The 20-Step Definitive Guide to Starting a Daycare

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So you love taking care of children and want to turn it into your lifelong career. You could work at multiple daycares throughout your career, but what could make you feel even more rewarded is running your daycare facility. 

Entrepreneurship is the most difficult to pursue, but it is the utmost rewarding once you are established. You will feel more accomplished and be paid more in your field by becoming the owner of your daycare facility. 

Here’s the definitive 20-step guide on how to open any daycare whether it is an at-home daycare or a physical facility. 


  1. Answer: Why do you want to open a daycare?



  2. Write your daycare business plan. 



  3. Register your daycare per your state’s procedures.



  4. Research daycare licensing requirements in your state. 



  5. Gather funds for your daycare operations.



  6. Write your daycare’s mission and vision statements. 



  7. Author your daycare’s handbook of policies and procedures. 



  8. Find the best location for your daycare. 



  9. Generate a unique daycare name. 



  10. Select a daycare management software. 



  11. Hire and train Teachers and Aides for the daycare facility.



  12. Build a daycare website. 



  13. Establish your daycare’s social media presence. 



  14. Develop a daycare emergency plan. 



  15. Purchase daycare equipment and furniture. 



  16. Hold a daycare recruitment event. 



  17. Plan your daycare’s newsletters for the first few months. 



  18. Get ready for regular daycare staff training workshops. 



  19. Have permission forms handy for daycare parents. 



  20. Host your daycare’s opening day. 


Reassure that your daycare is registered and licensed and that you have the location selected before doing anything else on this list. You can usually do some tasks on this list at the same time as the other. Be sure that you have a physical business notebook or a working document to help you check off what you have already finished and keep you updated on what you still have to do to open your daycare. 

1. Answer: Why Do You Want to Open a Daycare?

Starting a daycare begins with answering a very important question. Why do you want to open a daycare?

Answering this key question will involve you asking yourself these other questions.

  • What is your “why” for wanting to open a daycare? 
    • Help your community?
    • Make a living as an entrepreneur?
  • How will your passion for providing childcare transform into opening your facility?
  • What is the reason that you love childcare?
  • Will you be happy in this field if you run your own business?

Once you have answered this question completely, you can begin the meat of kick-starting your daycare. 

2. Write Your Daycare Business Plan

The daycare business plan is going to be your roadmap to success for running your facility. Inside this document will contain financial projections, financial documents, 

Set up your business plan by following the template below. 

  • Executive Summary
    • Overview of the Daycare Market
    • Target market description
    • Describe the management and executive team. 
  • Mission Statement
  • Vision Statement
  • 3-5 Key Factors for Success in the Daycare
  • Classification of the Business
    • Sole Proprietor
    • Partnership
    • Corporation or LLC
  • Start-Up Costs Summary
  • Services Provided
    • What ages will you serve as a childcare provider?
    • Will you provide before and aftercare? 
    • What local state program will help you with a lunch program?
    • How many daycare locations will you run?
      • If a family facility, state that you will provide daycare services out of your home, how big your home is, and how you will host daycare services out of your residence.
      • If a public daycare facility, list square footage, zoning, etc.
  • Daycare Market Analysis
    • Segment the market into different groups in which you will serve. 
    • Analyze your daycare’s target market. 
    • Analyze the service business. 
    • Competitive analysis. 
    • Enrollment patterns of the local daycare market. 
  • Strategizing and Implementing the Business
    • What is your daycare’s competitive edge in contrast to other local facilities?
    • What is your special strategy for sales?
    • Forecast your enrollment rates over the next 5 years. 
  • Management
    • Invest in training and developing your staff. 
  • Financial Documents
    • Balance Sheet
    • Break-Even Analysis
    • Business Ratio
    • Cash Flow Projections
    • Profit-and-Loss Projection Report
  • Appendix
    • Supplementing charts and graphs not included in the business plan.
    • Daycare emergency plan. 
    • Daycare layout maps. 
    • Daycare handbook. 
    • Flyers for recruitment events. 
    • Enrollment flyers.
    • Sample newsletter. 
    • Sample permission slip for a daycare class trip. 

