There's
a definite need for day care centres as more and more
mothers
of preschool age children are forced to find jobs outside
the
home. This is due in part to the current
economy, and
unfortunately,
to the high divorce rate, which means mothers who
might
ordinarily stay at home and care for their own children must
seek
income to help make ends meet.
Many
experts expect the demand to increase through the turn of the
century,
and the popularity of this type of business to continue
growing
from there. They base their forecasts on
the fact that
more
and more young parents have happy memories of the time they
spent
in day care centres, and the learning experience they
enjoyed. And again, there is the continuing need or
desire of
young
mothers to work outside the home.
Profitable
day care centres are much more than glorified
babysitting
services. Social researchers have found
that the most
important
years in a child's development are those from one to
six. Thus, the exposure to the world in which he
lives, the
instruction
he receives, and the habits he forms during those
years,
definitely affect his ability to learn and properly adjust
as
he progresses on through his years of formal education.
For
mothers of today - usually better educated than their mothers
-
are more aware of these factors and wanting the best for their
children,
are demanding the structured pre-school education and
learning
stimulation offered by modern day care centres.
This is
an
honest desire of the mothers of pre school age children - even
those
who aren't forced to work outside the home.
Another
thing in your favour: Even though there
seems to be a
trend
for many large companies to finance and operate day care
centres
for their employees in or close by their factories or
office
buildings, studies show that most working parents prefer to
leave
their children closer to home than where they work. Thus,
privately
operated day care centres in residential areas should
not
be worried too much about competition from the few company
operates
centres.
The
first step towards a startup of a profitable day care centre
is
to understand what makes them profitable.
There
are a lot of day care centres operating with full
enrollments
of 35 to 65 children, but just barely breaking even.
This
is generally the result of regulations imposed by the state
government,
causing exorbitant overhead costs of operation.
Basically,
you'll need facilities to handle 150 to 200 children in
order
to realise annual profits in the "before tax" bracket of
$100,000.
Check
with your local council about regulations.
Many require day
care
centres to provide a minimum area per child, both inside and
out
the building, plus at least one hot meal per day. A licensed
teacher
for every 15 to 20 children, and even a licensed nurse on
the
premises may be required. Be sure to
know the regulations in
your
area, and then design your business plan to meet these
regulations.
Actually,
you can begin by operating a babysitting service, by
learning
and expanding from your profits, and of course, through
the
long term benefits of establishing a quality image. In fact,
we
recommend that you do start small - with a baby sitting service
-
ad build upon your progressive successes.
Unless of course, you
have
half a million pounds to invest!
Once
you're beyond the babysitting stage, out of your home, and
backyard,
beginning to build a real day care facility, you might
try
locating in a local civic club facility.
Also, you should
check
out the possibilities of renting or buying a vacant house.
You
might find, if you have your business plan in order, that a
church
or lab or union will sponsor your business, or even offer
financial
backing. Arranging some sort of
partnership or
sponsorship
agreement with an established local organisation will
solve
a lot of problems for you, not only in the area of space but
in
assistance with start up costs, etc.
Ideally,
your day care centre should be located on a main street,
with
the building set back from the street.
If
at all possible, plan your facility similar to a hospital or
motel
entrance. This would be a driveway from
the street to your
door,
usually under a covered driveway, for convenience of picking
up
and dropping children off.
Depending
where you are located, go all out with your sign.
Advertise
the name of your care centre, the hours you are open,
and
your phone number.
The
sign makers and advertising people may strongly advise you
against
so much wording on your sign, but in this instance, don't
listen
to them. Your sign should state all
essential information,
and
serve to convince passers by that you can handle their child
care
problems whenever the need arises.
If
you initially locate in, or through the sponsorship of a church
or
lab or union, these people can assist you tremendously by
including
a mention of your services in their membership
bulletins,
and by passing out circulars or flyers.
You'll
need to decide on your regular day care hours.
Generally,
these
will be between 6am and 6pm. You'll also
need to decide
whether
you want to offer breakfast for the children.
If so,
you'll
have to plan for a cook and food supplies for morning
meals. We'll discuss kitchen facilities and kitchen
help later,
but
the first decision must be if you will include breakfast.
