How To Open A Daycare In Texas (A Step By Step Guide)

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How To Open A Daycare In Texas (A Step By Step Guide)

Working to open a daycare can be a great adventure, but can also be a complicated process. Now if you happen to be from the great state of Texas, you may be wondering about the specifics of your state. So, these are the steps to take if you want to open a daycare in the state of Texas. 

Steps to open a daycare in Texas: 


  1. Compose a Business Plan 



  2. Register Your Daycare 



  3. Set Up Your Space 



  4. Begin Marketing 


1. Compose a business plan 

The first and arguably most important part in the process of opening your daycare in the state of Texas is to compose what is known as a business plan.

In your business plan, you should include every aspect of your business that will be necessary to your success. 


  • What should be included in your business plan?


Just to reiterate, your business plan should include all the particular aspects of your business that will be necessary for you to succeed. 

But you still may not be sure what this includes, and that is perfectly reasonable. 

So, your business plan should include the following information: 

    1. Your financial information 
    2. The specifics of your location 
    3. How many employees you may need 
    4. How many children you can care for 
    5. All of the necessary permits and paperwork you need to obtain 
    6. Your marketing plan 
    7. Your success strategy 

  • Why is it important to have a business plan?


A business plan is incredibly important to the success of any business for a couple of reasons. 

For one, a business plan gives you as a business owner a well-thought-out strategy. In the future, if you run into an issue, you can guarantee that you have something to fall back on. 

Secondly, a business plan also requires that you do a plethora of research as to the specifics of your field and your particular business itself. 

This ensures that even if before writing your business plan you were a bit unprepared, you now know all you may need to know for your business to succeed. 

On top of all of this, a business plan may also help you when you are looking to try and get investors. 

Investors, whether they are private investors or banks you are looking to secure a loan from, are going to want to know that you have an idea of what you are planning to do. 

In this case, a business plan can be very beneficial as a way to prove that these investors that you have a plan and know exactly what the steps you need to take over the next few years. 

Having this business plan will greatly increase your chances of securing an investment, which is a crucial aspect of opening any business. 

2. Register Your Daycare

Registering our daycare is a very important step if you plan on making your business legal within the state of Texas. 

Interestingly enough, however, there is a minor mini step of sorts that you must complete before you register for your daycare. 

You must first attend a licensed pre-application class that is offered by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services. 

This class will instruct you on everything you will need before you can apply and may end up providing you with crucial knowledge that you did not have before, so in the long run, this class can be very beneficial for you. 

In the short term, however, it may seem like an obstacle, which is fair, as it is another step you have to complete. 

If you would like to register for one of these classes, you can contact your local child care licensing office for more information. 

  • How do you register your daycare in the state of Texas? 

Assuming you have now have completed your pre-application class that has been authorized and approved by the state of Texas, your next step is registering your business. 

When registering your business in the state of Texas, there is no specific registration for a daycare center. Instead, you only need to register your daycare as a legal business entity. 

So you can legally register your business as an LLC and legally operate in Texas!

Learn more about registering your business HERE.

3. Set Up Your Space 

Setting up your space is probably going to require a bit more work than you make think.

This is because most states, Texas included, have pretty strict laws as to how much space your must and how that space is used inside of your building. 

If your space is not set up appropriately, you may face fines and will no longer be allowed to operate a child care center in that space. 


  • What are the space requirements for a daycare center?


In the state of Texas, child care centers are required to have at least 30 square feet of space per child in care at any given time. 

Within this space, there must be room for cribs, space for different activity centers, snack and mealtimes, and space for older children who are not cribs to nap. 

The department in the state of Texas that measure these requirements are known to be pretty strict in their measurements. 

For example, these measurements exclude areas such as kitchens, bathrooms, storage rooms, areas taken up by stationery items, and hallways, which will decrease your overall space fairly significantly. 

On the other hand, though, they do round all measurements up to the nearest inch which may give you a bit of a boost.

So considering all of this, the best possible thing you could is to try and maximize the countable space that you have. 

For example, because you know that storage rooms and space taken up by stationery items are excluded by the final measurements, you could place some of your bookshelves or other stationary items in your storage room. 

But the best thing you could do by far would simply be to find the largest place you can. 

For more information, visit the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.

4. Begin Marketing 

Getting your business up and around may have been a lot of work, but it isn’t the end, not by any means. 

Now that your business is up, you still have the responsibility of attracting clients to your business. 

To do so, you have to market your business to the surrounding community, getting your name out there is the only way you’re going to attract clients in the long run. 


  • What are the struggles that come with marketing a daycare center?  


Daycare businesses are a bit difficult to market, particularly because of the trust factor that needs to be involved. 

When parents drop their children off at a daycare center, they are doing so knowing that their kids will be safe and healthy when they pick them up at the end of the day. 

To do so, parents are going to have to trust you and your business completely, which can be hard. 

This is honestly the most difficult part of marketing a daycare center, whether that daycare center is in Texas or any other state in the US, making yourself seem trustworthy is difficult. 

So how can you increase your trustworthiness to the local parents in your area? 

Well, one of the best ways to do so is to first gain the trust of local leaders who can then voice their support. 

Texas is full of small towns. The great thing about small towns is that everyone is fairly connected and most of the time there are a couple of people who are seen as the local leader, if even if that person isn’t the mayor of the town. 

This person might be the local religious leader, or maybe it’s the principal of the local school, or it just might be the town mayor. Whoever it is, you have to reach out to that person and gain their support. 

If you can manage to gain this person’s support, your success when marketing will go up greatly.

Of course, this won’t only work in Texas, but rather in any small town, and if you follow this strategy, your success rate will increase significantly. 

Related Questions: 

How much do daycare workers make in Texas?

In the state of Texas, the average daycare worker or child care provider makes about $12.50 an hour. 

Considering Texas adopted the federal minimum wage in 2009 which was and still is set at $7.25 an hour, does make quite a bit more than the minimum wage in the state. 

However, Texas does rank 48th in this category, which means that daycare workers or childcare providers in 47 other states do make a higher salary on average than those in Texas do. 

What requirements do you need to be a childcare worker in the state of Texas? 

If you wish to work as a childcare provider in the state of Texas, you must meet a few basic requirements. 

The first is that you must be 18 years old, you must have a high school diploma or equivalent certificate, and you must be able to pass a criminal background check 

Other than those basic requirements, there are no other requirements that you need to meet!

Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.

To learn more on how to start your own daycare checkout my startup course and documents here.