Start A Daycare - Business Ideas

Pat Walls

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Updated: September 15th, 2022

Start A Daycare

Please note that the data provided in this article are estimates and may vary depending on various factors, and should not be considered as perfect or definitive.

Daycares provide educational, medical, and social services for the children of working parents either during school hours or when the parents are out of the home for an extended period of time. This can be a lucrative enterprise if you start a daycare in an area where it is needed.

As the growth of families has become dependent on two incomes, the need for quality daycare has skyrocketed. Starting a daycare business is challenging but rewarding. You will face many challenges but can overcome them as long as you are ready to make the sacrifices required.

Starting a daycare requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.

If you're interested in how to sell daycare, or selling daycare online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.

Key Stats

market size

$390M

starting costs

$17.8K

gross margin

80%

time to build

60 days

Startup Costs

	Min Startup Costs	Max Startup Costs
Office Space Expenses	$0	$6,900
Business Formation Fees	$600	$3,200
Equipment & Supply Expenses	$63	$200
Retail Business Expenses	$0	$7,200
Inventory Expenses	$300	$5,000
Vehicle Expenses	$0	$10,000
Training & Education Expenses	$0	$1,000
Advertising & Marketing Costs	$0	$1,200
Software Expenses	$0	$200
Website Costs	$13	$215
Food Business Expenses	$25	$500

See all startup costs ➜

Successful Businesses

Business	URL	Rank
Bright Horizons	brighthorizons.com	63,616
KinderCare	kindercare.com	88,051
The Leader in Early Education and Care	primroseschools.com	253,844
The Goddard School	goddardschool.com	268,266
Child Care Centers	childcarecenter.us	280,298
Childtime: Child Care Centers, Daycare, Preschools	childtime.com	423,932
Daycare.com	daycare.com	448,054
La Petite	lapetite.com	464,351
The Learning Experience	thelearningexperience.com	469,515
Kids 'R' Kids	kidsrkids.com	560,995
Daycare Worksheets	daycareworksheets.com	813,509

See all businesses ➜

Pros & Cons

Pros	Description
Ability to start your business from home	It's not necessary to have a physical storefront or office space to get your business started. You can do everything from the comfort of your own home, at least in the beginning!
Little startup costs required	The cost to start a daycare costs significantly less money than most businesses, ranging anywhere from 62 to 35,615.
Rewarding work	Starting a daycare can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about.
No overhead costs	To get your daycare started, there are no costs associated with overhead, storage, packaging, etc. This will save you a lot of time and money!
High customer retention rates	Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.
High margins	The gross margins for your daycare are typically around 80%, which is considerably high and allows you to grow your business and manage costs easily.

See all pros ➜

Cons	Description
Crowded Space	Competition is high when it comes to your daycare, so it's important that you spend a good amount of time analyzing the market and understanding where the demand lies.
Work can be inconsistent	As a daycare, the amount of work assigned to you and schedule tends to be more inconsistent, which may make your income less stable. It's important to set boundaries and budget accordingly based on the amount of work you plan to have.
Isolation	Often times, as a daycare, you typically work alone and do not have much face-to-face interaction with other team members.
No safety net	Typically, as a daycare, you do not receive a consistent pay-check and instead earn money based on your transactions each month. During the slow periods, you typically take away less since the job is based on commission. It's important to budget accordingly for the slow times.
Niche Market	A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience.
You may need to charge sales tax	If you are selling your products in various states, you may be required to charge sales tax. Although this may not impact your financials specifically, it can be a headache to create a process and procedure for this. To learn more about sales tax, check out this article

See all cons ➜

Marketing Ideas

1

Word of mouth

Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.
Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.
According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.
Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.

Learn more about word of mouth ➜
2

Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience with the objective to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic.
According to Oberlo, approximately 48% of the global population use social media, and the number is ever-growing.
Therefore, social media allows brands access to cost-effective advertising by enabling them to interact with a large audience.

Learn more about social media advertising ➜
3

Pay Per Click Advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a performance-based marketing method that allows you to show specific ads for services or products oriented to a very defined target, with the goal that the user visits your website or landing page.

See all marketing ideas ➜

Key Stats

Startup Costs

Successful Businesses

63,616

88,051

253,844

268,266

280,298

423,932

448,054

464,351

469,515

560,995

813,509

Pros & Cons

Marketing Ideas

Word of mouth

Social Media Advertising

Pay Per Click Advertising