Visit SBA.gov for more information and resources on how to write your business plan. If you are having trouble writing it, enlist the help of SBA representatives to assist you. Have multiple people look over your business plan for feedback. Include family, friends, and trusted co-workers to help you write, polish, and finalize your business plan. 

3. Register Your Daycare Per Your State’s Procedures

Research your state’s business registration regulations, so that you are following the proper mandates to be able to run your daycare facility. 

If your daycare is named after you, you won’t have to register your facility. Examples include “Amber Anderson’s Child Care Center” or “Dana Dave’s Daycare”. 

If the daycare is named uniquely without your name present, you must apply for business registration. Examples include “Sunnyside Child Care Center” or “Young Minds Daycare”.

To register for your daycare, you should enlist the help of a registered agent to help you through the process. You could do this yourself, but having assistance from an expert will make the process more seamless. 

Be sure to have a maximum of $300 set aside for your business to get it fully registered. This overall total will depend on the specific business registration fees for your state. 

Getting a federal tax ID and state tax ID will ensure that you operate within federal and state government standards, so you can pay your taxes at the end of the year on the earnings you made from providing daycare services. 

Apply for a federal ID and state ID can be done by reading this SBA link.  https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/launch-your-business/get-federal-state-tax-id-numbers

Visit your local county clerk’s office to see if your DBA name is taken or not already in your area. If it is already by some chance, you will have to come up with a new and unique DBA name for your daycare. 

What Business Structure is the Right One for Your Daycare?

When you register your business, you will have to pick a business structure. The business structure will determine how you will pay your state and federal taxes every year. 

Sole Proprietorship

Being a sole proprietor means that you are the only person providing daycare services at your daycare facility. This means you are completely responsible for the business debts if the daycare itself is unable to handle the necessary expenses.

More than likely, you run a small home daycare with only 3-4 children. Depending on their age, you may have to transition to an LLC or a Limited Partnership to enlist more help in the business. 

Limited Liability Corporation (LLC)

A Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) is formed by 2 or more people whereas the business is separate from their finances. This is the best business structure if you are starting a daycare with multiple family members and want to be sure that none of you have to pay any of the daycare’s debts out of your pocket. 

You will need an article of organization and an LLC operating agreement to fully certify your Limited Liability Company. 

Limited Partnership

A Limited Partnership involves 2 or more people in business whereas you two are responsible for any debts the business accrues. 

You will need a limited partnership agreement and certificate of limited partnership to be operable. The certificate of Limited Partnership just shows the business entity’s existence in your daycare. The Limited Partnership agreement spells out your business name, location, its partners, and the duties and responsibilities for each partner.

For more information on business structures, visit here under the business structure section. 

https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/launch-your-business/register-your-business

4. Research Daycare Licensing Requirements in Your State

Every state has its specific licensing requirements that you are mandated to fulfill before being able to open your daycare facility. On Google type in “(your state) daycare licensing requirements” to start your research on this segment of business preparation. 

Conduct Criminal Background Checks

    • Staff and teachers must not have any prior felonies. 
    • The individuals must not be on the sex offender registry list in any state. 
    • Look for individuals with good moral records and good experience in childcare.
    • Once a new staff member or teacher has been onboarded with your daycare, you must order fingerprinting for the background check.  

Extensive Childcare Training 

    • You will have to host extensive childcare training to keep your daycare open for staff and teachers old and new to know what to do in every situation.
    • Classroom management refreshers. 
    • Proper ways to teach young children ages 0-5 in the classroom. 
    • Classroom mediation if children argue. 
    • Ideas and collaboration for classroom crafts and activities to engage the children. 