You'll
already be set up with kitchen facilities and a cook
because
you will be serving a noon meal. If you
do decide to
offer
breakfast for those parents not having the time to feed
their
children at home, you'll be able to add $10 to $12 per week
to
their bills. By buying your food in
bulk, you'll probably be
able
to get some real savings in overall food costs.
Mid
morning and mid afternoon snacks are often required, but even
when
they're not required, they are pretty much standard to offer.
Fresh
fruit juice, and fruit or biscuits are usually the snack
foods
served in most day centres.
As
mentioned earlier, you'll definitely be providing a hot meal
for
the children at mid day. This entails a
cook, dishes, planned
menus,
food supplied in bulk, and perhaps even small sized tables
and
chairs. You'll also have to have kitchen
help and facilities
for
washing the dishes.
These
are just some of the important overhead costs you must plan
for,
and of course you will work to keep them as low as possible.
As
you should know by now, the greater your overhead, the more
children
you're going to have to take in, and the more children
you
take in, the greater your space requirements.
All
profitable day care centres operating according to planned
routines. The day is broken down into one hour
segments, with pre
planned
curricula, much the same as classes in normal schools.
A
typical day begins with a play period from whenever the
children
arrive until about 9 o'clock. For this,
you'll need
indoor
sand boxes, toys, and perhaps a family sized television
set. From 9 to 10, the children are separated into
groups -
generally
by ages - and you hold a reading or storytelling
session. The mid morning snack time is scheduled
sometime between
10
to 11. For the younger children, this
might include a mid
morning
nap. After snack time, a learning
session is usually
held. Typically, this is the time when guests are
invited to
speak
or entertain the children.
Work
with your Chamber of Commerce, civic clubs, and city
administrator
for guests. Children will especially
enjoy visits
by
policemen, fireman and others who talk to them about
citizenship,
show films, and teach them about the things they do
in
the community.
You
can also get upper classmen at your local colleges to visit
and
demonstrate such things as drawing, working with clay,
building
with wood, making things out of paper, and hundreds of
other
talents or skills they might be learning.
The important
thing
is to bring "outsiders" in to talk to the kids about what
goes
on in their world.
Noon
to 1 o'clock is generally lunch time, and from 1 until 2 is
another
learning session. During this afternoon
learning session,
you
might offer the rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic.
these
teaching chores can be handled by college students studying
to
be teachers, retired teachers, or unemployed teachers.
About
once a week, your afternoon learning session should be a
tour
or a trip to somewhere that might be interesting as well as
educational
for the children. Again, you're making
the idea of
learning
not only interesting but an exciting adventure as well.
These
trips can be anything from a walk in your immediate area to
loading
all the children onto minibuses and taking them to the
zoo.
Whenever
possible, you should encourage the children to be outside
during
play periods. If you have lots of
playground equipment,
you
won't necessarily always have to have organised games, but you
will
have to have playground supervisors - someone to watch the
children
and see that they don't get hurt as they play.
You can
hire
part time help for this.
Your
playground will require a fenced in area.
Drive around and
look
at the playground equipment in the play yards of your public
schools,
and at day care centres in your area.
You should have
the
basic sandboxes, swings, slides, and jungle gyms, but in this
area
you can be creative and original, provided your equipment
meets
safety standards.
Some
states require that you have a registered nurse on the
premises,
but generally, the main things needed are medical
information
from the parents and a written procedure to follow in
case
of accident or illness. Basically, when
a child is injured
or
becomes ill, you should take him to the nearest hospital, while
another
member of staff gets in touch with the parents and
explains
what has happened. If the parents cannot
be present at
the
hospital, all information should be passed onto
them,
immediately
it is available.
It's
a good idea to have all your helpers indoctrined with basic
Red
Cross first aid knowledge, and have a well equipped first aid
kit
on the premises. As for any
requirements, relative to a full
time
nurse, you should be able to hire registered nurses who are
either
not working or looking for extra income.
Most
day care centres are currently charging from $35 to $65 per
child
for a five day week, plus $10+ for the inclusion of
breakfast. If you do not receive payment in advance, you
can
quickly
get "in the red". We strongly
suggest setting up your
financial
structure and clients' payment schedules with this in
mind.
