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Children are such a joy to be around. They’re curious, kind beings with a wild imagination and huge hearts. Who wouldn’t love working with them every day?

These are a few reasons why many people think about starting a child care center. Unfortunately, not everyone succeeds at achieving this dream!

To give successful owners credit, it is a lot of work to open a daycare. There’s so much to think about between the cost to open a daycare, the staff you’ll need to take care of everything, and all the regulation and safety procedures involved.

Still, it’s worth following your dream if this is what you really want to do. To take care of the daycare startup costs, here are a few budgeting tips to keep in mind.

Research Your Funding Opportunities

Your daycare budget doesn’t have to be based on your savings alone. Research funding opportunities like small business loans, startup investors, and personal loans. There are even grants for opening a daycare available.

Another funding possibility is to crowdsource. Talk to your friends and family about your vision for the daycare and see if they’re willing to support you. This may not raise all the funds you need, but it could help cover some of the costs.

Consult Child Care Center Professionals

As helpful as it can be to talk to friends and family, make sure you reach out to child care center professionals, too. Do you know someone who has already been through this process before? Are you close enough with your child’s current daycare center to ask them a few questions?

If you’re not comfortable reaching out to people who will end up being your competition, reach out to child care design services. These organizations are used to working with all kinds of new child care owners.

They help people like you turn their child care center dreams into reality. Such experience is invaluable when figuring out your budget, not to mention all the other details of starting a child care center.

Consider All the Costs

Speaking of all the other details, make a list of all the costs you expect to incur when opening your child care business. This goes much further than whether you are buying an old child care center or building one from the ground up.

You’re going to need to pay for furniture and other interior design items, supplies for the children to play with and learn from, and employee costs. There are also licensing and maintenance costs to consider, which will vary depending on the state you live in and how big your facility is.

Still, these are costs you can’t afford to overlook. The more you’re prepared to handle all the minor and major details, the better your budgeting efforts will be.

Starting a Child Care Center Made Simple

Don’t let the thought of all the costs and to-do’s put you off from starting a child care center. If anything, let this challenge fuel your passion to make your dream come true!

Remember, you don’t have to take on the task of budgeting, designing, or even marketing your child care business alone. There are plenty of services available to help you every step of the way – services like the ones we offer.

To find out how we can help you budget, build, and open for business, click here.

-This article was written by Rebecca Calbert. 

Rebecca is a licensed architect with over 30 years of experience.  She owns and operates an architectural firm, Calbert Design Group,  and educates her clients through the commercial real estate development process with online content at SaveOnBuilding.com.  Rebecca’s “purpose” is to educate small business owners and protect them from what they don’t know.

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