Hello beautiful people!Please help or advise :)

Hello,
I am thinking to start a daycare business in Edmonton.
I found a perfect old daycare building (only needs about 20.000 in renovation).
Rent is 7.000 and capacity 65 children.
My concerns is that I need to pay the rent until all the daycare license is done and I found out that it might take up to three months.
Also, how easy is to fill a daycare from scratch. I found daycares for sale having already full capacity but are very expensive.
Also, how easy anyone find stuff for a daycare and how soon should I start advertising jobs postings?
This opportunity it seems very nice but I am not sure for how long I will not make any revenue and if I would be able to support it until having enough enrolments.
At last, I do not have any experience in the field because I just had my level 3 done.
Should I go for it or just stay back and wait by working a little bit in the field and getting some experience?
I do have a ton of experience in sales though and I know about marketing and customer service stuff.
I love children and I am a mother of two :)

Love and peace my Friends :)

The ladies here are amazing and so knowledgeable- good luck

Quote:

Originally Posted by Annaas

Hello,
I am thinking to start a daycare business in Edmonton.
I found a perfect old daycare building (only needs about 20.000 in renovation).
Rent is 7.000 and capacity 65 children.
My concerns is that I need to pay the rent until all the daycare license is done and I found out that it might take up to three months.
Also, how easy is to fill a daycare from scratch. I found daycares for sale having already full capacity but are very expensive.
Also, how easy anyone find stuff for a daycare and how soon should I start advertising jobs postings?
This opportunity it seems very nice but I am not sure for how long I will not make any revenue and if I would be able to support it until having enough enrolments.
At last, I do not have any experience in the field because I just had my level 3 done.
Should I go for it or just stay back and wait by working a little bit in the field and getting some experience?
I do have a ton of experience in sales though and I know about marketing and customer service stuff.
I love children and I am a mother of two :)

Love and peace my Friends :)

I think you need a business plan and also a good understand of the child care industry before jumping in and taking on a center, with no knowledge of the demand in your area, the fees, the running costs, or what program will neeed to be funded.

Already you are mentioning a $20,000 upgrade to a building that has $7,000 rental - so $20k of your money going into a building that you don't own!

While I see you stated it was "an old daycare building" do you even know if it' mets the codes for child care in your area currently? i.e. are there enough toilets of the right height for your licensing requirements, do you have to cook food onsite and is there a kitchen, does your sleep room have to be seperate from the activity room and if so, are there enough rooms for those to be set up? etc

Here, we are required to have a licensee with a min level of Early Childhood Education qualifications. Do you meet your provinces requirement for qualification in childhood development and if not, do you know someone who can go in with you on this new venture who does have the required qualifications? If not, and if you have to employ a manager, how easy is it to find someone locally with those qualifications because if your manager leaves, and your other staff don't meet the licensing requirements, then your whole business is on hold until you find a replacement!!

Have you talked to other day care centers in the area to get a grasp for what the market demand is and what is a fair and reasonable capacity level to expect in order for you to accurately predict income and see if this is a viable business?

I know in nearest big town, there are several centers and the average capacity for the is only 65%. Can you run on 65% capacity if that's the norm for your area?

Are your fees capped by your province? Is there funding ? How many parents are low income and using subsidy to pay for their childcare? How many of those typically end up leaving without giving notice and settling their bill? How many instances of that can you afford to absorb?

What are your staffing ratios? How many of your staff have to be qualified? Most provinces require 60%+ of staff to have qualifications and only 40% to be entry level but lots of provinces are changing that and requiring more trained personal.

How easy is it to get ECE's on your area? What is the average salary for an ECE? Have you factored in staffing levels, wages, CPP contributions into your running costs?

I'm sorry but being a Mom and loving kids isn't enough to open a business which is regulated and licnesed. I'm not telling you to forgot it but I am saying that you have a whack of research to do. Knowing what the building is going to cost to renovate and rent is moot if you don't know the demand, projected income and business expenses for everything else. Rent is just a tiny part of all the expenses you are going to have. Staffing is likely the biggest cost.