Running a Daycare Facility in your home...

[danielle22033]

I currently have an unregistered daycare at home, and was wondering if it were possible to become registered, hire an employee/s and make my basement (we only use our main floor at home) into a official daycare facility? I think I would have enough rooms to have a toddler and baby room or toddler room and before/after school kids.... Just wondering if anyone knows any details on the subject?

Thanks,
Danielle

[Momof4]

Please tell us where you live, which province, because the laws vary. In Ontario for instance I'm positive that we can only have 5 children in care plus our own children. There is no matter how many adults are working, 5 is the limit. Depending on your province look into the laws and rules of the Daycare Nurseries Act and I'm sure registered or unregistered will make a difference, but in Ontario, 5 is IT, registered, unregistered, adults in #, whatever.

[Inspired by Reggio]

Yes Momof4 is correct - the answer to this varies significantly depending on where you live in Canada.

Find out your licensing rules for your province whether they will license a 'home' verses a 'centre' model .... most 'homes' do not meet the licensing criteria for the square footage of more than the unregulated allows anyway, most do not have at least two fire exits - specially if operating out of a basement - your STAFF need to be able to fit through any windows you have down there too as an 'exit', most homes do not have the number of bathrooms required on the FLOOR that the program will run out of, most are not wheel chair accessibility if your province has that rule that all new business must be 'accessible' and so forth which is why most licensed programs are NEW BUILDS designed specifically to meet all those requirements....and also why there is a SHORTAGE of licensed programs because it costs a fortune to build a new build to meet all the criteria and well there is no 'profit' in doing so for business and not enough 'non profit' organizations can find the funding to open up and keep them up ... sad but true!

Than assuming they WOULD do it make sure you find out if your residential area is ZONED for business .... because even if it is allowed in your province your home might not be ZONED for it - hate for you to get all that work prepared and find out you cannot do it cause your neighborhood is not zoned for business ... cause while your neighbors might overlook 5 clients coming and going each day .... running a full fledged daycare with staff parking on the street and increased traffic of clients dropping off and picking up and the noise and so forth might be a whole other ball of wax.

Also make sure you have clearly checked your business plan as well that doing this is actually financially viable ... sometimes we THINK bigger is better but in the long run you end up making more money had you just stayed SMALL ... in Ontario for example in order to open a licensed centre it needs to be 'supervised' by a Registered Early Childhood Educator approved by the Ministry so if you yourself are not an RECE you would have to hire one just to get STARTED with the licensing process - so you would have to have enough $$$ to pay their salary for whatever length of time it takes to get 'licensed' and so forth.

I have worked in the 'licensed model' for over 17 years and I can tell you that being self employed out of my own home at the end of the day I make MORE than I did being employed both on the front line and in management ... being employed I had to pay way more income tax, CPP, EI and other taxes off my income, the increased cost of commuting to and from work, the increased cost of the 'social' aspect of working out of the home - lunches out, coworkers showers / birthdays / wedding gifts and so forth all which come off your 'after tax income' .... being self employed if I buy a client a shower gift for their new baby that is an EXPENSE I can write off against my income tax paid because it is 'client appreciation / advertizing' ... so while on paper it make SEEM that I make less money now at the end of the day I have more $$$ in my pocket so to speak because I am investing in my home - I can write off the % of my property tax, mortgage which helps me to build equity in my house faster and I pay less TAXES which keeps my hard earned money in my pocket ... when employed I may have earned $15 an hour however after 'taxes' and other work related expenses I was lucky to have KEPT $10 of that ... working from home I charge $3.00 an hour x 5 clients i am legally allowed to have and am still making $15 an hour and while I have 'expenses' to providing my service which lowers my income back to that $10 an hour mark many of those expenses are also 'investments' in my home equity - hope that makes sense.... however I have NONE of the stress of being employed ... my own boss, my own rules and total control of my environment ;)

Not trying to scare you away from doing the 'licensed centre' approach just wanting to make sure you go in with eyes WIDE OPEN about what to expect ... there are lots of pros to centres however financially not so much ;)

[danielle22033]

Thank you so much for all the info. I do live in Ontario, southwestern Ontario - near London. Maybe keeping is smaller is better with a max of 5 children.

[Inspired by Reggio]

Thank you so much for all the info. I do live in Ontario, southwestern Ontario - near London. Maybe keeping is smaller is better with a max of 5 children.

Ya - seeing as with full day early learning centres are closing all over the place now is really not the ideal time to get into 'centre based' programming. Windsor just closed a whole bunch of programs - London has had three close in the past few years :(

Sadly infant and toddler care in 'centres' either cost money to operate or just 'break even' once you staff them and than on top you have all the additional expenses of equipment, food, the rent, light, heat and well you get the picture ... it was the 4-5 year olds and school age ratios where they were able to 'turn a profit' so to speak and they used that in order to cover the cost of offering the infant and toddler programs and with the loss of this age group to the 'school boards' centres are going into the red and well even a 'not for profit' industry needs to at the least break even :(