How to Start a Home Daycare Business

Finding the Laws, Preparing Your Home, Writing a Contract and Loving the Children

So, you want to start a home daycare business? I was there once. I had no idea if it could be a reality but I wanted so badly to take the leap and own my own home daycare. Now, 3 years later, I still own my own home daycare business and I have lived to write an article about it.

Starting a home daycare is not nearly as hard as running one and maintaining clients. I will go over the basics of how to get started planning and starting your own home daycare business. Check out my other articles on the home daycare contract and the home daycare rules for more information. I found when I first started that the more I heard and read from other home daycare owners, the better I did.

The first thing you must do before opening your home daycare business is to check your local laws on home based businesses. This was very easy to do. I called my local government offices and asked until they connected me to the right person. She explained that in my state (Ohio) I didn't need a license to open my home daycare business at all. I did have to obey by the guidelines for home daycare businesses but as long as I did that, I needed nothing more. Be sure and read the home daycare guidelines and rules thoroughly so you do not miss anything. Ohio's were very easy to understand and straight forward.

Prepare your home for your home daycare business. This is easier than you might think. I always had the vision that I would need a large house and a lot of extra room for my home daycare business but that is not true. I have a small 2 bedroom house with one bathroom. I have never had a family say a single word about the size of my home.

To prepare your home for your home daycare simply prepare your home for children. Get rid of all tiny toys and harmful things in any given room. Many people only assign one or two rooms for their daycare business and those are the rooms they childproof. That is a fine way to do it. Some of us decide to go all the way and childproof our entire homes. Since my home is small, I have decided to allow the children in all the rooms (minus our bedroom) to play and participate in activities.