Ask yourself these questions to decide if you're ready to open a home daycare.
Running a home daycare has a lot of appeal. It allows you to work from home (and be there when the refrigerator repair man comes, sometime between 1pm and 5pm!), keep your own children in a familiar environment, avoid paying childcare to someone else and make money. So, what's the catch? Depending on whom you are and what your circumstances are, there may be no catch, simply a great solution. But, it's worth taking a few minutes to think about the issues in Starting a Home Daycare before taking the plunge.
Before making the decision to open a home daycare program, answer these questions for yourself.
* Why do you want to open a daycare in your home? Will you be able to meet your goals through home daycare?
* Will you be able to work long hours with few breaks? It's not always like this in a home daycare, but be sure you know that you can handle the extremes.
* Do you have a source of benefits such as health insurance so you don't need to buy those benefits through your home Daycare Business?
* Do you genuinely like children and enjoy being around them? What experience do you have with children, especially other people's children?
* How will this home daycare business affect your household?
* Is your spouse supportive of opening your house to the public?
* Do you have enough space in your house? Find out the requirements by checking state regulations for home daycare programs.
* Do you have enough available cash to get started and pay bills until all of your home daycare slots are full?
* Who can provide backup if you're sick or need to go to a parent/teacher conference during the day?
Have you gone through the list and felt reasonably confident that you can handle these aspects of running a home daycare program? Great! Just one more thing to be sure you're good to go. Check on educational requirements. Some states require a certain number of college level credits in early childhood developments plus some continuing education. Courses are usually available at community colleges and through state training centers. Once you know that you have the credentials you need or you know where to get the education and you are comfortable doing that, you're on your way!
