, an
outline of the curriculum, and a statement of your benefit goals for the children. This
can be given to prospective clients as well as the parents of new children enrolling in
your center. Check with your lawyer about the need for a contract. The parent will
probably only need to fill out a questionnairefile card giving address, place of
employment, medical information about the child, and how he or she may be reached in case
of emergency.
Most day care centers accept all children between one and six years of age. There are
many that take infants as young as six weeks. Of course, your personnel in this situation
must be thoroughly experienced in infant care, and you must ascertain if these babies are
well when brought in to you. Otherwise, you put yourself in the position of
"hospital" care instead of day care.
Generally, children aren't allowed to bring toys from home. You may want to allow the
children to bring their own blanket from home for nap time, but if you allowed toys from
home you will be opening a "Pandora's Box" of potential problems with sharing
and ownership. Instead, you will want a full complement of appropriate toys and play items
in your center. Special "Show and Tell" days may allow children to bring
something special from home to share with their playmates.
If you decide to include shortterm babysitting services, it would be a good
idea to include within the layout of your facilities a small, one bedroom apartment for a
livein person or couple. An older retired couple would be ideal, with the husband
also serving as maintenance and handyman. The demand for unplanned or emergency
babysitting services is very large. Not too many day care centers are aware of this
potential for extra profits yet, but the ones that are find that their incomes can
increase by 30% or more! We definitely recommend consideration of this idea for anyone
involved in a day care service.
Aroundtheclock babysitting services, in addition to your regular day
care center, can add tremendous and immediate cashflow profits to your business, but
can correspondingly increase your payroll for qualified personnel. Such services would
enable the parents to drop their children off in the evening, and leave them around the
clock or over the weekend. There will generally be no need for any planned program because
these children will be sleeping during most of the time they're in your care. If left for
the weekend, allow the child to play just as he would at his own home.
As you establish the image and reputation of your day care center, the parents in your
area will be much more inclined to leave their children with you for babysitting
duties. And because you are considered tops in the area of responsibility, you+ll be able
to charge the highest babysitting fees. stay abreast of the fees charged by other
quality businesses similar to yours, and adjust your rates accordingly.
Another area that could mean enhanced profits for you is bus or van pickup service
for the children, especially older school age children who may need care for an hour or
two after school. Of course, this would increase your operating costs (and consequently
your fees) but the convenience of pickup is gaining in popularity. You+ll need a custodian
for indoor and outdoor cleanup, and if you have access to a bus or van, he could be
assigned additional duties as the driver. Some day care centers offering pickup
service for their children contract with local transportation services to provide this
feature. Be certain of the driving experience of your driver if you contract for this
service.
Most day care centers open with very little fanfare or advertising. Generally, even
without advertising most are reporting 90% capacity enrollment within six months. With
grand opening fanfare and a strong advertising campaign, you should be able to be at 90%
capacity within your first six weeks. In an area where a severe shortage of day care
facilities exists, and with the right advertising and promotion, you could reach maximum
capacity even sooner.
Your first advertising step should be the doortodoor distribution of your
high quality, informative brochure. To cut costs, hire students attending advertising
classes in your area colleges or a free lance advertising copywriter to help you with the
design and writing of this brochure. However, make sure to have a good commercial printer
do the printing on the best paper you can afford. You want to exhibit a professional
image. The buyers must feel they're getting a fantastic educational bargain for the prices
you are charging. Don't skimp on your brochure--you're aiming at people looking for the
best place for their children.
You should place at least a twocolumn by fourinch grand opening display ad in
your local newspapers. At the same time, place similar ads in the local magazines and
other publications catering to the working mother. Send along a group picture of your
staff and a story about your services with your advertising order. Phone the editors at
your local newspapers, radio, and TV stations and invite them out to your grand opening.
Be sure to place a "service information" ad in the yellow pages of your
telephone directory. This should be the largest size you can afford. Remember that you
need to make contact for a yellow page ad well in advance of the release date of the
directory.
At your grand opening, offer free refreshments for everyone. Coffee and punch for the
adults, juice for the children, and cookies for everyone. You should have members of your
staff circulating among the parents to answer any questions and to hand out brochures
about the center. After your grand opening, and until you attain full capacity, continue
to hand out your brochures at the entrances to the main office buildings and other
industries in your region. Continue to run ads in your local newspaper, but not quite as
large or as regularly as the grand opening ad. Run an ad describing your babysitting
services in the classified section of the newspaper.
You can begin small, and expand in stages as you build your profits. However, you must
draw up a longrange plan detailing exactly what you intend to do, and each milestone
you+ll have to pass before proceeding to your next goal. In this way, you can succeed and
attain the greatest amount of business, and reach the anticipated profit level you had
planned at the start. The basic secret to success with your own day care center will be
your ability to hold your costs in line while achieving maximum capacity enrollment.
You've got the plan. Now run with it!
