How Many Hours Do You Work on Your Business?

[Core12]

Just wanted to see the average number of hours you guys spend working outside of your daycare hours.
With CE classes, grocery shopping, client interviews, snow shoveling, cleaning and paperwork...I feel like the hours I’m spending wouldn’t be believable to an accountant!

[Ac114]

Just wanted to see the average number of hours you guys spend working outside of your daycare hours.
With CE classes, grocery shopping, client interviews, snow shoveling, cleaning and paperwork...I feel like the hours I’m spending wouldn’t be believable to an accountant!

I get up at 5:30am and my daycare start time is 7am. As soon as I’m awake, I’m preparing for the day. I close at 5:30 and still take an hr or hr and half to clean, do dishes etc for the day. I spend wayyy too many hours than I would like on my daycare business. But that’s business for ya!

[DaveA]

I'm open 6a-5p, usually out of DCKs by 430. Probably add a 1/2 hour per day and 2 hours on the weekend doing daycare stuff.

[Blackcat31]

Other than grocery shopping I don't work outside of daycare hours. I used to but I got tired of my job consuming my life so I decided a while back to not do anything work related outside of daycare hours.

Grocery and supply shopping is the only thing I haven't eliminated yet but with the whole Walmart (and many other places) having shop online/delivery options it's slowly becoming something I am able to do within daycare hours.

For my sanity and in fairness to my own family I had to draw a line somewhere so nothing work related outside of work for me.

[Cat Herder]

I typically work about 60-90 minutes prior to opening each day prepping meals, completing my playground walkthrough checklist, prepping art and setting up centers. 100% daycare time.

The other 60-90 minutes in the morning before my first arrival I do my housework/laundry. I don't claim this time, but feel I should be able to time/space it since I am required to both maintain it all and allow inspectors access to it all. I simply see no real way to argue it or record it with T/S so I don't. :confused: At least I don't have to do it at night or on weekends.

Some weekends, I do a few hours of playground and landscaping maintenance. Spreading mulch, repairing fences, staining decks, repairing toys, setting up new equipment and mowing/seeding grass (fenced areas for daycare use, only). Typically about 4-6 hours at a time.

Sometimes, I have to take an evening/weekend interactive course/lecture that I can't complete during daycare hours (set time with login). There are whispers about more "face to face" training requirements coming, so I expect this number to go up.

I do 99% of my daycare shopping online now so I have not had mileage for several years. The other 1% (food) my husband picks up for/with me and since he uses a company car I don't report that. It would be double dipping to my mind.

[jenboo]

very minimal. Almost everything is completed during work hours including ordering groceries.

[Ariana]

Maybe an hour at most. I do everything during my working hours. I work 10 hours a day and that is more than enough. I am currently in the middle of rearranging the play spaces and have been doing it little by little all week while the kids play and this morning I vacuumed and disinfected. I also go on Pinterest and plan crafts etc. I do groceries when I do my families groceries generally. The only thing I habe to do outside of my hours is hit up the dollar store.

[Mom2Two]

I work tons outside of daycare hours, but part of the reason for that is because my daycare is on the main level of my home so there is a lot of tweaks to make to adjust or fix our living space. And also I do a lot of home cooking for my daycare in the evening and use cloth place mats, hand drying etc rather than disposable.

I make an excel worksheet of all my activities and hours and I take less than that so that I wouldn't have too much pain about it if there were an audit.

I am open 10 hours a day and I do prep work before and clean up/prep afterwards.

It's not what everyone does...but I'm good with it and for now the tax deductions make it worth it. It might not always be that way though.

[Annalee]

I work about an hour every morning before opening...other than my mind being off-track with something daycare related, no physical work after hours except to attend a training. I do, however, spend some hours on the weekend washing nap things or playground work. If I have been closed for a while, I take a day to make sure all is ready for opening back up. I don't spend near the time I did when first opening over 26 years ago.

[BumbleBee]

I average about 5 extra hours a week. Admittedly I try to get as much daycare stuff done as I can during nap time or before opening because I hate working on daycare stuff in the evenings. I have no motivation to do anything except veg and stare at my phone when my daycare kids leave.

[trix23]

8am-6pm currently, so 50 hours a week. I am thinking for next year (2020) to have standard hours be 8am-5pm and then if parents need extra time beyond that, they have to pay extra for it ($3 for 5:30 and then $5 or so for 6pm). just cause i have some kids here all 10 hours and I guarantee they don't need it.