Health Physicals for Staff and Teachers

    • All teachers and staff must have the Mantoux and TBT shots to be able to work in a daycare facility in the United States. 
    • No illnesses will impair the staff member or teacher from being able to physically properly care for the children. 
    • Staff members and teachers must not have a contagious disease that could be passed on to the children. 

Health and Safety Training for Staff and Teachers

    • Proper diapers and pull-up changing for infants and toddlers.
    • Fire evacuation procedure at your daycare. 
    • How to prevent accidents in the classroom.
    • If an accident does occur, how to fill out an incident report and inform the involved child(ren)’s parents what happened. 
    • Practicing fire drills and shelter-in-place drills. Shoot for up to twice per month for each drill.
    • Proper classroom line procedures for fire drills. 
    • How to properly feed an infant in a staff member or teacher’s care. 
    • How to do CPR for unresponsive children. 
    • How to do the Heimlich maneuver for children who are choking on their food. 

Zoning

    • The building inspector must zone the building. 
    • The building is safe and meets all local city and state ordinances. 
    • Have an occupancy rate displayed at the front entrance of your center. This will act as a guide for how many children you can enroll at once. 
    • After factoring in how many staff members and teachers are already in the building, that will be the maximum number of children you can enroll. 
    • Once you hit this maximum, you must wait for a child to transition to a new school or to unenroll for whatever reason before onboarding new children into your daycare facility. 

5. Gather Funds for Daycare Operations

Gathering funds for daycare operations will set your facility off on the right foot. It may not be the easiest task, but it is the most important one for getting your daycare properly started. 

The 5 popular ways to gather funds for your daycare include:

    1. Donations from family and friends. 
    2. Crowdfunding. 
    3. SBA Grants
    4. Bank pr SBA loans
    5. An investment from a business professional.

A. Donations from Family and Friends

    • Can be your starting point while you are researching other funding options. 
    • Family and friends are always happy to help you out. 
    • A little here and a little there goes a far way in helping your business to succeed. 
    • Even if not monetary donation, a family member or friend can help with preparing your daycare business for success such as:
      • Researching your local target market while out running errands. 
      • Handling a business-related errand for you such as registering your business. 

B. Crowdfunding

    • Use crowdfunding websites such as GoFundMe, Fundly, or Kickstarter. 
    • Keep in mind the percentages that may be taken out of donations for processing fees. Some crowdfunding websites do this as others do not. 
      • No fundraiser fee for individuals starting a fundraiser, but a 5% fee for nonprofits for GoFundMe. Tips from donors start at 15%, but they can be raised higher at a donor’s discretion. 
    • Processing fees are usually a percentage and a base payment per donation. For example, the processor fee for Fundly, Razoo, and GoFundMe is 2.9% plus $0.30 per donation received in a campaign. 

C. SBA Grants

    • Look under the grants section on the Small Business Administration website. 
    • Grants are sums of money that do not have to be paid back by your daycare. 
    • Since there is a wide variety, connect with a grants representative to find your best options. 

D. Bank or SBA Loans

    • Great backup if grants, crowdfunding, and donations from family and friends do not satisfy all your start-up expenses. 
    • Keep in mind the interest rates and how long you have to pay off the entire loan once the grace period is up. 
    • If you can pay off the loan sooner than the time that the bank or SBA gives you, go for it! That means less interest that you have to pay on the loan. 

E. An Investment from a Business Professional

    • Investments could go one of two ways.
      • An equity investment is when a professional invests in your business for a percentage portion of the profit. 
      • A debt investment is a loan to the business that will be repaid with interest. 
    • An equity investment will be best for starting up your business. 
    • A debt investment would be best for when you are deep into your business start-up and have hit a snag in keeping up with your debts. 

Look for more information on these two types of possible investments into your daycare facility by clicking on this link.

Two Types of Investments in a Small Business (thebalance.com)

6. Write Your Daycare’s Mission and Vision Statements

Writing your daycare’s mission and vision statements will be important to display on your website and inside welcome packets for newly enrolled children at your daycare. 

