Keyword: daycare business plan

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Items to Include in Your Daycare Business Plan

You get the success you plan for. A good business plan is essential to business success, and the daycare business is no different. If you're planning to open a daycare business, you should do some background research to help you establish a workable daycare business plan that includes a business model, an equipment plan, and a financial plan.

Daycare Business Models

Two basic daycare business location models exist: in home or away from home. After you decide which one is best for you, include it in your daycare business plan. Under a home-based daycare business plan, you care for other peoples' children in your own home. The advantage of this model is that you save money by not renting or leasing another property.

One disadvantage of this model is that you live where you work, and you may find it monotonous to spend so much time in one place. Another disadvantage is that you will need to devote at least one entire room in your house to your daycare business, with appropriate furniture and daycare equipment located in that room. You may find it tiresome to live with your daycare equipment even when you are off duty.

Another model to consider for your daycare business plan is one where you own, lease, or rent a facility to use for your business. This is an expensive option, but it is the only way to go if you are planning to hire employees and care for a large number of children. If you are just starting in the daycare business, it is probably a good idea to start small with a home-based daycare business plan and work your way up to a plan that includes using a facility other than your home.

Another decision you will have to make to complete your daycare business plan is to decide what ages of children you wish to care for. Will you care for all infants, all toddlers, or will after-school care for older children be your specialty? One advantage of caring for children all of one age is that their developmental progress is similar, which makes group activities easier to do. An infant can't do the hokey pokey with two toddlers, but three or four playing together can all "turn themselves around."

One disadvantage of focusing on caring for one age group is that doing so may exclude business from families with more than one child, who want their children to attend the same daycare. In fact, caring for all the children in one entire family is a time-honored daycare business model. Parents like to keep siblings together, and the children enjoy attending daycare with each other.
Plan for success; don't start a daycare business without a sound daycare business plan.