I have had quite a few people e-mail me with questions
about how to get started doing home daycare. So, I made this page for them. I hope that it helps answer any questions that you may have. If it doesn't, then feel free to e-mail me. I will be more then happy to help you out, if I can! If I can't, then maybe I know someone
who will be able to help.

OK, so you have decided that you would like to open
a home daycare. The very first thing that you need to do before
you start on anything else is to check to make sure that your home is zoned in an area where they will allow a home based business. If you live in an apartment, some apartment buildings will not allow people to run a home daycare. Check with the apartment owners or managers. The same goes for some duplexes. If you are renting a home, you need to check with the landlord before you start your daycare to see if he will allow you to run a business on his property. Alot of them will not because of the insurance risks. Even if you own your own home, some residential neighborhoods may have a Home Owners Association that will not allow you to open and run a home based business from your home. So, before you get started on ANYTHING, check with your landlord, check your lease,
or your mortgage paperwork to make sure that a home based business is allowed.
Now, if everything works out in your favor,
then on to the next step!

Now the next step that you need to take, once you have decided
that you want to be a home daycare provider, is to decide whether you want to be licensed or just registered. You can do both through the state. You would need to call the Child Welfare Agency in your town and get them to send you all the information that you may need. Each state is different. Getting registered is a little easier then getting licensed. The states that I have lived in, to get registered all you needed to do was to call the Child Welfare Agency, and let them know that you want to be a registered home daycare provider. They will send you the information, along with an application. First you will need to get your certification in Infant and Child CPR. Once you have done this, then you enclose a copy of your certificate, along with your application, and the fee and mail it back to them. Once they recieve your information, they will set up an appointment to come to your home for a walk thru inspection. If everything goes ok, within a
couple weeks, you will recieve your registration.

Now to be licensed, it takes a little more effort.
You will still have to do the above things, but you will also have to attend some classes on childcare and do a criminal background check on yourself and anyone else in your family who is 18 years of age and above. Some states also require finger printing. Once they have finished the background checks and if everything comes out alright, then you have to fill out all your paperwork and such and send it back to them. Once they receive the paperwork, they will schedule a time to do their walk thru inspection. This may include inspections by the state Fire Marshall, the state Enviromental Health Agency and the state Family Services Agency. If everything goes alright with those inspections, then your application will go up in front of your states governor. This normally takes anywhere between 2 months to 6 months for the entire process.
There is a difference with the number of children that you can keep also, but this too varies from state to state. But, let me tell you a little hint.....a perspective daycare parent will most likely go with a licensed home daycare provider because they know, that they have been checked out better, and that the provider had to attend classes to get licensed. And they just feel more secure with a licensed home daycare. *S*

Now that you are either licensed or registered,
the next step will be to decide what hours your daycare will be open and what ages of children you are willing to accept. Also, will you accept "special needs" children? Hourly children? Before and After schoolers? Or do you just want full time children? These are things that you are going to have to figure out and decide upon. Will you be open in the evenings? What about weekends? Will you do extended care? All these questions have to be answered and decided upon before you can open your daycare. Will you accept children of all ages? Do you only want infants? Two year olds? Older children? Which would be better suited for you? Take the time to sit back and think about exactly the ages of the children that you will accept
into your care and what hours you will be open.

OK....now you will have to decide on prices.
What are you going to charge? Will you charge by the hour? By the week? By the day? And how much? The best thing to do, would be to call around to some other home daycares in your area and find out what they are charging? Call at least 5, so that you can compare the prices. Once you have done this, then you can set your prices. You can charge exactly what the other home daycares are charging, or if you want to be a little more competitive, you can charge a little "below" what there charging. At least until you get your daycare established. Once you have all this figured out, then you can go on to the next step.

OK.....so you have your daycare hours all figured out
and you know what ages of children you wish to care for. Now, the next step is your contract. This may be the hardest part for some people. Trying to figure out exactly what you want to say and to get your point across. When I first started doing daycare, my contract was only 3 pages long. But as the years went on and things happened, I would continually keep adding things to my contract. Now, it is 14 pages long and covers EVERYTHING! (If you would like to see a sample contract just click here) A contract is very important, it protects both you *the daycare provider* and the parents. I had one person write to me and ask me if a contract should be really precise or generic? The more exact your contract is, the better! You should have everything explained out in detail in your contract. From your daycare hours, to holidays, to paid vacations. All these things should be explained very clearly in your contract, so that nothing can be questioned! Because believe me, if there is anything in there that is not explained out totally, you will run across that certain daycare parent that will question you on it. A contract is legal and binding and should state that in the contract. But, just remember, it's no good if the parents don't sign it. So be sure to get them to sign.

