Opening non-for-profit daycare in GTA

[Inspired by Reggio]

Home daycare isn't an option for me, unfortunately. My husband doesn't like the idea and I'd prefer to separate business from personal life.....

I am not sure about your finances - but if you are really serious about this option what about getting a new property that allows for a house and a separate home based daycare to be run out of it? I have many peers who have a 'dedicated space' for their home based business ... they sought out properties that had either a free standing apartment in the basement OR had a nanny flat where the laundry/furnace and so forth are still 'shared' but at the end of the day they can close the door to their business and commute upstairs to home?

This solution allows all the financial PERKS of being a home based business - instead of paying 'rent' out of your revenue you get to write off a portion of your mortgage which you are already paying anyway - lowering your taxable income? Plus you do not have to worry about nearly the amount of red tape or employees and all the other stress that comes from operating a centre?

Honestly - I work less hours now cause I do not have to 'commute' to work so while I am open 10 hours a day I am not spending an hour driving daily. Plus with the advantage of being able to write off a portion of my mortgage and property taxes and so forth while on paper it seems like I make LESS money I actually have more $$ in my pocket at the end of the tax year than I did in a centre ... the government gets less of my hard earned money in 'taxes' and I get to pay off my mortgage faster as a result creating equity for my retirement

Just food for thought about some of the many perks of 'home based programs' that your spouse might not have considered

[Inspired by Reggio]

Ya finding locations are hard - in addition to enough space for the daycare itself you have to look at parking for drop off and pick up and that the area is zoned for the amount of traffic you are proposing ... aka a small 'nursery school program' style with 16 is easier to find space than a normal size full day daycentre that has upwards of 75 children enrolled and needs outdoor space, parking for staff and clients and so forth.

I worked in a centre that was in the church - it worked very well set up wise and the rent was reasonable - however we had an entire 3000 square foot basement of the church- but A) it was half above ground and 1/2 'basement' which allowed for lots of natural lighting so it did not feel like a basement B) it was dedicated space - we did not share it with anyone except the kitchen area which was so huge there was enough room and storage for us to have our own space and just 'lock' the cupboards and fridge / freezer C) 3000 square feet is a nice fair size allowing a group size of 15 toddlers, 32 preschoolers divided into two classrooms of 16 and 15 before/after school kids and a summer program to be run out of one room that was set up as a 'gym
so when it was not in use it offered up a indoor 'gym' space for the other kids and the games and equipment the school agers used was kept in locked cupboards.

The challenge with a church is they offer you a SHARED space which has to be torn down every Friday so it can be used for 'Sunday school' or what not....cause that limits what you can 'offer' as well as I know from peers experience over time staff 'burn out' with the repetitive having to tear down their program every Friday and overtime they put up less 'decorations', they bring less 'out' cause if just needs to get put back in storage and so forth ... and yes it ends up not being as professional a program as a result

IME Nursery school programs generally offer the option of 5 mornings a week, 3 fixed mornings a week M/W/F or 2 mornings fixed mornings a week T/Th .... back in the day they were only for 2 1/2 years of age through to 5 years of age to help prepare kids for school .... however they have evolved to offer toddler programs for the 18 month - 30 month age group as well as long as the space offers 'washroom facilities that have change table' ... the two age groups must be kept separate though....so depending on your space you could do something like a toddler group of 10 and a preschool group of 16.

Sadly there is nothing 'easy' about opening a childcare program .... if it were easy and profitable there would be a CHILDCARE CENTRE on EVERY CORNER instead of Timmies

Instead expect lots of red tape and hoop jumping as you navigate the Day Nursery Act, City Bilaws around things like accessibility and fire exits for your potential space, Public Health requirements on washrooms, kitchen size and location and sink space and so forth! Expect LOTS AND LOTS of unpaid hours of work doing research and scouting out funding and so forth and even if you do get it up and running expect continual long hours ... when I worked in administration in NEW centres I worked 60-80 hours a week EASY trying to get all my tasks done because there is always 'emergencies' that come up in program where staff, clients or children need you that take you away from the paperwork and you end up doing that 'after centre hours' to get it done - cause the required paperwork in centre care is BRUTAL and leading a childcare centre is VERY hard work that is emotionally draining and in the beginning while you work out the bumps of getting your program running smoothly you can be expecting to be dealing with conflict with clients, with staff and with children as you all learn what works and what does not work for your 'group' .... and even once you get a smooth groove going - working in childcare on the front line is HARD even in an awesome centre - it is physically and emotionally demanding and some staff are just not cut out for it and therefore staff turn over in centres is often high ... so you spend a lot of time in administrative role recruiting new staff and if you cannot FIND any before the staff leave you end up in RATIO and doing your job 'after hours' and just a heads up that there is a extreme shortage of RECE at the moment as many qualified and experienced RECE are leaving centre care to take up the something like 3000 new positions in the Full Day Early Learning Programs ... which pay twice the wage and you only have to work 10 months a year so hard to compete with

I am not trying to 'discourage' you just wanting to make sure you go into this with eyes WIDE OPEN about what to expect ... if you can get in touch with someone from ADCO and have a heart to heart it might really help ensure you know exactly what to expect about the pros and cons of the childcare industry!

23 years ago when I got into the field it was VERY different experience to what centres experience today ... for the first 10 plus years of my career the worse challenges I faced were dealing with illness of children while in care and the ODD biting or pushing faze ... childhood has CHANGED over the past two decades .... families are more stressed and there is more 'families in crisis' between poverty, abuse, illness, separation/divorce plus there is huge increases in mental health issues younger and younger which creates challenges and stress on the front line and so forth trying to support children in group care who have severe aggression or other challenges that put the rest of the group at 'risk' sometimes and well there is a FINE balance in centre care between not discriminating on a child or family based on disability or mental health issues so having to TRY to keep this kids in care and the LIABILITY of keeping the other children safe from harm in care as well.