Mission Statement

The mission statement will show the goals that you want your daycare to achieve and the objectives that your facility will work on with enrolled children. Goals are what you want to provide for the children. Objectives are what type of child development and education key points that you want to touch on daily with the children in your care. 

You can find an example of a well-written mission statement by visiting this link for Roxbury Daycare Center, Inc in Succasunna, New Jersey. 

Mission Statement | Roxbury Day Care Center

Vision Statement

A vision statement inspires parents to want to enroll children at your daycare facility. It is an emotional and engaging picture of what your daycare hopes to achieve while in business servicing the children and parents in your community. 

When writing your daycare’s vision statement, you should also include collective values, so that parents can know whether your daycare is the one for them and their children. Parents look for a childcare facility that has the same childrearing and sometimes even religious values as at home. 

Here’s an example of a vision and values statement at Sundowner’s Daycare in Windsor, ON. 

Mission, Vision & Values – Sundowner’s Daycare

7. Author Your Daycare’s Handbook of Policies and Procedures

Whether you choose to author the daycare handbook yourself or enlist the help of a Freelance Writer or trusted family member or friend, the handbook is an integral part of your facility’s backbone. 

There are plenty of templates online. If you prefer not to make your template, you can support another teacher by purchasing their template on Teachers Pay Teachers. If you are low on funds, there are even free handbook templates online. 

It outlines all the policies, procedures, and operations in which your daycare engages to be a professional and outstanding facility. 

Policies include how children should behave and conduct themselves in the daycare to remain enrolled. Proper conduct and behavior in the classroom, what behavior becomes grounds for expulsion from the facility, and what periods are on time and late for children during pick up and drop off. 

If a child is not picked up on time, daycares usually charge a monetary unit per minute that a child remains in the daycare. $1 or more could be charged per extra minute that a child is at the daycare after closing time. This is to discourage tardiness and reassure that all children are picked up on time. 

Procedures spell out how different occurrences will be handled at your daycare. If a child is past the daycare’s pick-up time, there is a long procedure that you should follow, especially if the child has not been picked up by the daycare’s closing time. Here’s an example below. 

  • Charge the parent $1 per minute that the child remains at the daycare past closing time. 
  • Try to call all the parent(s) and guardian(s) on the child’s authorized pick-up list of individuals. 
  • If 30 minutes transpires with no parents or appointed guardians picking up the child (whatever your prescribed time) call the police station. 
  • Report the case to child services. 

Like other daycares, your facility should take the safety of children necessary. While it may seem overboard to call the police and child services, this is the best thing that can be done, especially if no one on the authorized pick-up list is being readily responsive to your daycare teachers’ calls. 

8. Find the Best Location for Your Daycare

Finding the best location for your daycare will depend on where the busiest parts of your local area are stationed. If you are not sure where to start looking for your future facility’s best location, look around the “downtown” portion of your area where most of the business happens. 

See if you can find an empty building to rent or do your research to see if any businesses will be shutting down shortly. Even if you cannot find something that works in your immediate downtown area, check the surrounding cities. Businesses come and go all the time, so there is always plenty of real estates to go around if you just look in the right places. 

Try to surround your daycare nearby key shopping destinations, kids’ toy stores, and kids’ entertainment destinations. If you find an open building inside a plaza or shopping center, you will be attracting the cream of the crop when it comes to enrollment traffic. 

People like to be able to handle their responsibilities and errands in a one-stop-shop so to speak. If you can locate yourself nearby a big box store or frequented shopping centers, banks, and restaurants, people are going to want to learn more about your daycare that is “close to everything”. This makes it convenient for parents in being able to drop off their children and not have a far commute to work and/or pick up their children and be nearby key areas for errands after school and work. 

9. Generate a Unique Daycare Name 

Generating a unique daycare name will be in the works the entire time you are starting to open your facility. You may have had a daycare name thought of even before registering your business. If you are having trouble coming up with a great name, here are some tips. 

