I left a full time job to open my home daycare as well. I've been opened for a year almost to the day and just getting financialy stable. Once you made your decision and are setting up maybe you could start adervertising spaces before you actualy leave your job so you can have an income. Set a date for when you will be officialy opened. IME parents started to look way way in advance for daycare so even if I had all my spots filled I was only full one year later.

If you plan to use the same space your family use (which is my case) you need to be very organised if you do not want to feel the daycare is taking over your house. There are some sapces in my home that is NOT used for daycare purposes such as my own kids bedrooms and my living room ( sometimes I use it for movie days ) I have storage in my kitchen cubbards just for daycare cups and dishes and all. I have ONE napping area for all daycare kids. For me it has worked well but like I said, even if I use my family space for daycare I do have special storage and accesories JUST for daycare. It takes a bit of time but you find your grove and routine and then ...it just flows but it's a leasson learn type of evolving. I've been opened a year and I am still tweaking to make life easier. This website is AMAZING to help find new ideas.

You have to be prepared to be tested to the max. Some children can cry/scream for loooooooooooooooong HOURS, weeks even month when the start daycare. Make sure you know your limits and find yourself some strategy that works with what you beleive it and make sure you tell parents and find parents that think and see things the way you do. A great support system makes all the differences. This will sound awfull but bad days as a daycare provider can be really bad and exhausting but I still LOVE my job and do not regret one bit my decision.

Hope this helps somewhat .