The most rewarding part about being a daycare owner is spending time with the little ones (by the way, we know it’s confusing sometimes, but we prefer the term child care). It's eye-opening, satisfying, and for the most part, you end up benefiting more from your time with the kids than they do. But how much does a daycare owner make?There are many moving parts and different approaches and services that can affect your bottom line. The only way to make sense of the numbers and figures is to look at the various factors and how they affect income. Ideally, the more services you offer, the more value you add to the parents and children then the more you can make.
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The exact amount you can make depends on a multitude of things including the range of services you intend to offer, the ages of children in care, your location, and the quality of services. At Wonderschool, we see providers make between $45,000 to $100,000 and upwards to much more. Our child care provider earnings calculator can help you get an understanding of what you could make.
There are different types of child care providers for children. Each state regulates child care programs slightly differently, and things like the number of infants you have, the location of your program (specifically if it’s in a home, commercial space, or outdoors), and how many hours a day you plan to care for children will determine what type of license you need to have. Here are common types:
There’s slightly more complicated math than just adding up potential enrollments when thinking about the earning potential for different types of child care programs. Things like rent, hiring teachers, and paying for insurance can impact your earning potential.
Parents are extremely concerned about the your child care programming place, particularly the safety features. Most parents won't think twice about investing a few more dollars to place their child in a safe, well designed, and child-friendly environment.For child care, everything from the equipment you use for food preparation to the nap-time areas need to be well thought out, designed, and child-friendly. Having the right infrastructure and safety mechanisms in place will improve your profit margins and attract more parents to drop off their children.
It's crucial to incorporate play and learning in the child care center. It's not only important to the development of the children, but parents want to know that their children aren't sitting around and watching TV all day. Having a curriculum and developing activities that foster learning, socialization, and exploration can significantly enhance your income while impacting the children's lives and minds.
Offering transportation takes a massive load off the parent's shoulders and adds a few more dollars in your pocket. Think about it. It doesn't make sense for a parent to drop off their child at the child care and head to work only to come back and pick them up an hour later to drop them at school. Offering transportation can be convenient for both the child and parent, but it also takes additional logistical planning on your part. Will you have another teacher available to stay onsite with children who don't need transportation? Do you have elementary schools nearby where this type of additional service makes sense? Being able to offer before and after care for school-aged children can be a great boost for your business.
There are full child care services, part-time child care services, drop-in services, temporary preschool services, non-traditional hours services, parent's night out child care, and on-demand care. You could offer a couple types of services like combining full time care with drop-in as it suits space limitations.
Child care programs that care for children with special needs are becoming increasingly important. They are still limited since the staff needs to be trained and certified to take proper care of the children, and you might need additional infrastructure. Nonetheless, it's an opportunity to build a support system for children with special needs and get them in a conducive environment that helps build their social and cognitive skills.Before offering care for children with special needs, make sure your program is structured adequately so you can ensure all children's needs are met. Think through the financial aspects - does your tuition cover needing to bring in additional staff? Will you need any special equipment, and if so, will you provide it or will the parents?
Some child care center owners incorporate extra-curricular activities and sports programs that are age-appropriate to the children. This provides a great avenue to identify and nurture talent from a young age, ensuring children have guidance and mentorship as early as possible. Needless to say, the addition of such facilities dictates better rates from the parents and better pay for the child care center owners.
As a child care owner, you not only want to provide a healthy, safe, and fun place for the child to spend time and grow. You also want to have an establishment that is convenient for parents. While some parents might want to pack a fruit or drink for their child, offering healthy, tasty meals and snacks to the kids is the way to go.It makes it easy for parents to prepare their kids for drop-off in the morning and is an additional revenue stream for your business.
Learn more about how Wonderschool helps all child care providers become profitable - whether its helping individuals open their child care business or assisting established child care programs increase their profit.
Find a child care program that meets your needs from thousands of listings using our Child Care Finder. If you're a provider, create a listing to get discovered by families near you!