  • Make it related to child development and education. 
    • “Building Blocks Daycare Center”
    • “Math Whiz Kids & More Childcare Services”
    • “ABC 123 Daycare Services”
  • Sprinkle in alliteration or assonance to make it memorable to parents. 
    • Alliteration: “Sunny Side Superstars Childcare Center”.
    • Assonance: “Indigo Island Daycare”. 
  • Get a list of 10 daycare names and take a poll amongst teachers and parents to see which one(s) are the most popular. 
  • Narrow it down to the top 3 and conduct another poll to finalize your name decision. 

Learn more about picking your business name HERE.

10. Select a Daycare Management Software

Selecting a daycare management software will have your daycare facility operating in a modern and convenient way for everyone across the board. 

Many benefits of having a daycare management software include:

  • Taking online payments on your website which is connected to your chosen software. 
  • The ability to let parents schedule automatic payments so less late tuition payments. 
  • Can take debit and credit transactions rather than just cash and checks. 
  • Send out virtual daycare facility newsletters to parents every month. 
  • Update all parents via email, text, and phone calls about holiday closings, modified hours due to inclement weather, etcetera. 
  • Maintain proper and accurate accounting records to use for filing your business taxes. 

Teachers can easily send out classroom newsletters to the parents of the children in which they are caring for and teaching. They can take attendance in the classroom virtually or the virtual check-in station will take attendance for them based on the children who have come in or not. 

Parents and guardians can have an easier time checking in their child(ren) each day. Rather than have to write their child’s name and drop off time and pick up time using a pen and pad, each child will be given a key card to scan to check-in virtually. 

Children will have fewer papers that will be sent home in their folders with the virtual newsletters and email notifications sent out instead of notes home in the folder to parents. 

Daycare software you can choose from include:

    • brightwheel
    • Procare
    • HiMama
    • Sandbox
    • Kangarootime
    • Wonderschool
    • EZCare

Compare and contrast the benefits of popular daycare software before choosing the one that you will use by visiting Capterra.

Daycare Management Software (capterra.com)

11. Hire and Train Teachers and Aides for the Daycare Facility

You must hire and train qualified Daycare Teachers and Classroom Aides. They will be the face of your facility because they are the individuals that the attending children will see the most and receive the most influence. 

Daycare Teachers should have:

    • An Associate’s Degree in Early Childhood Development or another child-related or education field. 
    • If not, have a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. 
    • 1-2 years of experience taking care of children whether in your family or as a local babysitter. 
    • Classroom management skills: time management, ways to transition from one activity to the other smoothly, etcetera. 
    • The ability to patiently work with children to educate, develop, and redirect them in the classroom. 

Classroom Aides should:

    • Be studying for their CDA and/or an Associates Degree in a child development-related field. 
    • Have a love of caring for children. 
    • Show any experience caring for young family members or local youth to be considered for employment. 
    • Ability to be flexible (if they are Substitute Classroom Aides).
    • Prepared for anything (having to switch classrooms to satisfy teacher-to-child ratio, help in a dispute between 2 or more children, etcetera). 

Take a look for more information on the pay, responsibilities, and education that Daycare Teachers should have by visiting this Bureau of Labor Statistics link. It is classified under Preschool Teachers, but it is still the same idea because you are working with children younger than elementary school age. 

Preschool Teachers: Occupational Outlook Handbook:: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov)

12. Build a Daycare Website

Your daycare website will be the landing point where potential families first learn about your facility. Make it fun. Make it colorful. But most of all, don’t forget to make it professional. 

Use an affordable website hoster of your choice. You can try:

    • BlueHost.
    • GoDaddy.
    • HostGator. 
    • DreamHost.
    • And more!

The website host platform that you select should help you to easily build, customize, and edit your daycare website as needed. 

