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Updated
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Is going to college for early childhood education enough to start your Own day care?
#childhood-education #day-care #education #child-development
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5 answers
Updated
Alyssa’s Answer
Hi Keirra,
I hope all is well. Going to college for early childhood education is a great start
to owning your daycare, however, you will need to obtain certain credentials
depending on your state and doing the following listed below will help you to
run your daycare business successfully.
Suggestions:
📍 Create a daycare business plan
📍 Find a location for your daycare
📍 Get insurance for your daycare business
📍 Prepare your daycare facility (equipment, safety, etc)
📍 Develop policies and procedures to maintain order and safety
📍 Hire staff to help you run your daycare
📍 Invest in child care software
I hope that these suggestions are helpful, I wish you well with your business!
Alyssa Cole
I hope all is well. Going to college for early childhood education is a great start
to owning your daycare, however, you will need to obtain certain credentials
depending on your state and doing the following listed below will help you to
run your daycare business successfully.
Suggestions:
📍 Create a daycare business plan
📍 Find a location for your daycare
📍 Get insurance for your daycare business
📍 Prepare your daycare facility (equipment, safety, etc)
📍 Develop policies and procedures to maintain order and safety
📍 Hire staff to help you run your daycare
📍 Invest in child care software
I hope that these suggestions are helpful, I wish you well with your business!
Alyssa Cole
Updated
Rachel L.’s Answer
Getting some good experience as a teacher will be important too! Usually individuals need at least one child development or psychology course to become an assistant teacher. You can start by volunteering in classrooms (virtually maybe right now!) by reading books or leading short art activities with commonly found household objects. Contact a local organization to see if they may be interested in having you help with outreach to families in this way.
You can also exercise your entrepreneurial muscles by creating classes and running them on platforms such as Outschool.com, which has many examples for you to review and bring your own spin or creativity!
Contact a local provider
Review online platforms that offer services
Consider what progression you'd like to take - being a teacher or creating materials for teachers
You can also exercise your entrepreneurial muscles by creating classes and running them on platforms such as Outschool.com, which has many examples for you to review and bring your own spin or creativity!
Rachel L. recommends the following next steps:
Updated
Janet’s Answer
Hi Keirra,
If you haven't done so, get a part time job at a day care as soon as possible, and/or look into the work/study program at your high school where you can work for a day care or a nearby elementary school. You will want to have SOME experience in this line of work before you jump into ownership. Good luck to you!
If you haven't done so, get a part time job at a day care as soon as possible, and/or look into the work/study program at your high school where you can work for a day care or a nearby elementary school. You will want to have SOME experience in this line of work before you jump into ownership. Good luck to you!
Updated
Joseph’s Answer
Please google Become a Day Care Owner: Education and Career Roadmap and you will find an extensive answer on Study.com.
I would also recommend a minimum of basic business and finance courses.
Forbes tells us that "roughly 80% of small businesses survive the first year. That number might be surprisingly high to you, especially considering the commonly-held belief that most businesses fail within the first year. However, from there the number falls sharply. Only about half of small businesses survive passed the five-year mark, ranging from 45.4% to 51% depending on the year the business was started. Beyond that, only about one in three small businesses get to the 10-year mark and live to tell the tale. All this might sound discouraging. But, by identifying the primary causes of small business failure, adjustments can be made to allow you to place the odds in your favor." (https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2018/10/25)
The top two reasons are 1 - They do not properly identify the market need - ok everyone needs day care but what will get the market to your establishment over another? and 2 they do not have the amount of capital required to weather difficult times.(This is where the business and financial classes and money management comes into play ;-)
Good luck!
I would also recommend a minimum of basic business and finance courses.
Forbes tells us that "roughly 80% of small businesses survive the first year. That number might be surprisingly high to you, especially considering the commonly-held belief that most businesses fail within the first year. However, from there the number falls sharply. Only about half of small businesses survive passed the five-year mark, ranging from 45.4% to 51% depending on the year the business was started. Beyond that, only about one in three small businesses get to the 10-year mark and live to tell the tale. All this might sound discouraging. But, by identifying the primary causes of small business failure, adjustments can be made to allow you to place the odds in your favor." (https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2018/10/25)
The top two reasons are 1 - They do not properly identify the market need - ok everyone needs day care but what will get the market to your establishment over another? and 2 they do not have the amount of capital required to weather difficult times.(This is where the business and financial classes and money management comes into play ;-)
Good luck!
Updated
Ambrosia’s Answer
hello there! so I see you are wanting to own your own day care facility. that is awesome but I should ask why? What makes you interested in doing this? as the owner of the facility you are very busy with the running of the business it gets a little difficult to be a part of the daycare its self. Also what type of day care are you looking into? Most have new born through kindergarten. which you will need to be licensed and certified to have those age groups. Also space wise you will need to make sure you have enough room to have the amount of children in your facility. There are many rules and regulations to having other peoples children on your watch. you will have to consider the size of your rooms, there are only allowed to be a specific amount of children per size of room and there has to ALWAYS be the correct ratio for teachers to children. Back in 2019 for new borns the ratio was 1 to every 4.5 ( do not ask how we are supposed to have half a kid that never got answered for me) i know the pre-k room was 1-10 ratio. Also you will need safe out side areas for the kids as this will be your teachers life saver! if for any reason you cannot go outside, due to weather or some other reason you will want an indoor area. Most day care centers are all day so some places prepare food on site and serve to the children so you will need a kitchen area if not you could require a lunch be sent as well as morning and afternoon snacks. As for nap times for the infants you will need individual cribs, mattresses, sheets, and sleep sacks. infants cannot go in the crib with anything other then the sleep sacks. you can play instrumental music during nap time and invest in window covers to make the room dark. now you can set if you would like timed naps for all rooms or if you would like to let them nap whenever. I personally can say for the infants letting them nap when they want is key! as for the toddler and up rooms a times nap time works better. As for the other rooms you can either use mats, or cots but they have to be placed 6 inches apart from other cots and mats. Most day care centers have tiny bathrooms through out the school for the potty trained kids and the potty trainers. You will also need a laundry room as owning a day care is messy! the food, activies, and bedding will all make messes. You will also need qualified teachers in each room especially in the older kids rooms as they will need the right knowledge taught to them. you will need age appropriate toys, books, blankets, art activites, music activies and much more. as for the business side of things you will need to have drug and back ground checks on all employees, you need insurance on the center and as well for the kids there as accidents do happen, you will want an emergency protocol for any situation, and keep up on those employee trainings! all employees will need to be CPR and first aid certified. You can be apart of the Ccap program which takes in families that cannot afford day cares, it is essentially paid for by the state, you will either want to watch the payments and money flow yourself or have someone you trust more than anyone else just be CAREFUL! and a front office person to help any new comer's, assist with tours, help with scheduling, and what ever else you need. Also you will need maintenance/janitors to clean the outside of the facility. You may also want to install cameras in the facility that will cover everyone! Now I know this is a lot but you do not want to get shut down for any reason as this will become your life and taking care of someone else's life is a serious matter!