Welcome to the forum MrsD07 ... I do not have any wee ones at home either I chose to open up a home based childcare program to help create work life balance for myself doing something I loved - I had worked in centre environments prior but had just become disillusioned over the years and felt being in my home I could truly offer a program that reflected my personal philosophy authentic to me.

I am not familiar with BC licensing rules so cannot give effective advice on is it better to be licensed there or not ... I started out with a licensed agency when I made the transition to home childcare cause licensed was all I KNEW and well it is always toted to be BEST PRACTICE however quickly found, at least in Ontario, that being licensed is actually NOT ideal for the provider OR the client unless they need access to subsidized fees - because it limits your income but costs the clients using your program who actually have to pay FEES EVEN MORE $$$ because the fees are higher to pay the middle man who is 'supervising' your program plus to offset the subsidy program of others ... I prefer to self regulate myself and have my clients 'supervising' that my program is indeed what I claim it to be cause they are here twice a day to inspect for themselves ... and win win because it costs them LESS for better service because I make MORE income this way and can invest that back into my program and services as well.

There ARE benefits to being with an agency .... since they do all the advertizing and handles all the 'financial' end you do not ever have to worry about dealing with conflict with clients over payments, if a client is not a match to the program or causing issues they help mediate that so you are not dealing with it alone, they have toy lending libraries and other professional development resources and so forth ... however if you are strong communicator with clear policies you do not NEED that and well we can access toy lending library and PD as needed on our own for cheaper