New Idea to Daycare

[MissAnn]

Hello,
I'm a parent to two young children. At my post graduate school, we're doing a project around a new idea for day care.

We provide the space, parents choose the
care

Benefits include:

Control over who cares for your child

Confidence in quality of the center

Easier to coordinate a nanny-share, which can
make childcare more affordable

Provide care outside the typical working hours

Increased visibility to activities via webcams

My question to the group is how interested are you in this idea and concept.

Thank you,

I used to work at a place where parents where in charge of the program. The parents were all about low fees. Quality suffered. Negativity abounded. I opened my program. Parents left the old program and came to me. So much better!

[MissAnn]

In most states to license the facility you will also have to license the caregivers. Meaning, that you will have to have someone in charge of making sure all classes and background checks are up to date. The other problem will be what if I don't want my child around another caregiver that is there? How would you keep them separated? I know that sounds silly, but parents can come up with some crazy demands sometimes.

I don't want my child to nap comes to my mind.

[mommyneedsadayoff]

I don't really understand the concept. Parents can choose who they want to provide care for their kid already, so what problem does it solve? Kind of just sounds like daycare where the parents are in charge of who is employed in it, and that is a VERY slippery slope to have numerous parental voices controlling who works at it or not.

[MissAnn]

Who would make the policies? Parents who don't know rules and regs? Yes, this happened where I worked. I had to constantly educate them on rules and regs. I was not even invited to participate in the making of the policy handbook.....but I showed up any way.

[Ariana]

Thank you all for the feedback!

The center will include many spaces for individual nannies to use with the child(ren) they're caring for.
We anticipated contact between parents and providers to be initially via an app, much like Uber where a parent needing child care can go and select the provider then drop their kid(s) at the center where the nanny will be working.

The center will be licenced by the state and have up to date standards.
Nannies are only added to the app database once their background is checked. After accumulating care, they are reviewed and have a rating that let other parents know the good providers from excellent ones and maybe rates are different depending upon the rating.
Food is likely to be provided by parents i.e. snacks and light meals. The center will have a cafeteria space.

I have no idea how this could work or how you could get a license for this. It makes very little sense. Unless this is a drop in type of centre with 24/7 care? But even then it doesn't make sense. If you have one nanny scheduled to take care of one child do you keep your whole centre open for this? Does the nanny still get paid the going rate no matter how many kids she has? How do you keep track of finances with so many revolving parents and caregivers? How do you control the rating system if a disgruntled parent gives bad reviews? What if 7 parents call with 7 children under the age of 1?

I personally do not see this as a viable business plan. This isn't like doggy daycare.

[Unregistered]

This isn't like doggy daycare.

BEST comment EVER

[Snowmom]

I guess I don't fully understand this concept.
It just sounds like extended hours center care, but the parents can choose the teacher/caregiver?

Is there more than one caregiver to a "room"?
That's the only way I see this being profitable.

Do the parents have the option to say what other children (ages) are around their kids in this room? Do the caregivers have their own schedule & activities or is it designed by the center?
Are the caregivers all employed by the center and the parents only have a choice between these employees?

Unconventional hours may be appealing to some parents.
But, how exactly do you define these hours? By evenings and weekends? That's a big jump in operating expenses.
I think you'd need to charge more than center rates to cover the larger rent for the larger space you'd need as well as the longer hours (especially if you're talking lower ratios as a selling point).

As an example:
If you charged 30% more than center rates in my area (to cover longer operating expenses/labor/larger space).

For an infant, the parent would compare it as:
Nanny in their home for 10 hours/day at $12/hr: $600/wk
Your rate: $422.50/week (plus food/diapering/gas & time)
Center rates: $325/week (plus diapering/gas & time)
FCC: $180 (plus diapering/gas & time)


That's a pretty big difference.
To me, a parent willing to pay over $400/week would probably choose a live-in Nanny, which gives them complete control over the child's environment and absolute convenience.

[Miss A]

I have been peeking in and mulling this over all day, and I keep coming back to the co clusion that this whole setup would be a logistical nightmare. Between dealing with the parents who have had power go to their heads when it comes to choosing their child's care provider, to making sure all care providers employed met the state licensing standards, I would be running for the hills.

In my humble opinion, start by working in a traditional center. I understood the OP as bei g in school, and when I was in school for ECED, I was also working full time in a center. Many of my classmates got to the point of student teaching, and left the ECED program because it wasn't what they thought it was.

Maybe starting a nanny service would be a better option for you, or managing/marketing a children's activity center such as a children's museum or a rec center.

[LindseyA]

My understanding is that this is a school project, not something that the OP is looking to actually open. In this case, I agree that the extended hours would be good, but 'take your pick' caregiver (though pretty different) would realistically turn out to be a negative. I can picture higher rated caregivers having completely mixed age groups because everyone wants the best right? A lot of people are wary when it comes to mixing infants with older children. And the pricing will most certainly become an issue. They would obviously need to charge enough to keep the place open, but low enough to be a good candidate for a lot of people.

[nannyde]

You would have to follow center regulations including having a director, assistant director, and staff on site for substitute directors.

You would basically have to pay the wages to the director and all required staff PLUS pay the employer portion of each "nanny" used... that is a huge amount of money.

You would have to find a director, assistant director etc who was willing to have her salary paid by multiple parents based on use.

You are talking about employees working under someone who is not their employer and who could change as soon as the participating parents decided they wanted a different director.

