how to start a daycare?

Question

I am interested in opening a child day care center. I live in New York and would love to know where to begin with this venture. Any help would be great

Answer 1

The first step is to prepare a business plan. Even if you will not be applying for a bank loan, a business plan helps you to think through your business - what it needs, who it will benefit, how much it will cost, and what is its potential. Here are free business plans on childcare business that you may want to look into:

http://www.sba.gov/library/pubs/mp-30.doc
http://www.misbtdc.org/documents/BPWORKBK.pdf
http://www.misbtdc.org/documents/CDCPLAN.pdf
http://sbdcnet.utsa.edu/sbic/bplans.htm

Other articles you may want to read:

Starting a Child Day Care Business http://www.libsci.sc.edu/BOB/class/clis748/Studentwebguides/ss02/pollack2.htm
Childcare.net http://childcare.net/indexnew.shtml
How To Start Your Own Day Care Center http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol40/daycare.htm
Starting a child-care services business http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,290241,00.html
HOW TO START A QUALITY CHILD CARE BUSINESS http://www.sba.gov/library/pubs/mp-29.pdf

For in-depth information, I suggest checking out the following books:

- Start and Run a Profitable Home Day Care
- The Daycare Provider's Workbook
- Start Your Own At-Home Child Care Business
- So You Want to Open a Profitable Child Care Center :
Everything You Need to Know to Plan, Organize and Implement a Successful Program

It is also important that you learn the tax rules affecting daycare centers, especially if you are going to open one from your home. Here is the IRS page on child care centers: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/industries/content/0,,id=99878,00.html

As for the licenses and requirements in your state, the Administration for Children and Families provide a state by state listing of contacts for licensing and regulations governing child care businesses:
http://www.nccic.org/statedata/dirs/regoffic.html

In New York the agency to contact in terms of licensing requirements are:

NY State Department of Family Assistance
Office of Children and Family Services
Bureau of Early Childhood Services
52 Washington Street, Room 338, North Building
Rensselaer, NY 12144
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Web site: http://www.dfa.state.ny.us

For callers from the 5 boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Bureau of Day Care
2 Lafayette Street, 22nd Floor
New York, NY 10007
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Web site: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/dc/dc.html

Answer 2

Starting A Daycare In Nyc

Answer 3

Get your loan today from Ericson finance at 2% interest rate email:[e-mail] today.

Answer 4

Go to http://www.score.org/ to find the nearest SCORE chapter. Contact them to arrange for a free one on one meeting with a SCORE counselor about starting a daycare business.

SCORE is a nonprofit organization. They provide a public service by offering small business advice and training. .

SCORE's 10,500 volunteers have more than 600 business skills. Volunteers share their wisdom and lessons learned in business. The volunteers are working/retired business owners, executives and corporate leaders.

Answer 5

Hope this helps!

Answer 6

You have to have a license for that. I guess you would contact a government office in NY to get it. I used to watch kids in my home. Your supposed to have a license for that too if you keep over 6. I didn't get one but all the moms knew that and didn't care b/c I was a great sitter. Maybe you could start in your home first and make sure you really want to do it? I was a preschool teacher (2 yr olds) for a year, then a nanny for 6 years and then kept 8 kids (all under age 5) in my home everyday for a few years. Oh yeah and I started babysitting when I was 11 and had lots of families I babysat for b/c one would recommend the next, etc. I now have 4 of my own kids so it's kind of like a day care here too!