Now, you have all your paper work taken care of.
You have your contract made out and your ready to go. Or are you? Take a look around your home. Is it child proofed? Does it look like a place where children would want to come to play and learn? Do you have lots of educational toys and art supplies for the children to work with? The toys that you do have, are they age appropriate for the age groups that you have decided upon? Is there a place where the children can play outside safely? Do they have anything outside to play with? Take a step back, and look at your home. Does your home meet all the needs of children? What can you do to make it better? Or make is safer for children? Go from room to room in your home, and try to look at it the way a child would. Look for dangers, chokeables, things that a child could get hurt on. You will be surprised what you will find. Especially if you do not have children of your own. If you do have children of your own, then your home should be pretty much child proofed already.
Especially if you have younger children.
Take one last look at your home and think...."If I was looking for a home daycare, would I bring my child here?"

Now, the next thing to do and maybe one of the most important is to look into getting daycare insurance. This is very important seeing how you will have other peoples children in your home and some times no matter how hard you try and how good you watch them, accidents can and will happen. And it is better to be covered then to be caught without any insurance what so ever. This insurance would be in addition to your normal home owners insurance, or renters insurance. Some companies will cover you for a home daycare and others will not. And some of the ones that will, may not cover all the children. And you need to find insurance that will cover every child in your care. If you have auto insurance you could ask them about daycare insurance, but what I have found out over the years is that most insurance companies will run from you when you mention that you run a childcare from your home and you use your privately owned vehicle to transport the daycare children to and from school, on field trips, or outings~! I checked around quite a few places and the best insurance coverage that I have found is through Morgan and Associates. You can check them out at Morgan and Associates. They do not cover all states. so be sure to read and see if your state is included in their coverage area. Their prices may be a bit high, but they offer the best coverage I have found to date~! But don't take my word for it, shop around and compare prices. You may be able to find daycare insurance at a better rate. But who ever you choose to go with, make sure that you have insurance in place BEFORE you open your home to children~!!

OK....now you have everything all ready.
You have your contract all figured out and have made copies. You've went all around your house and made sure that it is safe and that you have all the necessary items that you will need to start taking care of children. Now you just have one problem....How do you get the word out about your daycare? You will need to advertise!!!!! Word of mouth is great, but you need other ways to get the word out that you have opened your doors for business.
Some ways to advertise are:

1. Place an ad in the local paper.
2. Make up flyers and place them around your part of town. Place them in churches, libraries, grocery stores, children's Dentist's offices and Pediatrician's offices. Anywhere that has a bulletin board for public posting.
3. Get some business cards and hand them out to people and friends.
4. Buy some children's books at a yard sale and staple your business cards on the inside front cover and then donate those books to your local children's Dentist or Pediatricians office.
5. For Halloween, hand out small bags of candy and staple your business card on the side of the bag.
6. Make up flyers and tape them to the inside back windows of your vehicle.
7. If you have a computer with a printing program, print you up some T-shirts with your daycare logo on them.
8. Ask shop owners around your town or city, if you can place business cards in their shops at the check out counters.
9. Place some of your business cards inside the diaper changing stations in the ladies restrooms at your local stores, such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Penneys, Kohls, etc.
10. If you live on a busy street, a yard sign is wonderful advertisement as long as your city or town allows it.

Well, thats about all I have for now.
I could continue to go on and talk about daycare forever, but I think you would get tired of reading it. I hope that I have answered some of your questions that you may have had about childcare, but if I haven't, then please feel free to e-mail me at the link below. I will do what I can to help you out. I do have a few pointers though that I would like all of you who is thinking about becoming a home daycare provider to remember.

1. You are a Home Daycare Provider...NOT a babysitter.
2. This IS a home based business.
3. You are both owner and operator.
4. You run this business the way you want it to be run, NOT the way the clients want it run!
5. Do not be afraid to tell a client "No".
6. Do not be afraid to turn down a child. Even with children, sometimes things just don't "click."
7. If you are not comfortable with either a child or his/her parents, do not accept that child into your daycare.
8. Always remember to treat your daycare children with the same love and understanding that you would give to your own children.
9. Remember, our best advertisment for this type of business is "word of mouth".
10. Have fun with the children......Be patient, loving and caring! You will get paid back in lots of hugs, kisses and giggles.