Country Living?!

[playfelt]

Where you live will make more of a difference in the sense of you have to have people driving by you rather than being too far out of their way. Unlikely you will get too many from town that will drive out and back but mostly get those driving into town. So maybe select a small town you like and then look for something between that town and the major town which would put you on the way.

[cfred]

I ran my business from a country property about 10-15 minutes from two towns, but also on a fairly main highway headed toward the city. I was not terribly conveniently located to the major artery taking commuters to Toronto however, which didn't help me too much. However, I ran the business from there for about 11 years quite successfully. I did find that most of my clients were very local (on my street or in close proximity) and were often friends of friends or other clients. I had a couple clients that drove well out of their way to get to me. In the end, after a good long stint, the people in my age bracket and friends all got past the 'child bearing' years, and business slowly dried up. A daycare moved into the local school and a Montessori school across from that. Done....I had to move to a high density area in a neighbouring town. That being said, 11 yrs is a pretty decent run. I wasn't always full and had some lean times, but we always managed. I did, however, take some clients I wouldn't bother with here. I often had school aged kids as the bus dropped in front of my house. If you can get a place on the bus route, that's huge! It may be difficult to maintain a roster of just little guys. I always found I had to take what wandered my way simply because there weren't as many inquiries out my way.

I will say that running the business, from activity standpoint, is extremely pleasant. The country offers so much more in the way of nature based activities. And sitting outside as the children played on a large, forested lot was to die for! I loved it!

Good luck!!!!