Find Your Perfect Career as a Early Educator

With the need for both parents working steadily climbing each year, there is an ever-growing demand for quality child care. This increasing necessity has created an opportunity for entrepreneurs who have a love of children and want to build a business taking care of them. The ideal candidate should be energetic, business-minded, a competent leader with a pleasant personality, have some financial resources and consistent in the delivery of service. There are many experts who predict that the demand for daycare centers will double through the turn of the century. This forecast also suggests that this type of business venture will continue to grow in popularity.

According The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA), there are more than 11 million children who are under the age of five spending a good portion of every day of every week in the care of someone other than their parents. That translates into about thirty-six hours each week for the average youngster under the supervision of a child care service.

No longer is child care simply defined as babysitting. Today, many parents put their child into daycare because child care centers have transitioned to become centers for early education. The trend for pre-schoolers to start learning at an early age is partly due to high expectations by parents and schools. Additionally, research confirms that children are capable of learning academics and other skills at an earlier age than was previously thought and therefore taught at a later time. It is now routinely accepted by social researchers that the most important years in a child’s development are from one to six years old.

The child care industry is made up of businesses that provide daycare services for infants and young children. They can range from small home-based operation to large a commercial center that serves a particular area or community. As a home-based business, you can create a job for yourself and remain relatively small, or you can expand into a substantial enterprise with potentially millions of dollars in yearly revenue. Nevertheless, the first step toward starting up a profitable day care center is to understand what makes them work and thereby profitable. Before you start your business there are several things to consider before you can sell your product or service.

• Find out what licences and regulations apply to your business • Choose a business structure and register or incorporate your business

Once these steps are completed, you might try locating your business in a local church or a civic club facility. You might investigate the possibilities of renting or buying a vacant house with a large backyard, but be sure to check zoning in your locale before finalizing your plans. A shoestring entrepreneur will do very well locating their business in a vacant store in a larger shopping center because the zoning is in your favor and there is ample parking. You should be located on a main thoroughfare on the right side of the street where commuters are heading toward major business centers or industrial areas in your community.

As part of your business plan, you’ll need to decide on your regular daycare hours, but for most daycare centers these are from 6 a.m. through 6 p.m. Offering breakfast, snacks and lunch is another consideration.

The ideal daycare has a playground where the children can go out to exercise and play. Your playground will require a fenced-in area and it should provide the basic sandboxes, swings, slides and jungle gyms that meet safety standards.

Every profitable daycare center requires a manager who has the success of your business in mind at all times. This person might be yourself or someone you hire with the appropriate credentials suitable for the job. Your manager will be responsible for the hiring and supervision of your staff, budgeting, scheduling and overall day-to-day operation of the business. Caring for someone else’s children is a big responsibility and a serious commitment, so find the best possible person that you can for this important position.

The basic and bottom line secret to success with your daycare center is to have a plan, check regulations, start small and expand it in stages with your profits and each milestone that you reach.