An Aunt who resigned from her bank job wants to run a Day care centre in her home. Pls I will welcome suggestions on how she can go about it.
Thank You all.

For a daycare she will need a dedicated fully airconditioned room filled with lots of toys, a television with cable subsription, a changing corner. And help to assist with the kids.

Firstly she must av a good passion for children and also d passion for d job then sky is her's

mple Business Plan Template
1. Learn everything you can about the Daycare business

Aside passion, you need to make sure that you learn everything you can about the daycare business because knowledge is power. You can download materials from the internet and talk to other daycare business owners about what it takes to run a business.

2. Write a business plan

Conducting research for your daycare business is not difficult. What you have to do is just a preliminary survey about the number of day-to-day working class parents in your area. You can also talk to parents living within your neighborhood and ask to know the challenges they are facing raising their kids and building a career.

After doing your brief research, you can then proceed to write a business plan. You should also take time to study other people’s daycare business plan. After that, make use of the information you gathered from all those daycare business plans you have read and carefully put into writing your own business plan.

Remember that your daycare center business plan should have an executive summary, founders and employees bio, marketing plan, operating requirements, competition analysis, startup investment cost, financial projections, etc.

3. Get a location with childcare safety in mind

The next step is to get a good location. You must also ensure that you comply with all required safety regulations and have on-hand all necessary safety equipment, including fire extinguishers, carbon-monoxide detectors, smoke detectors, first-aid kits and other safety equipment.

4. Choose a good name for your daycare business

When you have gotten a very good location in a safe environment that is hazard free, the next step is to choose a name for your daycare business. Now when choosing a daycare business name, you must choose a name that is brand-able, short, creative and child friendly. Example of daycare business names ideas are:

“Your Name” Childcare center
Special Kids Daycare Center
5. Get a business insurance

Getting an adequate insurance protection is another requirement for establishing your daycare business. If you wish to operate the business from your home, you will need a fire and theft insurance. You must also cover your back legally just in case an accident happens or a child dies in your custody. You must also make sure your policy covers the supplies and equipment that you purchase for your business.

6. Equip your daycare center

You must also provide a good variety of things that make children happy. Things like children games, puzzles, books, blocks, arts and crafts supplies, and toys. This will enable the children enjoy their stay at your daycare center. It is also important you purchase software that will help in the scheduling and management of your Daycare center.

7. Advertise your daycare center

After taking the pain to setup your business, you must tell your friends about your daycare center and if you are lucky enough, they may be your first customers and also help you spread the word. You should also place notices on bulletin boards in locations where families congregate like at the church, schools, community halls, etc.

Also put ads in local newspapers or parenting e-newsletters, create a social media page on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and don’t forget to give out your business card at any instance.

How to Get a License for your Daycare Center
In order to run and operate a legal childcare business, you will typically have to apply for daycare licensing in your state. The exact requirements for licensing may vary from one state to another. In some places, all daycare facilities required licensing while others may only need licensing for the facilities that care for a minimum number of children.

Securing a daycare license is the first step if you want to run a successful daycare business. Below are the basic steps towards acquiring a daycare or childcare business license.

1. Determine the kind of home daycare license you will apply for

You can apply to become a licensed daycare home if you intend to cater for 7 to 12 children within the age of 14 years, fewer than 24hours per day. There is also an application to become a registered childcare home if you intend catering for up to 6 children under the age of 14, and up to 6 school-age children. And lastly, you can apply to become a listed family home if you desire on caring for 1 to 3 unrelated children in your home.

2. Complete your registration process through the appropriate website of the department of family and protective services; and submit your application for a home childcare license. Printable versions of the forms are made available at the department’s website. You can download and mail it to your local daycare licensing office. Contact information about your local office will be made available at the department’s website.

3. Pay the associated fee with respect to the kind of home childcare license you are applying for. Visit the department of protective and family website to get the latest scheduled fees. Contact your local daycare licensing office. Schedule yourself for a childcare home pre-application class if you are wishing to become a registered or licensed daycare.

You will need to review the information packet which you receive during the pre-application class. You also have to become familiar with licensing rules, laws and the application process along with the administrative procedures.

4. Wait to be contacted by the Department of Family and Protective Services if you have applied to become a licensed or registered daycare home. The department will inspect your home to make sure that you comply with the minimum standards. The standards changes depending on the kind of daycare you wish to operate and are subject to change with the laws of your state.

5. Schedule a gas leakage test, fire and sanitation inspection from a private local company. The records from all the inspections and tests must remain on file at your childcare. Wait up to 60 days following the inspection to discover if your license was rejected or accepted.

A registration or listing will be mailed to you if your license is accepted and approved. If accepted, your operation can be inspected at least every 12 months and your license is liable to revoke if you are found to be in any form of violation of the set standards.

List of Equipment you need to start a Daycare
Aside a daycare center software and business cards, there other things you need for the convenience of the kids. Children are active and fast learners who use the physical environment in a direct, hands-on manner.

The physical environment and all the materials including equipment are part of a child’s learning experience. The schedule, interaction with others, space and daily routines all provide learning opportunities.