Then you would have to pay for the physical setting, repairs, cleaning, and inventory. The utilities and all common use items. You would have to have a state approved kitchen and refrigerators. The grease trap alone in your building could cost tens of thousands of dollars depending on the current state and city requirements. You would also have to pay for the sprinkler system, camera system (very expensive to maintain) and the fire marshall requirements including dedicated land lines for the sprinkler system.

First find out how a center runs and then take it from there.

Parents don't realize that housing in both home and center based care is the biggest expense.

Then the nanny share... she won't be able to legally do mixed age groups so you will have multiple nannies who have to be switched out nearly every year of every kid you have. She can also turn down your business so she will only keep the highest paying clients with the easiest kids. The competition would drive her to switch out clients for the better deal.

Since you employ her you get to pay into unemployment so when your kid ages out of her age group and she can't find or doesn't want a replacement, you get to keep paying her a portion of her salary till she does.

If you did a parent co-operative in your own homes you could avoid most of that except for the employer portion of taxes.

That's the traditional nanny share in your home.

Aint gonna work. No way no how. It would be so expensive you could have your own nanny instead of paying your portion of the above.

[nabilino]

We think there is a market there to serve. Maybe it's both parents are working and do not want their house to be used by a baby sitter and prefer to use the flexibility of a center. The nannies will be contractors setting their own time and availability. Our App or website will connect the parents to the nannies.
Let's say Sue is a busy working mom to a 4 month old baby Tom, and is looking for a date night w. her husband. She quickly pops our App, and sees that Anna is available from 6pm-8:30pm. She taps her profile and sees that she has several positive reviews.
Anna stops by and picks up Tom and she's able to view on the App if Tom has any allergies etc. Diapers, formula and food is to be provided by the center.
We understand it will be expensive but it's a niche market and the idea is still rough.

[daycare]

We think there is a market there to serve. Maybe it's both parents are working and do not want their house to be used by a baby sitter and prefer to use the flexibility of a center. The nannies will be contractors setting their own time and availability. Our App or website will connect the parents to the nannies.
Let's say Sue is a busy working mom to a 4 month old baby Tom, and is looking for a date night w. her husband. She quickly pops our App, and sees that Anna is available from 6pm-8:30pm. She taps her profile and sees that she has several positive reviews.
Anna stops by and picks up Tom and she's able to view on the App if Tom has any allergies etc. Diapers, formula and food is to be provided by the center.
We understand it will be expensive but it's a niche market and the idea is still rough.

so basically care.com but with more responsibility on the nanny. Car insurance for those nannies is going to cost a fortune. and if it's at night, the centers insurance is going to cost a fortune. HOw are you going to market this so that it is affordable. PLUS will a parents really just leave their child with someone they have never met based on reviews. Do you know how many FAKE yelp reviews there are. No one post the bad stuff or they wouldn't be posting it.

[MunchkinWrangler]

so basically care.com but with more responsibility on the nanny. Car insurance for those nannies is going to cost a fortune. and if it's at night, the centers insurance is going to cost a fortune. HOw are you going to market this so that it is affordable. PLUS will a parents really just leave their child with someone they have never met based on reviews. Do you know how many FAKE yelp reviews there are. No one post the bad stuff or they wouldn't be posting it.

I think you need to research licensing regarding centers in your state, that would be the number one resource you should check out first to get a realistic look into what is all involved. For example, my state requires certification to transport a child in my care, plus the car insurance alone would be astronomical. Imagine what would happen if this nanny got into a car accident, especially at night. Most parents want to meet people that are caring for their child. I don't know a single person who would have someone care for their child without sitting down and talking to the actual person first. The comforts of home outweigh a fully stocked center IMO.

[Jazzii]

I don't think parents should have the opportunity to pick the staff- I do think they should know the staff and feel comfortable with them bit thats what interviews and trial periods are for

Our daycare is open non traditional hours - 6am-11pm 7 days a week and its a HUGE positive for us because we are the only in the area to do so , this works especially well because we have a few parents in the food industry. I personally am.not a fan of the live feed cameras . not because I'm doing anything wrong but I'm confident in my job and should an issue arise I would prefer the parent to come to me instead of arriving at the daycare with a (usually wrong) perception of what happened

[nannyde]

We think there is a market there to serve. Maybe it's both parents are working and do not want their house to be used by a baby sitter and prefer to use the flexibility of a center. The nannies will be contractors setting their own time and availability. Our App or website will connect the parents to the nannies.
Let's say Sue is a busy working mom to a 4 month old baby Tom, and is looking for a date night w. her husband. She quickly pops our App, and sees that Anna is available from 6pm-8:30pm. She taps her profile and sees that she has several positive reviews.
Anna stops by and picks up Tom and she's able to view on the App if Tom has any allergies etc. Diapers, formula and food is to be provided by the center.
We understand it will be expensive but it's a niche market and the idea is still rough.

How is the nanny going to be their own contractor?

What State can you have a building where multiple children are on site all day with child care providers caring for them where they don't have to follow center regulations for that state?

You could meet up at Chuckie Cheese I suppose... but if you have children in a building anywhere where the purpose is to care for the kids.... center regs apply in every state.

You also assume the "nanny" will just take a family that chooses them. There's an interview process and she has to accept them.

This isn't a new idea... it's a parent fantasy idea with a little technology thrown in.

The cost of this would be through the roof and the liability to the owners of the building would be sky high to the heavens.