Hi Everyone,

I live in Nova Scotia and have been thinking about the option of opening my own daycare. I believe I am an entreprenuer at heart, and am tired of working for someone else and would like to put my own sweat-equity into something I will love. I love administration and finances. I have a sister who is an experienced ECE, and know a few others. I have a 11 month old daughter, and am just ending my maternity leave.
My idea is not to open up a home daycare, like many others do, I want to buy a house, and convert/use that as the daycare. I will hire a few ECE's, a part time cook, and I will take care of the business aspect of things (admin, finance, accounting, etc.). There is a home for sale in my area that is zoned for a daycare and was once a successful daycare before. Right now it is a lovely home in good shape. It is located right beside a school.
What I am asking you lovely folks is, how did you go about starting your business? Is there anyone who did what I described above (rather than using your basement or a portion of your home)? What did you have to do in ordder to start? What regulations have to be met, licenses have to be gotten, what's the process? Was it hard for you to find children?
I am very nervous, because you always hear of many businesses not succeeding. The fear of failure is there, so I want to make sure that this doesn't happen to me.