How Much To Charge?

This may take some time to figure out, you don't want to charge too much and scare people away, but you don't want to charge too little either. The best way to figure out what to charge is to ask around, look in the paper and call others that have an ad in the paper and see what they are charging and how many openings they have, if they have a lot of opening, there may not be a big demand for daycare in your area.

Daycare Rates

You will want to keep your dayare rates handy. Once you figure out what your daycare rates {prices} are going to be, make sure you write them down and keep them next to the phone. You will also want to make sure the rates are included in your parent's handbook or print out the rates separately and give them to each parents as their child begins care with you. Make sure each parent knows exactly what your rates are, so there are no misunderstandings in the future about how they are supposed to pay you. You can view our daycare rates on our website but depending on where your located can make a "Hugh" difference in the amount to charge for daycare.

One Thing To Consider

When deciding what to charge is what ages are you going to watch? Mixed Ages, toddlers, preschoolers? There is usually a big demand for infant care and odd hours. It is a lot harder to watch mixed ages versus one age group. If you have mixed ages do you have adequate sleeping space for the younger children that may require a morning nap? These are just a few things to think about.

Daycare In Your Home?

Setting Up Your House? Next, you will need to decide where the children are going to eat, if you need to purchase high chairs, port-a-cribs, sippy cups, and the list goes on. When parents start bringing their children you may want to have a checklist of things they may need to bring, such as baby formula {or will you provide it}, baby food, baby bottles, diapers, wipes, extra clothes. If you need more detailed information on starting a daycare "our daycare kit" has a start your own daycare e-book which will discuss starting a daycare and giving you step by step information click here to view our starting your own daycare information.

Parent's Handbook

You will need a parent's handbook. You will want all your policy's in writing such as your trial period, fees that you charge, hours that you are open, holidays and vacations that you may take and if you charge or not, you will need to explain your late charges, late pick up, bounced check fee, or late payments, potty training, illness, medicines, or what if a child is injured at your home, what then? these are some things for you to think about and there will be more as you write up your parent's handbook, if you find you need help with your parent's handbook we do offer one for sale in our package of daycare forms . Our daycare forms package has a parent's handbook, contract and many other policy's that you will need and best of all they are customizable you can change the color of the print, the size of the print and even add your own logo!

You need to keep accurate records.

Opening and running a daycare is just like any other business. You will need to keep track of you income and expenses, some expenses are a direct expense such as daycare toys, daycare food, purchasing daycare books or daycare forms are all expenses you can write off you income taxes, and other expenses are indirect expenses such as writing off a portion off the use of your house, telephone {if you have two lines you can write one off completely}, repairs, and many other expenses, we go more into this area in our start your own daycare e-book. You will need to have records on all your children, we have found keeping each child's record stored in a file folder is a good way to store this information and all the daycare forms need to be up to date! Protect yourself and the children in your care by using the the correct authorization and permission forms. Our Daycare Forms offer authorization and written agreements between yourself and your daycare families. Need help organizing your records? Our start you own daycare e-book has a lot of information on record keeping and organizing your records. Click here to view our start your own daycare kit.

Can I Edit The Daycare Forms?

Yes, you can change or edit the daycare forms. This makes our daycare forms very useful as you find you will need to edit the forms as your daycare changes over the years. You will need to have Microsoft Word or Office, Microsoft Works or WordPerfect to be able to edit the files. You cannot edit the poster files, such as the center signs. Our poster type files are paper size; just print them out onto card stock paper from your printer. Once the daycare forms are purchased you can instantly download the parent's handbook along with the daycare contract PLUS all the other daycare forms all for the low price of $15.00. You can edit the parent's handbook to change the hours of your operation, the prices that you charge, or any other pertinent information that you would like to add or change.

Daycare Contract

You should have daycare contract for the parents to sign. You will want to go over all your policy’s with your new customers {parents}. It's best to sit down with them and open up your parent's handbook and turn it page by page, this will refresh your memory on important issues to discuss with them, and you can skim over the headings of the parent's handbook and when you see something such as vacation, then you may think to ask them if they will be taking a vacation, if so, for how long, and then you can let them know if you charge for the time they are away. Most daycare providers do charge for the children when they are not present, as they depend on a certain amount of income each week and if each time a child didn't come to daycare they didn't charge they wouldn't know what to expect at the end of the week for a paycheck. After you discuss all your policy’s to the new customers that may start bringing their child to your daycare its a good idea to go over the contact, have them sign it or take it home and look it over and then sign it and bring it back along with all the other daycare forms they need to fill out before their child can start daycare. It's a good idea to have a well-written handbook and contract. This will help to disperse of conflicts later down the road.

Setting Up File Folders

You will want to keep files on each child that you have in your daycare. You should set up a file folder for each child. As you begin to accept children into your care you will want to keep things organized. You should set up a file folder for each child in your care. Place their name and picture onto the front cover and on the inside of the file folder you can list pertinent information about each child. You will also want to store all the paper work that each childs parent fills out inside the file folder. Keep all the daycare records {file folders}together in a safe place. But, also make sure that you can quickly access their records. If you need help in setting up your file folders we offer information on setting up the file folders along with an index that you can easily print out and using a glue stick, glue it to the inside over of each child's file folder and then just fill in all the information onto the file folder index.

Emergency Telephone Numbers?

Keep all emergency telephone numbers beside the phone. You should have the police, ambulance, poison control center along with each child's emergency contact numbers by the telephone at all times. If an emergency comes up you do not want to be hunting around for phone numbers! If a child gets hurt you don't want to be "thinking, where did I put his file". You should know instantly where each child's record is and how to quickly locate each child's telephone number and his parents work number.

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Food Menu

What About Weekly Food Menu's? Parents would like to see what their children are eating. You should make a simple food menu and fill it out for the week and post it in a visible area for the parents to be able to view each day. This way they can look and see what their child is eating each day or they may notice that your serving something their child is allergic too. If you are on the food program make sure to mention this to the parents and let them know that you will be serving according to the guide lines of the food program which means there child will be eating well balanced meals while in your care. We have several food menus for sale in our daycare forms package. You can also view our daycare food menu on our website, it will show you what we serve for each day "Monday – Friday" and our webpage also goes over the food requirements for the food program.

Daycare Hours Sign

What are your daycare hours? Post your hours! Make sure everyone knows what time you open and close. You can make a little poster saying "we are open 7:00 – 5:00" make sure to hang it where the parent's will see it. If you want something cute showing your hours We have a cute poster {shown above} which can be printed out and you just fill in the hours you are open with a marker.

You will save time and money with our daycare forms. We have a lot of cute daycare posters to print out and hang around your daycare which show your daycare hours, plus we have the block area signs, book area signs along with the parent's contact and handbook plus many, many more! It couldn't be easier to use our daycare forms just open up the files and print them out. With daycare needs increasing now is the time to start your own daycare business. You should be prepared with the right types of daycare forms. You can open up the file, edit the file {if needed} and then just print it out. You will not have to waste hours trying to think of how to make your flyers, brochures, posters, etc.