While I do not yet have any children of my own, a number of my friends do, and I often hear about issues and obstacles affiliated with having children from them. I am not referring to issues with children themselves; rather, exterior problems that may present themselves if one were to have children, for example, finding a daycare that can actually take your child without having to be put on a two-year waiting list.

I cannot believe what some of my friends tell me about daycare and how difficult it can be to find one that can admit your child. In today’s economy, most families contain two working adults because the cost of living has become so high, and with both parents working, the absence of someone to look after their children while they’re out making money to support them is a significant concern.

I don’t think I have met anyone who had a smooth experience with enrolling their child, or children, into a daycare, and I cannot fathom how stressful it must be for some families. If you cannot find someone to care for your child, there is the option to refrain from working and instead stay at home to be with them. However, with that comes the loss of a second income, making the situation even more difficult and overwhelming.

One solution in the context of a lack of daycares and/or an inability to enroll your child into one is to have more daycare centres available for kids. Easier said than done, granted, but after looking into the matter myself, I was surprised to learn it might not be as complicated as one might initially think. I am not saying I’m planning to open one myself anytime soon, but in case someone out there is contemplating doing so, check out the following information to help you in the process of beginning a daycare.

“Is There A Market? 

“Starting any kind of business, whether it’s a daycare or anything else, without doing thorough market research is a bad idea, and one that could come back to haunt you later on.  The fact is that even if you need daycare, that doesn’t mean there’s enough demand in your area to go through the trouble and expense of opening one up, so you need to find out before you invest too much time, effort, and money into the idea. 

“Do some polls on social media, for example, and send out surveys to find out more about what the need is for daycare. You can even hire a third party to do the work for you, and they’ll have a wider reach and all the tools in place to get real answers, so this can be a great place to start. Once you know if there’s a market, you can then move forward with your idea or start over again, depending on what the answer might be. 

“Legal Requirements

“If you want to open and operate a daycare center, there are some specific legal hurdles to get over first – you can’t just set things up and start working without licenses and certification (including things like first aid, for example) in place. 

“What you need will usually vary depending on where you’re intending to set the business up, so you’ll need to do some more research to find out, but there are going to be certain things every daycare has to have in place, like a certain number of adults to children, childcare qualifications, safety standards, and so on. Find out what you need and get the licenses before you do anything else, otherwise you might find you have to shut down before you even really get started. 

“Get Your Invoicing Right

“Running a daycare isn’t a cheap operation – you’ll need to have staff (if you want it to be a larger business), premises, food and drink, toys and games, safety equipment, not to mention the licenses we mentioned above, plus insurance and more. You’ll be spending a decent amount of money each month to make sure your business keeps running. 

“In order to be able to spend that money, you need to have that money, so you’ll have to have a good system for invoicing and collecting payments – any problems with cash flow will be a big issue. One good idea is to investigate payment processing for daycares so you can be sure you’re getting things right, plus setting up a recurring payment system is another wise idea.”

Photo by Gabe Pierce on Unsplash