Agency: yes or no

[BlueRose]

What about the amount of people wanting subsidy or a discount. My building is in an area where there are lots of rent to income housing. with so many people asking for subsidy, wouldn't it be wise to go with an agency at lest to start? or am I just panicking/worrying that I wont find any reg fee paying families by Sept/Oct? I will be officially quitting my two retail jobs on September 7th.

[Inspired by Reggio]

What about the amount of people wanting subsidy or a discount. My building is in an area where there are lots of rent to income housing. with so many people asking for subsidy, wouldn't it be wise to go with an agency at lest to start? or am I just panicking/worrying that I wont find any reg fee paying families by Sept/Oct? I will be officially quitting my two retail jobs on September 7th.

I started out with an agency for the same reason ~ I was with them for two years and they were not able to refer me ONE client because while there is lots of people ELIGIBLE for subsidy the actual WAIT LIST to GET IT can be long depending on your area .... and for clients who are eligible but not able to GET IT paying the agency inflated full market fees is impossible ~ they tend to seek out private clients in the meantime while sitting on a 'waiting list' for subsidy somewhere and for people who are not 'eligible' for subsidy they are going to prefer to pay the lower private fees that does not have a middle man taking a portion of it ~ none of my clients I found privately had any interest in going through the 'agency' so eventually I just gave up the contract with them cause there was no real benefit to ME and it was actually causing a financial loss for me because finding kids 'over 3' is hard and I had found a child who would be only 3 weeks short of turning 3 when they needed care to start and they would not allow me to take her if I wanted to stay with them until she was 'over 3' and well the mom needed care to start and could not wait so I would have lost her ~ so I gave up the contract cause to me '3 weeks to young' according to their ratio rules was not worth loosing a client over who was not going to be any more 'independent' in that time frame :roll:

As for the training ~ yes in your area you have the CCPRN and Ontario Early Years centres ... I know my community offers a Home Childcare Training program for $60 to cover the cost of manual materials and guest speakers and so forth that is quiet helpful for new providers! Way cheaper than going through an agency cause not sure about in Ottawa but in my area agencies pay LESS per child/per day than you can get privately so if you are able to get PRIVATE clients you can use that extra income to engage in your own 'training' in whatever level that you feel will help and motivate you in your business ~ tailored to YOUR needs and strengths verses some agency 'group training for the masses' .... honestly I never attended any of the agency stuff and preferred to seek out my own PD and networking anyway!