Need help on how to start a home day care.

[bubbleguppie]

hi everyone! I am currently on mat leave and would like to just stay home and open up a daycare.I just don't know how to start. help please.

[Momof4]

Can you tell us your province so that we can give you accurate information please? Rules vary from province to province.

[KingstonMom]

hi bubbleguppie, welcome!
I also started right from the end of my mat leave a year ago.
I have 2 kids of my own, 4 full time daycare kids, and 1 part timer.

The first place I started was browsing other home daycare ads, check out their pricing, their set up on their photos, read this forum, check out justthebabysitter.co m for our friend, Judy's blog too.

Kijiji is how I advertised and got all but 2 of my kids. I started out with no contract, but after 8 months I developed one and am doing very well now.

Be prepared for you home to get taken over and utilities to increase!!

Welcome to the forum, hope to hear from you soon.

[Inspired by Reggio]

I would start as momof4 with the regulations for your province ... if you go to your provinces government website there should be links to let you know what 'process' you have to under go to get started ... some provinces you can just operate as a private home childcare and others you actually have to get a 'license' with the government and others you have to be with an agency that is regulated by the government and so forth ... each province has varied rules for how many clients you can have at one time and so forth.

You also want to check the zoning and fire code bilaws for your residential neighborhood - not all neighborhoods are zoned for home business or only zoned for certain ones and so forth and some fire codes prohibit daycare businesses being run out of basements and so forth unless there are at least two 'fire exits' that both a child and adult could exit out of...so this could affect 'where' in your home you can run your business - even if you are operating a 'private unregulated model' there are still regulation we have to follow.

Ensure that your HOME insurance will cover you for a home childcare business - and what the ryder cost will be and that it covers the amount of children needed .... for example in Ontario we are allowed to care for 5 children plus our own ... however some insurance carriers will only cover 3 kids or they will cover 5 but they include your own in that number and so forth ... you want to ensure you have proper liability insurance for your business - make sure it is clear in writing how many children can be on the premise where you do business for your policy to remain viable!

Also having a long heart to heart talk with your spouse about how this business will affect HIM because without the support of the family daycare can be very stressful if they resent having to 'share' their home with strangers, if they resent loosing space in the home to them, if they resent the wear and tear on the home, if they resent that when they are off work and wanting to be home 'relaxing' on a day off and you yourself are working that the home is anything but 'relaxing' ... there are lots of 'concessions' that family make to allow us to be home for them and sometimes they cannot see the forest for the trees in all the things they GAIN by their sacrifices!

As mentioned ... find out from other providers in your area what 'fees' for service the market will bare and determine your 'projected' expenses for offering childcare ... how much you want to spend on food, craft supplies, sensory or other consumable program supplies, investment in toys and equipment .... determine if the revenue that you can project is enough to cover your expenses and still leave you with a viable income at the end of the day .... keeping in mind that many first year providers are not 'full' the first or even second year as they get established ... as well as the even once you are established that there can been ebbs and flows in enrollment beyond your control ... ensure that your budget allows for a savings amount being set aside to cover those 'ebbs' where your income can drop if you loose one or two children unexpectedly - aka they loose their job or get a transfer and have to move daycare locations as a result!

Does your area have a local 'home childcare resource centre or network' that you can hook up with? In our area the local Ontario Early Years Centre offers a Home childcare training course - it is awesome for those thinking of going into this and walks people through what to consider in their business from contracts, to bookkeeping, to advertizing and program considerations ... they even give sample contracts and policies for 'best practice' to have in place and so forth ... hooking up with something like that could be invaluable to helping that first year be a success!

Research is key to success for sure .... many people think this business option is 'easy' and while it is rewarding and awesome it is not always 'easy' ... for example as providers we need to have a skill set to be able to avoid conflict with clients while ensuring that we are not ending up a doormat pushed to offer things or do things that are not in sync with our own values and philosophies and so forth that lead to resentment and burn out that rolls over into the program with kids. We need to be organized, have strong time management skills - to be able to meet competing needs of multiple children with a smile aka we need to be able to multi task out the wazoo We need to have patience for the fact that there is constant turnover in childcare ... you will always have someone going through the terrible twos, always have someone potty training, always have someone learning 'social skills' and potentially having tantrums or issues with keeping hands to themselves and so forth ... and just when you get them 'sorted out' they head off to school and along comes another wee one who is back at the start of the learning curve.

Congratulations on your new endeavor and anyway we can help - we are here for you cause we were all the 'newbie' at one time or another and remember that excitement and fear all too well!

[bubbleguppie]

I am in Ontario. I was told I am allowed to take care not more than 5 kids not including my own. I have 3 kids. but my eldest is already in highschool and my younger ones are 4 and just had a baby (6 months).

[Inspired by Reggio]

Yes - in Ontario if you are going the private unregulated route ... 5 children plus your own and those 5 children can be any age you are comfortable with caring for and an age mix that prospective clients are willing to sign on with

In addition to the other things like zoning and fire codes and budget and so forth just please make sure that your insurance carrier does not count your 3 if they tell you are covered for 5 children make sure your policy clearly states 5 PLUS YOUR OWN somewhere on it not just 'covered for 5 children' ... I had a peer who'd had issues where they thought they had coverage and had been paying for years into a home childcare ryder only to find out when needed that because they had '7 children in attendance' at the time their policy was void even though she was' unregulated' and allowed to HAVE 5 children plus her own 2 in care ... but that the insurance company claimed they were in 'violation' of the policy because it only covered care of 5 children on the premise and therefore they did not have to pay out for the policy ... I have also had other peers who called and just asked for a 'home childcare ryder' and did not clarify how many children it needed to cover and after my peers issue they called back to ASK only to find out that due to where the home office of the insurance company was they only covered 3 children - so basically if an accident had occurred and they needed to make a those peers would have found themselves denied despite having paid into it for years .... insurance companies always look for ways to NOT PAY.

Wishing you much excitement and joy in your new endeavor!

[sunnydays]

Hey Reggio...I never thought about zoning...where would I find this information for neighbourhoods? I have had no problem in my neighbourhood this past year...so hoping that means it is not against zoning as nobody has reported me. But, it would be good to know for sure!

[Inspired by Reggio]

The city of Ottawa should have a website with links to 'zoning bi-laws' for each neighborhood or a number to call to ask for info on where to find details about zoning.

I think at in the absence of 'complaints' that most cities would likely turn a blind eye to 'home daycare' cause there is little difference between what we do and if a family of 6 kids moved into the neighborhood - the traffic we elicit is minimal and so forth ... I think the rules are more for preventing someone from opening a noisy tool and die in their garage or turning an entire home into a massage parlor business or something with increased traffic and well neighbors complaining about property values and so forth .... however IMO you never know if you are gonna get one of THOSE neighbors who was demanding that a home business comply with zoning so it is always BEST to make sure ours does to avoid issues /stress down the line!