Setting Daycare Hours

One thing that can really make or break your home child care business is your hours of operation. There are two things to consider when establishing a schedule: your family's schedule and the needs of your clients. First and foremost you need to consider the schedule of your family. Do you need to take kids to school or pick kids up from school? Do your children have after school activities that you need to get them to or attend? If so, you will need to consider how to do this with daycare kids around. You will either need to really limit your daycare hours, or you will need to bring the child care kids with you on these errands. Also take into consideration your children's homework and your family's dinnertime. You need to be able to create as normal of a life as possible for your family while still running your business. The second consideration is the needs of your clients. I live in a rural community and most of my daycare parents had to travel 40+ miles to get to work. Therefore, I needed to open my business early (at 6:30 am) and close my business a little later (at 6:00 p.m.) to accomodate travel time. If you live in a city, chances are that most parents work fairly close by and you may be able to get by with shorter hours. But consider that parents work all sorts of jobs, some with weird hours, and you need to decide which ones you can accomodate. It is a tough juggling act, but with a little planning and research you will make the right choice. For more information on this subject, check ezine.com in a few days for my new article about daycare hours.