Have the following as your homepage headers:

  • About Us.
    • How did your daycare originate?
    • When did you start the daycare?
    • Which local community areas do you serve?
    • What is your daycare’s specialty?
      • Do you service children ages 0-5?
      • Are you more of a daycare preschool for children ages 3-5?
      • Do you only service infants ages 0-2?
      • Whatever your age range, be sure to mention this!
  • Mission & Vision. 
    • What do you want to achieve by your daycare being in business?
    • List 3-5 goals that your daycare wants to reach by being in business. 
    • What morals and values does your daycare hold?
    • If you are a religious-based daycare, make note of this in the vision statement. 
  • Location(s) (especially if you have more than one).
    • Address of location(s)
    • General directions from main routes. 
  • Enrollment Application.
    • Have a PDF file that can be downloaded for easy filling out. 
    • Provide a FAQ about enrollment information that can help parents before filling out the application.
  • Partners.
    • Who funds your daycare?
    • Info about each partner and link each partner’s website on this page. 

14. Develop a Daycare Emergency Plan

An Emergency Plan spells out how your daycare will handle possible threats to the facility such as natural disasters, intruder break-ins, or a facility fire.

When you write up your daycare handbook that will be sent home to parents, you should also attach an emergency plan at the end of it. This will give parents peace of mind that you have all your bases covered should a possible emergency occur. 

Split up your emergency plan into 3 sections and include the supporting information as shown below. 

  1. In the case of a Fire.
    1. Location of the fire hydrants throughout the facility. 
    2. Multiple maps of the daycare laying out main routes and alternate routes to safely escape the facility. 
    3. Procedure for gathering the children safely and efficiently to exit the building. 
    4. Phone numbers for the local fire department and police department.
  2. In the case of a Natural Disaster. 
    1. Have a designated space in each classroom (or use the facility’s basement) to shelter away from tornadoes or hurricanes. 
    2. Have snacks, water, and other emergency supplies for the children in case the natural disaster goes on longer than expected. 
    3. How the Daycare Teachers and Classroom Aides will get the children to a safe area of the building to shelter-in-place. 
    4. Contact information for the local FEMA, fire department, and police department. 
  3. In the case of an Intruder Break-In.
    1. Have a shelter-in-place area for each classroom, office, etcetera. 
    2. Have a green and red card that is slipped out the door to show the status of the classroom. 
    3. Protective equipment to ward against the intruder if to break into the classroom. 
    4. Supplies such as food and water if the intruder break-in goes longer than expected. 

15. Purchase Daycare Equipment and Furniture 

Refer to this list of daycare equipment and furniture that you will need to furnish your facility. 

For Classrooms

    • Teacher’s desk
    • Aide’s desk
    • 4-5 round, square, or rectangle tables for children to sit
    • Bookcases for the reading corner
    • Toy storage cubbies.
    • Bins and containers to store smaller toys.
    • Shelving units to hold toys, games, and educational activities.
    • Standing whiteboard for circle time.
    • Flashcards to help children practice colors, first words, sight words, and etcetera. 
    • Changing table (for infants and toddlers still wearing diapers and pull-ups)

For the Front Office

    • Director’s desk
    • Front receptionist desk
    • Commercial telephone 
    • Pens, pencils, and highlighters
    • Printer
    • Printer paper
    • Filing cabinets 
    • Stapler and staples
    • Paper clips and thumbtacks
    • Bulletin boards

16. Hold a Daycare Recruitment Event

Spread the word about your daycare’s opening day! Social media is the best way to get the word out about your new business. Ask family, friends, and potential parents who may want to enroll their children at your facility to share the recruitment event post on their Facebook or Instagram walls so more people know about it. 

You can post flyers throughout your community at shopping centers, churches, small businesses willing to support your daycare, and more. Get creative on who you ask to post up your flyers. Have little cutouts at the bottom that people can tear off to take with them as a reminder of the event. Go the extra mile by leaving your daycare’s business card in a little cardholder on a bulletin board next to the flyer, so that people can always have your daycare’s info on hand beyond the recruitment event. 

