Help! Thinking of opening up a daycare

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this site and need your input and help as I am so confused and nervous. I have a 16 month baby whom I had to put in daycare back in November because I had to go back to work. As most of you know more than half of my pay goes towards his daycare as it is a Montessori school and is very expensive. On top of which he has been sick almost all the time every since and I kept calling in sick at work.

I have a BA from York univeristy and an MBA but I have had no luck finding a good and higher paying job :(

I have been applying for over a year and nothing. My husband and I recently purhcased a brand new home and with all the other expenses we just need more income! I have decided since I cant find a higher paying job to open a business and I think a daycare is always in need and in demand. I am nervous because I have a baby, a mortgage etc but has my husband says if i dont take a risk I wont get anywhere in life.

My other dilema is we applied for a Nanny back in November when I came to know how expensive day care is, to help with house hold chores and my son.

So now my question is if I open a home daycare, can I have my Nanny work for me and pay her extra salary and I can keep my full time job? Am I allowed to have staff for at home daycares?

Whats your opinion on Wee Watch? Is it worth it?

What about opening an actual center not to big, for like 20 kids? What do you guys think? Please help me as I need all your inputs.

Thanks

Hi there and welcome to the forum!

If you're thinking of opening a daycare, I'm feeling that you should familiarize yourself with the Day Nurseries Act and know it well. Personally, opening a centre, for me would be an overwhelming project. You must hire staff and pay them reasonably well if you don't want a high turnover. Of course, the location and preparing that space to be up to code for daycare, in itself will be an odyssey. Be very, very sure that's what you want to do before you make any moves. Understand the business from all angles. It is definitely not a snap decision. And make sure you really want to do it, because if you don't love this job, it's very stressful.

I think, from your nanny's perspective, that opening a daycare then paying her to run it would be not be a terribly good deal, unless you were prepared to pay her very, very well. This is not a big money industry. Depending on where you live, it may not be worth it financially. I live in a large town about 45 mins north of Toronto and can command between $40 and $45 per day/child. Right now, my income tops out around $40,000. Not big bucks. And, though being a nanny in itself requires a specific skill with children of all ages, it's very different than caring for up to 5 children, usually within a specific range of age. In home daycare, while some do take on school age, many, like myself, only take on infants, toddlers and preschoolers and they are the only ones who bring in full time fees. Cut that in half for school age. Taking care of 5 little ones ranging from 1 to 4 years can be challenging. Unfortunately, the liability will be with you and your home if the daycare is there, even with someone else running it.

Home daycare is a lovely job. I enjoy it very much and have been doing it for a long time. I was well prepared with my ECE background and explored other options such as nanny positions and work in proper daycare centres. Honestly, it is the lowest stress job I've ever had, but I've got years and years of experience and it took time to get to this point.

I'm not a fan of Wee Watch or any other agency. You have to work within the Day Nurseries Act ratio and age restrictions. While we can only have 5 kids in care, without agencies, they can be any age. I set my own, logical rule, that I won't have more than 2 non-walkers at any time. With agencies, you can have 1 child under 1, 2 under 2, 3 under 3. Basically, unless you bring in school age kids, you can really only have up to 3 children. If you take in school age, then you have the joys of school drop offs and pick ups....ew! Think hard about that....it's winter and you've got 3 little ones to bundle up and walk or drive to the school to pick up the others. No thank you. Then the agency (bless them) will skim up to 35% off the top off the fees that they set to begin with.

No, you cannot hire staff in your home daycare in order to bring in more children. 5 children (in Ontario). That's it.

I think a centre is a lovely idea, despite my comments above. BUT, it's a big undertaking and you must be absolutely sure you know what you're doing. I would imagine, if one doesn't have any experience in the field of childcare, it's a challenge....not one that couldn't be overcome, but be sure it's something you want.

Inspired By Reggio will have some good advice for you, and I'm sure you'll hear from her soon. She knows her stuff so have a good read once she posts :)

Thank you so much for all the tips:)

If I do decide to open a center how much do I need to start up? Approx. and do I need to have any qualifiations like be an ECE?

You're welcome. I've been out of the loop for years having done home care for so long though.

I couldn't even fathom a guess as to how much cash you'd need to bring to the table for start up. Couldn't begin to tell you. I don't know if you need ECE to actually open a centre, but you'd likely want one at least as a consultant involved in the set up. You will absolutely need one to be the daycare supervisor and at least one ECE in each classroom, plus the appropriate number of assistants to uphold the ratios.

If you want to do home daycare, I would say you could probably set yourself up quite professionally for about $10, 000 or less. I'm trying to run a rough tally in my head of what my expenses have been over the years. I've just moved into a new place and revamped the whole thing and spent several thousand just 'upgrading' but had lots of items already in place. The number I threw out there is a generous one and would be plenty to afford a very professional set up, likely with cash to spare.

What is nice about home daycare is that it's a little easier to extricate yourself from if you really feel that childcare isn't for you in the end. I would feel, in your shoes, that it might be a nice place to start, to get a feel for it. Then, after giving it my best shot for a couple years, make big decisions then. Again, that's just me. I can't imagine anything worse than spending thousands and thousands of dollars, having leased or purchased a property for the venture, hired staff, having many families depending on me, then discovering that I absolutely despised the work.

Welcome to our forum. If you keep your nanny you will have an employee and you run a daycare you will have to apply for a business number from the federal government and pay all her CPP and EI, etc. You have to pay CPP & EI anyway for a nanny but it opens a big whole can of worms when you are self employed and have an employee but it's a tax deduction, that's the plus. I couldn't imagine giving my income to someone else though.

I have friends who have 5 daycare children and their own children as well and they handle it very well. Start slowly and add clients as you feel comfortable and competent. Your routines fall into place with practice and before you know it you're rolling along and the days fly by. There are a lot of pros and cons though, lots!

I'm one of the people who started out without a clue and worked her way up to running a very successful business over the years. Those who start with a plan and research are way ahead of the game, so hey, if I can do it you can do it. My website and client references are golden and now I don't have any problems filling a space when I have one. I'm turning people away all the time.

I am an ECE. I started out in a home daycare then I went to work in a licensed centre and from there I looked and did a lot of research on opening a licensed centre of my own. I came to a big conclusion that I knew right from the beginning.......it is NOT a profitable business. Most daycare centres run on a not for profit basis. Parents are only willing to pay so much for daycare. The laws in your province govern how you run your centre. You could make an OK living but not one that is going to make you a "GREAT" living. The cost of running the centre, paying the staff, obtaining a property, getting a license, purchasing equipment (commercial equipment is sooooo expensive) hiring a cook and the cost of food and maintaining all of this and more.........
well after I did my research left me with a number that would barely break me even at the end of the month. I think this is why you don't see a lot of new licensed commercial daycare centres opening up on every street corner (it's no Tim Hortons)
If you LOVE kids and I mean really LOVE to be with them then start at home. Gain a clientele, do some research and make a decision then if it is something you love and can see yourself doing. I am back to working at home. I've been open for 1.5 years. I have contracted a custom builder and together five months ago we designed a home daycare that I will be happy with for the rest of my life. We move to my new centre/home in just three weeks eeeekkkkk excited!!!! I will still just have only 5 spots in my home. But I am happy and making a decent salary without any of the true financial stress or lady drama that I experienced with centre care. Not sure if this helps at all but that's my two cents, honest and true :-)
I wish you luck in whatever you choose