When you think of running a day care, the image of a large building with lots of employees and children running around comes to mind. While that is the standard, 2020 has shown us that all industries need to offer smaller, local services and daycare is no exception! If you have a vision of running your own day care, it is entirely possible to do so out of your home and be very successful in that setting. There is some research to do and decisions to make, but with a little bit of planning and one of our starter kits, you can get started with minimal investment.
The primary advantage of starting a day care in your home is that it is a setting you may already be using to care for children. If you have young children, you might have much of the child proofing and cleaning supplies are on hand. Simply increase your supplies to support the number of children you will be taking in. In home childcare is designed for smaller settings which is perfect for slow scaling home businesses and will most likely align with state requirements. Starting with a smaller number of children gives you the opportunity to develop your skills, work up activities and programs for the kids and learn to manage the efficiently manage your business.
Another advantage of starting out with a home based day care is the expense. By using your own home, you eliminate the need to purchase or rent and renovate a building and you can use a lot of your existing space and equipment for your day care. Take an inventory of the things you already have and start there. When you start to make a profit, you can add to your equipment and supplies. Remember you can always come back here to replenish your inventory! Since a home based day care is ordinarily geared toward small groups of children, you may be able to manage it yourself and eliminate the expense of employees which is a huge overhead. It makes things a lot simpler...unless you decide to create a network of home daycares. That's a blog post for another time ;-)
Finally, here is a list of items you will need to have in your home daycare:
- Clothing storage and organizers
- Art supplies (crayons, markers, glue, construction paper, etc)
- Play area (centers) items: books, toys, cushions, costumes
- Outside play items: slides, sandbox, water tables, sport toys
- Meal supplies: plates, bowls, cutlery
- Sleep supplies: mats, blankets, white noise machine
- Diapering and toileting supplies
- Safety equipment
- Cleaning supplies
- Office supplies
This is just a starter list. Next we will talk about to prepare to open your in home daycare.