Speaking of business cards, try to leave them in these places. Of course, you should ask permission from the owner first before doing this. You can list your recruitment event on the back of them or have a QR code that takes people to your Facebook page and/or website. 

  • Women’s bathrooms in public places.
  • At children’s consignment stores or toy stores. 
  • Local libraries. 
  • Grocery stores. 
  • Children’s specialty boutiques. 

Looking for some recruiting tips? Check out our article HERE!

17. Plan Your Daycare’s Newsletters for the First Few Months

It’s best to get prepared for your first few months of daycare business because it’s going to get very busy! Between enrollment, getting used to the daily rigor of running the business, and balancing management of all the classrooms at your facility, you will have your hands full. 

Before your facility opens, take a few hours one day to plan your daycare’s newsletters for the next few months. When planning out writing the newsletters, be sure to:

  • List any upcoming holiday events happening at the daycare. 
  • How to schedule parent-teacher conferences with a Daycare Teacher (if needed).
  • General reminders about having children on time when dropping off at the facility, the lateness policy for picking up at the end of the day, etcetera. 
  • Mini article ideas of child development activities to do at home when children are not at the daycare.

18. Get Ready for Regular Daycare Staff Training Workshops

To keep Teachers and Aides always ready for anything, make it a priority to host regular staff training workshops at least 3-4 times per year. The staff training can cover:

  • Emergency preparedness.
  • Classroom management. 
  • Mediating disagreements or fights between students. 
  • Playground safety. 
  • Correctly filling out incident reports. 
  • Keeping proper records of a child’s milestones in the classroom.
  • And more!

If you see that any of these subjects listed above or another manner is not being heeded amongst your staff at the facility, hold a meeting after work one day to go over it quickly to try to make sure that there is an improvement. 

19. Have Permission Forms Handy for Daycare Parents

Whether you want to have pictures of children displayed throughout the daycare or in the newspaper, or if you want to have class trips, you should keep permission forms handy and ready to print out. 

You can find templates online or make your own. Always be sure to have these saved in a folder on your computer to have teachers print them and distribute them to parents as needed. Permission forms are very much needed so that you can have a record of a parent’s consent for children to attend a class trip or have their picture shown on social media or in a newspaper.

20. Host Your Daycare’s Opening Day

Once you have completed the other 19 steps successfully, you can open up your doors and make a difference in the lives of children in your local community! 

On opening day, you can have fun activities for the parents to get involved with their child’s first day at daycare (or a new daycare) by:

  • Having a table of free refreshments and drinks set out for children and parents to take as they come in. 
    • Make sure they are closed containers such as bottled water or cans of juice. 
    • Make sure the snacks are pre-wrapped by the manufacturer to lessen the spread of germs while at the snack table. 
  • Have parents enter a free raffle for a gift of choice. 
  • Have one of your team members sit at a table for enrollment information (for parents who have not enrolled their children yet) and to give away free books or daycare swag such as canvas bags, pens, notepads, and etcetera. 
  • Having the press at your opening day for publicity. 

Get creative with your opening day activities beyond what is already listed, so that you can make your parents feel welcome as well as welcome the children. After all, you are ultimately serving the parents because you are providing the child care service for them for their children while they are at their day job. 

Related Questions

How do I find the best candidates for filling Teacher and Aide positions?

Find the best candidates for your Teacher and Aide positions by:

  • Placing a job post on job boards such as Indeed and Monster.com
  • Reviewing the applications to find if any of the candidates meet the standards as shown in the article. 
  • For each position, narrow it down to the top 5 candidates and bring them in for an interview.
  • Have a group discussion with your team to decide who will be hired for said position.

What should I do if I want to start an at-home daycare?

To start an at-home daycare, be sure to: 

  • Have your home zoned by local authorities.
  • Set aside a room in the house as your classroom. 
  • Be sure you have enough space for toys and child play in that specific room.
  • Follow the same steps in this guide except for the location step.  

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.