By
having your customers pay in advance, you'll eliminate a lot of
book-keeping
chores and time, the problems of collections, and
you'll
have operating funds with which to run the business. A
point
to stress when asking for payments by the month, in advance,
is
that because most payments are based on only four weeks of day
care,
they'll be getting a free week every three months.
Every
profitable day care centre needs a sharp manager or
director. This person might be yourself, or someone you
hire for
the
job. Regardless, this person will be the
key to your success.
The
director should have an empathy with people, be an excellent
judge
of people, be sales orientated, and have an outgoing
personality. As much as anything else, this person must
have the
ability
to listen to, and really hear what other people are saying
without
the influence of pre-conceived opinions, or making snap
decisions. This person has to have the success of your
business
in
mind at all times, which means building and maintaining an
impeccable
reputation.
Your
director will be responsible for the hiring and supervising
of
your other help and the budgeting, scheduling and overall day
to
day operation of the business. It is
imperative to the success
of
your business that you have the very best person you can get in
this
position, regardless of the cost.
When
a prospective client calls to ask you about your services,
you
should explain how you operate, and emphasise your invitation
for
them to bring their child in so that the two of them can be
taken
for a your of your facilities.
Once
in the centre, your manager or director takes the parent and
child
on a tour, all the while explaining to the parents the
advantages
of the centre's structured learning and play programme
as
compared with everyday run of the mill babysitting services.
It's
important to have the child along, because as he sees the
other
children at play, he will be drawn to them, and this will
greatly
influence the parent in deciding that your centre is the
right
place for his child.
After
the tour, steer the parent back into your offices, and
propose
enrolment of the child. Begin by asking
where the parent
works,
what hours and if he or she ever has to work overtime. You
then
ascertain the hours they'll want to drop off and pick up
their
child.
Strict
procedures are absolutely essential regarding the pick up
of
any child. Frightening as it may be to
contemplate, we have
all
read accounts of strangers (or non custodial parents)
kidnapping
a child. Printed forms must be provided,
and
authorisation
signatures must be compared when anyone other than
the
legal guardian takes a child from your care.
You will learn
these
requirements from your licensing office.
Our advice to you
is
to follow them meticulously.
You
should have a slickly printed quality brochure showing your
rates,
your services, an outline of the curriculum, and a
statement
of your benefit goals for the children.
Check
with a legally qualified person about the need for a
contract. The parent will probably simply fill out a
questionnaire
about the child, medical information, emergency
numbers,
etc.
Most
day care centres accept all children between two and six
years
of age. And there are many nowadays who
take infants from
six
weeks.
Of
course, your personnel in this situation will be thoroughly
oriented
in infant care, and you must ascertain if these babies
are
well when bought into you. Otherwise you
put yourself in the
position
of "hospital" care instead of day care.
Generally,
children aren't allowed to bring toys from home. You
may
want to allow the children to bring their own blanket from
home
for nap time, but if you allowed toys from home you would be
opening
a Pandora's box of possible problems relating to sharing
and
ownership. In light of this, you will
want a full complement
of
appropriate toys and play items in your centre.
If
you decide to include short term babysitting services, a good
idea
would be to include within the layout of your facilities a
small
one bedroom apartment for a live in person or couple. An
older
retired couple would be ideal, if the husband could serve as
a
maintenance and handy man as well.
The
demand for unplanned or emergency babysitting services is very
large. Not too many day care centres are aware of
the potential
for
extra profits, but the ones that are, find that their incomes
can
increase by 30 percent or more! We
certainly recommend
consideration
of this idea for anyone involved in a day care
service.
You
can begin small, and expand in stages with your profits.
However,
you must draw up a long range plan detailing exactly what
you
intend to do, and each milestone you'll have to pass before
proceeding
to your next goal. In this way, you can
succeed and
attain
not only the ultimate business, but also the kind of
profits
planned at the start.
The
basic, and bottom line secret to success with your own day
care
centre will be your ability to hold your costs in line while
achieving
maximum capacity enrolment. You've got
the plan, and my
best
wishes for success!
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