All about the money parents

[Inspired by Reggio]

Yup sadly I think that people who have never been in 'business management' end of childcare do not realize how much it COSTS to provide a quality early learning program and they are looking at their shitty centre wage and thinking 'hmmm I am working damn hard here for about $12.50 an hour so if I have 5 children at $30 a day that is $150 a day so I am making $50 a day more than I am now and wow that is awesome cause I will be self employed and yada yada all the benefits of doing this ... but they are not thinking about the fact it takes time to be FULL as well as that being self employed you are now working 12 plus hours a day wearing all the hats for that so while you made $100 a day in your centre you only worked 8 hours and someone else cooked, cleaned and did all the administration you just had to do the 'front line fun' with the kids ... so now factor in you work 12 hours now and you are in reality making SAME hourly wage but with a shit load more responsibility ... than they eventually realize holy shit it costs at LEAST $5 a day just to FEED them assuming you are using non organic and more processed style foods to keep that cost down so now your only making $125 a day and working 12 hours a day so now you are making only $10.40 an hour which is basically minimum wage in Ontario at least ... and you have not even factored in your business insurance, advertizing expenses, toys, equipment, craft and sensory and other consumable supplies used, the increase in your heat, hydro, sewage, the wear and tear on your home and so forth and so on and well before that poor 'newbie' finishes her first year she realizes CRAP once I pay my business taxes I am basically working all these long hours and dealing with all the stress of managing a business for FREE!

Than she either has to raise her fees substantially and risk loosing all her clients and starting over again cause they likely signed on cause 'cheap' was their motivation so they are going to seek out the next cheap newbie or she has to suck up her lack of research and planning and leave it be with her current clients and wait for turnover to get to be paid a FAIR wage moving forward!

So yes I agree .... do your RESEARCH before starting out and setting your fees to LOW because it ss very hard to get them back up their while maintaining your current clients and well basically you end up attracting those where 'cheap' is their motivation and value orientation for childcare!