I think sometimes when we consider going into this field we make the choice based on the JOY of childhood that WE remember from our youth .... and while there are still children where this is the norm .... on average in a centre care environment of 24 children you can be expecting in every group of children to have at least 3 children who are 'in crisis' and are a challenge to care for as a result and well in reality they often SUCK THE JOY out of the program for everyone else unless you have A LOT OF SUPPORT in that classroom to help them! Those averages will likely increase depending on the geographical area you serve .... I worked in a downtown daycare in my last city before moving were the average was we had 21 children in crisis and 3 children living a 'normal happy well adjusted' childhood - it was emotionally draining to say the least!

My suggestion would be, if you have not already done so, is to spend some time in a variety of different centres in the GTA to get a FEEL for the day in the life of an RECE or an Administrative person trials and tribulations .... I say this because every year colleges enroll about 100 ECE students thinking they want to go into this field and by the end of 2nd year on average about 40 will actually graduate the other half drop out or switch programs and of the 40 who graduate only 1/2 of those on average actually go on to WORK in front line positions - the others use their degree as a stepping stone to other positions working with children but not 'in daycare' .... hence the extreme shortage of ECE for recruiting into daycare centres!

[playfelt]

Connect you were asking in another post about working with an agency. Remember that while you will get the support to get your paperwork in order, maybe get some clients through them and a bit of resource help that you will also have to endure the down side of the agency. They will monitor everything you do, make comments that aren't always constructive and in general control your day in many cases similar to the centres. Your menu must meet their criteria for example and that is up to your home visitor to determine. I got so frustrated with my worker at one point over menu that I copied the menu from my local daycare centre they had posted on their website for the month, submitted that as my own and she failed it, lol. I started working on getting myself out from under their control.

[WAHM]

I would do some community research, perhaps open the phonebook and cold call people asking if they feel there is a need for a commercial daycare centre that is subject to random inspections and is government licensed...offering subsidy. I know in our community we have a lot of dayhome's but we're the only daycare centre. Some people prefer having their children in dayhomes, some prefer daycare centre's - everyone has there own reasons and there own preferance. As for non-profit, we looked into this so we could access funding but, in the end, non-profit is a lot of work and you need to create a board that meets every few months and you need to disclose all financials, openly. Also, you could never sell a non-proft organziation (because no one really "owns it".)
As for the church: I also run a half day Preschool out of a church and while it's great for the Preschool, I would not operate a full child care centre there. The church is shared space ie. funerals, groups, events and a lot of people coming & going.

[CCCS]

I am not sure about your finances - but if you are really serious about this option what about getting a new property that allows for a house and a separate home based daycare to be run out of it? I have many peers who have a 'dedicated space' for their home based business ... they sought out properties that had either a free standing apartment in the basement OR had a nanny flat where the laundry/furnace and so forth are still 'shared' but at the end of the day they can close the door to their business and commute upstairs to home?

This solution allows all the financial PERKS of being a home based business - instead of paying 'rent' out of your revenue you get to write off a portion of your mortgage which you are already paying anyway - lowering your taxable income? Plus you do not have to worry about nearly the amount of red tape or employees and all the other stress that comes from operating a centre?

Honestly - I work less hours now cause I do not have to 'commute' to work so while I am open 10 hours a day I am not spending an hour driving daily. Plus with the advantage of being able to write off a portion of my mortgage and property taxes and so forth while on paper it seems like I make LESS money I actually have more $$ in my pocket at the end of the tax year than I did in a centre ... the government gets less of my hard earned money in 'taxes' and I get to pay off my mortgage faster as a result creating equity for my retirement

Just food for thought about some of the many perks of 'home based programs' that your spouse might not have considered

I had looked into the option of adding a separate building on a property. Most of the towns in York region don't allow that. And even if they allow it, a property that will accommodate this setup will be at least $1.2M So it's out of question for us. I had also considered a house with walkout basement so that the basement can be a dedicated space, but hubby doesn't like to lose his "man cave" unless he have can his own place/building. So we are back to square one

So I am pretty much back to the commercial plazas and they are just so expensive! That's one of the biggest reasons why I am thinking half-day nursery. No outdoor play area required! I am hoping to find something right next to a new community as typically people moving into a new community are younger couples with little kids.

I would do some community research, perhaps open the phonebook and cold call people asking if they feel there is a need for a commercial daycare centre that is subject to random inspections and is government licensed...offering subsidy. I know in our community we have a lot of dayhome's but we're the only daycare centre. Some people prefer having their children in dayhomes, some prefer daycare centre's - everyone has there own reasons and there own preferance. As for non-profit, we looked into this so we could access funding but, in the end, non-profit is a lot of work and you need to create a board that meets every few months and you need to disclose all financials, openly. Also, you could never sell a non-proft organziation (because no one really "owns it".)
As for the church: I also run a half day Preschool out of a church and while it's great for the Preschool, I would not operate a full child care centre there. The church is shared space ie. funerals, groups, events and a lot of people coming & going.

Since I am in the greater Toronto area, there are tons of daycare centres. I had looked into an existing daycare in Mississauga, a city west of Toronto. Within 3KM radius, there are 22 daycares. 22! I don't know if the local population even supports this many.

At the same, I know cheaper daycares are still largely in demand. The biggest non for profit centre in my town has a waiting list of more than 100 children! But they have their own property and hence can afford to charge less than the ones in the commercial buildings.

I was once told "there isn't any bad location, just bad management". I don't 100% agree, but I guess if the fee is low enough, there will be demand.