Determining the Demand in your Area

[Woodsy]

Hello there,

I am looking to open a home based day care in a couple of years.

We will be relocating to a new neighbourhood, and I am trying to determine whether the demand in this neighbourhood will be high enough that I will be successful, or if I should be prepared for plan B (find a job)...

The area is new, phase 1 is complete and phase 2 in porogress... I do know there are 2 new schools.

From my research, I can see that there are at least 3 other home daycares in this neighbourhood.

I did e-mail 1 daycare to see if they would shed some light on the demand, but I have not gotten a response yet.

Any ideas?

[Kimangeline]

in my experience, there is ALWAYS demand. If all you found were 3 home daycares, you can assume there are more, but even in fairly saturated areas, new families are always moving in, situations change, people have more babies. Where I am currently, there are a number of daycare providers plus a daycare centre plus school based daycares and there are constantly people looking for care still. It is a relatively small community.

[Bookworm]

You could also try putting in the postal code for the area you are going to be moving into on the search area on the main page here and see how many daycares are in that area.
I agree though, there is always a demand, but it depends on the area and your set up etc... that determines how fast you will fill up.

[Sassygirl]

It depends on alot of things.
My area is right at the border of 2 places so... that is a bonus for me. Lots of parents commute and I am less than 5 mins away from the 401.
Even though there are alot of providers in my area (I check the main page every once in a while) I am, from my experience with interviews, the only one who has all toddlers in my care. That is a big selling point for parents. They want their kids with other ones in the same age range, I also don't have pets, or do field trips which are issues with other parents as well.
Good luck to you!!