Make Money at Home

In today's economy it is becoming harder and harder to make ends meet. With companies cutting salaries and benefits right and left, these can be really scary times for any family.

If you are a stay at home mom, it can be especially scary. You do not want to lose your precious time at home with your babies, but you would like to find a lucrative way to earn a living at the same time.

Well, why not make money at home with your best skills, and start an at home daycare?

The first thing to think about in deciding if you want to start a daycare out of your home is what your reasons are. Of course, you probably want to make money at home, and it is normal to want to be paid for the work that you are going to be doing.

However, that should not be your only reason.

You need to ask yourself, do you really like children? Of course, you like YOUR children, but dealing with other people's children can at times be challenging. You really want to make sure that you enjoy - and have the patience for - working with and caring for children throughout the day.

Once you have really decided that you are excited about the proposition of working with children all day you need to get started preparing your home for the kids.

First off you need to decide how many children your at home daycare is going to support. Then you need to take a serious look at your home to see if it can accommodate that number of children. If not, then you might need to look into procuring an alternate space for your business.

From there you will need to decide what needs to be childproofed for your daycare. You will need to have a great play space for the kids, and having one indoor and one outdoor is a real bonus. You will also need an area to feed the kids lunch and snacks, as well as obvious access to a bathroom.

Before you start taking money and accepting clients, you will need to check with your state and local regulations.

There are often many different rules as to how much space needs to be provided per child. And most regulations require that you serve at least one meal per day, and that it needs to be hot. This is really where serving lunch comes into play, but you may also want to think about the option of serving breakfast as well so that you can offer that to parents on the run. You will also want to see if you need to be licensed to handle the number of children that you are planning to accept into your daycare.

To really manage to make money at home you need to decide how much you are going to charge per child. On average, day care centers charge between $35 and $65 per child per week. If you are offering additional meals then you can add another small charge on top of that. You will also want to decide on your payment policy. In general, it is a good idea to have a payment policy that requires your client to pay in advance.

Useful links for more information

Licensing Requirements of Starting a Daycare or Child Care Center: Alabama to Louisiana
Licensing Requirements of Starting a Daycare or Child Care Center: Maine to Wyoming

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