Very first daycare centre

Hi,

How long did it take everyone to open up their very first daycare centre? From start (research) to finish?

I'm in a bit of a weird situation. I will be graduating soon as a marketing student and I'm still unsure as to whether I should be finding a full-time (and long term) job related to my field and doing the daycare planning on the side or going full-fledged into this. I will not be doing this alone, my 2 sisters are also doing this with me. I will be doing more of the marketing and management for the daycare and my sister is getting her ECE.

Thanks :thumbsup:

Good luck with your enterprise and I'm sure you will be looking into all the rules and regulations for your province because there are many laws to follow.

Ya sadly giving you advice would depending vastly on which province you are in and if you are wanting to open a private verses non profit program, in a new build verses renovating an existing space, which age groups you are planning to serve and so forth?

In Ontario for example my advice would be to hold off consider opening any licensed centre based program because the Full Day Early Learning Porgram is resulting in many centers being forced to close due to the loss of this age group - so hate to see anyone investing the amount of money required to open a centre loose it due to the unsure circumstances!

Also depending on the SIZE of the centre you want to open you are looking at needed $100,000's in capital for renovations, supplies, equipment, staff salaries until revenue enough to cover etc!

There is a reason why licensed Childcare is "scarce" because there is no profit in it for business people to invest and not enough "volunteers" do do the fundraisng work to get non profit organizations up and running and keep them running these days :(

I worked in centre care for decades and have helped to open centers in the past as a Supervisor\Director for people wanting to own a Childcare centre to earn what they thought was easy money ... and to be honest it aint EASY and if you are offering QUALITY to clients it aint profitable .... I make more incone after expenses at the end of the day staying home offering home Childcare to five clients with way less stress and more flexibility to meet children's individual needs and for a more affordable fee to the client than ever did in a centre ;)

Definitely do the research on start up costs, regulations and business plans ... There are a LOT of expenses people do not think off in Childcare from food to toys and equipment but also staff turnover, staff development and employee costs of taxes, Ei, CPP, health care tax and so forth that add up!!!

The best place to start is to contact your local licensing agency - they should have a package on requirements and sample business plans and so forth?

I personally would find a job related to my studies and do day care business on the side with my sisters. I don't think you need qualifications to run a day home or daycare in Canada. And you can always start anytime anyway. I would suggest you to get the experience in your field first. And as I said you can always run a daycare on the side with your sisters.

Hope it helps.
Cocoon

We will be opening one in Ontario (Toronto or Mississauga) and we still need to do A LOT more research into all the laws, expenses, etc... to see if it is something we still want to do. Quality care is hard to find and we would want to offer quality care obviously but if it is not profitable, that's an issue.

Thank you for all of your comments and recommendations. Greatly appreciated!

First off, if you're opening a center, take a look at the DNA (Day Nurseries Act). Your sister who will be taking her ECE course will learn the DNA inside and out!

Everything that Reggio has stated is very true. I am an RECE (Registered Early Childhood Educator) and like Reggio, have worked in centers as well.

Here is the DNA website to get you started in your research:
http://childcarelearning.on.ca/

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by v.giang

We will be opening one in Ontario (Toronto or Mississauga) and we still need to do A LOT more research into all the laws, expenses, etc... to see if it is something we still want to do. Quality care is hard to find and we would want to offer quality care obviously but if it is not profitable, that's an issue.

Thank you for all of your comments and recommendations. Greatly appreciated!

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Yes ... the challenge with opening a 'for profit' childcare program is that the government does not FUND you the same way they do non profits childcare settings ... this is something you would need to consider in your business plan - how to be competitive against the non profit model as there are many MORE of them and they tend to set the what the market will bare in way of fees and so forth!

For example non profit organizations get start up grants, healthy and safety maintenance grants for repairs, wage enhancement grants for staffing and so forth from the government .... these all things that for profit organizations do not have access to anymore since they have cut back on funding 'profit based' companies cause well tax payers tend to frown on that ;)

In addition other business give 'deals' to not for profit organizations on advertizing, utilities, rental space and so forth cause it is a 'tax advantage' to them in way of charitable donations and so forth .... these are all disadvantages to the 'for profit' margin because FEE wise a private for profit childcare centre cannot charge much more than a non profit does because clients would just choose the non profit unless the private offers some sort of 'service' in addition to them!

All things that make it HARD to compete despite the demand for quality childcare cause you basically have the same 'revenue' to draw from however are saddles with way more EXPENSES to offering the service as you are governed by the same 'day nursery act' which regulates everything you have to provide .... plus in addition to those higher expenses incurred as a 'for profit' at the end of the day you are trying to earn a PROFIT for any stakeholders in the business who might not be working IN the business in a role similar to a non profit.

If you have been following the news in Ontario it is full of stories that childcare centres are closing left right and centre across the province - this is partly due to the current economy combined with the impact of Full Day Early Learning ... most of these are small independent centres, for profit and even non profit, which cannot afford expensive renovations to change their now empty older preschool classrooms to infant and toddler programs in an effort to stay afloat or just do not have enough draw on infants and toddlers clients who can pay FULL FEES for these programs to make renovating worth while - because part of the challenge is that very few people can afford the $275 a week infant / toddler fees and need some sort of government subsidy - which is currently frozen with a big ole waiting list of people.

The challenge with childcare industry is that every dollar spent has to go INTO the program to be able to compete with Non profit programs in both fees, wages and service being offered - so unless you can RUN the business yourself - aka you hold an ECE diploma and have the experience and training required by the Ministry to not have to HIRE a Director and be approved yourself so you can pay yourself the WAGE that would be your profit so to speak - there is just not enough left over at the end of the day to pay someone else to WORK in the centre while you draw a profit off it a position that is not 'needed' so to speak.

The other area where you can eventually turn a profit is if you can find the start up capital to BUY a building so that the 'mortgage' being paid buy the business becomes your profit at the end of the day because you would own the real estate that the program sits on .... this is how some of those bigger 'private chains' are able to eventually make money because they own the property verses 'renting' a retail space from someone else!

If this is something you are seriously considering this website might be able to help
http://www.cbo-eco.ca/en/?linkServID...882B3B385DC87C

Also the Association of Daycare Operators Ontario might have 'start up' feedback for you.
http://www.adco-o.on.ca/