The learning environment of a daycare center should provide a rich assortment of materials and equipment for children to develop cognitively, social and physically. Below is a list of playground equipment needed to establish a daycare center:

List of Daycare Playground Equipment
Swings
Plastic slide
Rocking toy
Toy car
Electric train
Ball pool
Bicycles
Spring horse
Toy house
Toy game
Merry go round
Seesaw
Building blocks
Eight Challenges of starting a Daycare Business
Running a childcare / daycare center or business can be rewarding and as well profitable especially when you run a quality daycare program. But there are lots of challenges that even the best daycare centers experience. Below are some of those challenges:

1. Outbreak of diseases

One thing with running a daycare center is that if one child comes in with fever, catarrh or cold, then there is high possibility that other children in the daycare may get infected too; and this is not good for business at all. So the best action to take is to identify such a child and isolate such individual as soon as possible.

2. A daycare business is not capital intensive, but it is management intensive and can lead to fatigue on your part. Handling quite a number of children is a herculean task and if you are not up for it, you will give up too soon.

3. Scaling through the application process and inspections from relevant regulatory bodies can be quite a pain in the ass. This is because you are dealing with children, so the authorities wouldn’t want to take chances. You definitely won’t enjoy the stress and protocols involved with getting registered or getting a license.

4. You will also be faced with the challenge of getting a good location that will meet the standard requirement for setting up a childcare center.

5. Inability to get the curriculum that will suit every child, as some kids are more gifted than others.

6. You will also have to prepare yourself for legal issues that may arise as you run your business. One thing I have learned in business is that sh*t happens and happens fast. A child may be involved in an accident or even die while under your custody.

What this mean in essence is that you would have to resolve the issue with the government and also defend yourself, against any legal action arising from the situation. So you have to get a good attorney and a good insurance policy long before these things happen.

7. You would also have to deal with the security challenges involved with running a daycare business; so as to avoid the kids under your custody falling prey to criminals, kidnappers and child traffickers.

8. Another challenge you will face is to find employees that are health conscious, take good care of their personal hygiene and love children. Just as I pointed out earlier, running a daycare is not about the money, it is all about the passion and such passion must reflect in your employees.

How to hire employees for your Daycare Center
Running a successful daycare does not only rely on proper marketing and proper budget planning but also on having a well grounded and dedicated staff that will run and maintain the business. The staff you select should be well experienced, extremely responsible and willing to work with children of all ages and kinds.

After putting out an advert seeking the services of a competent daycare manager or employee and talking to neighbors and friends; you will need to screen each applicant and make sure they meet the criteria. Any individual you will employ must have:

A good educational background
Must be intelligent and fluent in speaking
Must be an individual that pays attention to detail
Being experienced in the handling of children will be an added advantage
He or she must be willing to learn and learn fast
He or she must have a good personality and appearance. Remember, your first impression to your clients matters
He or she must have a crime free background. However, you must not trust your employees. It is also important that you keep your eyes open to guard against sexual abuse and child molestation.
Wow.mytopbusinessideas.com

I want to emphasise some of the things I posted above.
1. As much as we live in Nigeria where things can be done anyhow then rely on prayers that it goes well she should not cut corners. She should register her business especially in Lagos.

2. She should not cut corners in hiring help. She should not go for cheap incompetent labour as is mostly done, getting some relative from the village or some house help an agent brought from somewhere if parents wanted that cheap arrangement they would do so themselves. Get a smart qualified help and look into their background before someone kidnaps another person's child from your daycare or acts carelessly and gets you in trouble.

Wendy80: An Aunt who resigned from her bank job wants to run a Day care centre in her home. Pls I will welcome suggestions on how she can go about it.
Thank You all.

My main question is why is she doing it?
Does she genuingly love children and loves being round them and is able to bring postitives to their lives or is she doing it because sheis fed up of the stress of the bank and she has heard from a friend that she can make money out of childminding.

As much as I most probably meet all the criteria that I need to be a childminder on paper to run a good childcare facility, I cannot be a childminder becasiue I am not very good with more than a few kids at the same time. I certainkly couldnt be a teacher either because I dont have the patience . . .. So before she goes off and does anything, she needs to be honest with and ask herself why she is doing it and who is going to be gaining from this the most; the kids or her?

Childminding/teaching/nursing etc is not for everyone.

I appreciate all ur contributions. She has passion for kids maybe cos she has no child of her own and finds joy in taking care of other's. She lives in a big flat and intends starting with just 5 kids between 3months-12months. She can't handle running around children for now cos of space. Although she has a land incase of xpansion.
@ ibizgirl, aisia2 and chaircover thanx so much

Now its possible to obtain your daycare centre business plan www.businessplannigeria.com.ng/daycare-business-plan-in-nigeria

xioked;

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Daycare start up now made easy.... Just get a daycare business plan now...

We recently opened a daycare and can provide some advice on how to go about it. One of the first thing you need to consider for your childcare center is the appropriate license, you need to make sure you have that in place before anything else. Next step will be to prepare the location, make sure there is a playground where children can play outside, also the indoor place should have large windows that let in lots of sunlight. You should also make sure you use a good daycare management software system (we use http://close-look.com) because that will help you organize the classes, gather children information and send invoices to parents. Finally, you should hire good qualified teachers who love being around children. All the best!