The Staff of Entrepreneur Media - Child-Care Services: Step-By-Step Startup Guide

Entrepreneur Press, Publisher

Cover Design: Christian Zamorano

Production and Composition: Eliot House Productions

2015 by Entrepreneur Media, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to the Business Products Division, Entrepreneur Media Inc.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

Child-Care Service: Entrepreneurs Step-by-Step Startup Guide, 4th Edition, ISBN: 978-1-59918-572-9 eISBN: 978-1-61308-317-8

Previously published as

Start Your Own Child-Care Service, 4th Edition, ISBN: 978-1-59918-567-5, 2015 by Entrepreneur Media, Inc., All rights reserved.

Start Your Own Business, 6th Edition, ISBN: 978-1-59918-556-9, 2015 Entrepreneur Media, Inc., All rights reserved.

Contents

Additional titles in Entrepreneurs Startup Series

Start Your Own

Arts and Crafts Business

Automobile Detailing Business

Bar and Club

Bed and Breakfast

Blogging Business

Business on eBay

Car Wash

Child-Care Service

Cleaning Service

Clothing Store and More

Coaching Business

Coin-Operated Laundry

College Planning Consultant Business

Construction and Contracting Business

Consulting Business

Day Spa and More

eBusiness

Event Planning Business

Executive Recruiting Business

Fashion Accessories Business

Florist Shop and Other Floral Businesses

Food Truck Business

Freelance Writing Business and More

Freight Brokerage Business

Gift Basket Business and More

Grant-Writing Business

Graphic Design Business

Green Business

Hair Salon and Day Spa

Home Inspection Service

Import/Export Business

Information Marketing Business

Kid-Focused Business

Lawn Care or Landscaping Business

Mail Order Business

Medical Claims Billing Service

Microbrewery, Distillery, or Cidery

Net Services Business

Nonprofit Organization

Online Coupon or Daily Deal Business

Online Education Business

Personal Concierge Service

Personal Training Business

Pet Business and More

Pet-Sitting Business and More

Photography Business

Public Relations Business

Restaurant and More

Retail Business and More

Self-Publishing Business

Seminar Production Business

Senior Services Business

Staffing Service

Travel Business and More

Tutoring and Test Prep Business

Vending Business

Wedding Consultant Business

Wholesale Distribution Business

T he number of working parentsincluding single-parent families and families with both parents employedis climbing, creating an ever-growing need for quality child care. That need is creating a tremendous entrepreneurial opportunity for people who love children and want to build a business caring for them.

Child-care services range from small homebased operations to large commercial centers and can be started with an investment of as little as a few hundred dollars. You can stay very small, essentially just creating a job for yourself, or you can grow into a substantial enterprise with potentially millions of dollars a year in revenue.

You also have a tremendous amount of flexibility when it comes to the exact services you choose to offer. For example, you may limit your clientele to children in certain age groups or tailor your operating hours to meet the needs of a particular market segment. You may or may not want to provide transportation between your center and the childrens homes and/or schools. You may want to take the children on field trips. As an alternative to child care, you may want to consider a business that focuses solely on providing transportation for children.

Of course, the basic work you will be doingcaring for someone elses childrenbears a tremendous amount of responsibility and requires a serious commitment. When the children are in your custody, you are responsible for their safety and well-being. You will also play a key role in their overall development and may well be someone theyll remember their entire lives.

Regardless of the particular type of child-care service you want to start, this book will tell you how to do it. Well start with an overview of the industry, look at the specific services youll want to consider offering, and then go through the step-by-step process of setting up and running your new venture. Youll learn about basic requirements and startup costs, day-to-day operations, and what to do when things dont go according to plan. Well discuss how to find, hire, and keep good employees in an industry notorious for low pay and high turnover. Youll gain a solid understanding of the sales and marketing process, as well as how to track and manage the financial side of your business. Throughout the book, you will hear from child-care and child transportation business operators who have built successful companies and are eager to share what they learned in the process.

You will also need skills and knowledge to develop the content of a child-care program. This book is intended to provide both basic business information and specific design and operational material for the establishment and running of a child-care facility. You or your program director should have a background or familiarity with young children and their educational and developmental needs, and should look to other resources for program assistance.

Running a child-care center requires more than keeping the kids entertained. There must be a comprehensive philosophy and a concrete plan to implement it. Parents will expect your program to enrich their children as well as provide care. If you lack a strong background in educating children, consider taking a few college level courses in child development, education, and child psychology.

At various points in this book, scholastic terms such as classroom and teacher are used. A preschool license is different from a child-care centers license, and the curriculum concerns for a preschool are greater. However, child-care centers that stress an educational and enriching environment often adopt such terms to help parents understand that they are leaving their children in something more than a baby-sitting center. Child-care centers often divide children into groups by age and commonly refer to these groups as classes and the adults supervising them as teachers. This is neither inaccurate nor misleading if your child-care center is indeed geared toward fostering child development. However, we want to make it clear that this book discusses child-care centers, not preschools.

Whether you plan to start a small, family child-care center in your home or a large center at a commercial site, we recommend that you read every chapter in this book, because most of the information applies to all sizes and types of centers. Wed also like to suggest that you enjoy some peace and quiet nowas you read, study, and plan. Once your child-care center is up and running, your life will be full of the special noise and chaosalong with the intense satisfaction and rewardsthat only happy children can create.