Going From In Home To Professional Daycare

[Unregistered]

The house is in Pending sale, but I still want to you take look at this,

Sorry it took me awhile to reply Jingliu, been crazy busy. YES, you can turn a home into a commercial property, BUT it is not the easiest thing to do. You MUST consult with your county or city zoning office. I would stear clear of homes wedged among other homes. Your city will be more accepting of a rezone if you are on a major road. Use a realtor, but also talk to zoning BEFORE you buy!!! Look for a house that has at least a 10000 sq foot lot. You also need a BIG fenced yard and hadicapped accessibility. All my other advise is listed, can't think of anything additional. Go make an appointment with your local zoning office first, get a copy of the city's development code and ask 50 million questions. Its a daunting task. Good luck!

It is in WA, Seattle, King County, the address is 14910 Allen Road, Bellevue wa 98006. Please let me know, what do you think of it? Love to learn from you!

Thank you.

[betty boop]

[QUOTE=Sugar Magnolia;110988]First off, I want to applaude you for being a male person and involved in early childhood education!! We NEED men in this industry. Your post is on a topic very near and dear to my heart, I have been contemplating it for an hour. I will tell you how my husband and I did it and hope you find some inspiration. We wanted to start a facility, seperate from our home, for many reasons, the first being the sanctity of my home, I love leaving the business at night. Secondly, we feel like a center has more legitimacy and oversight, and parents will tell you this as well. There are many wonderful home daycares that provide great, loving and attentive care, especially for infants. I actually think home daycares are BEST for those under one year. Some, not all, lack structure and educational opportunities, and older children need more social interactions. On the flip side, some centers are too large, and high levels of staff turnover that leave children feeling uncertain. They may have a lot of structure, but not much close personal attention/interactions. Like home day cares, there are good ones and bad ones. Our concept was to combine the best of both worlds and open a SMALL center that the two of us could operate with one additional staff member. Here's how we did it....and it was NOT easy, but NOT impossible.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!!!! Find the area of your community where most people work/live, like downtown. Then start looking for either a rental or property for sale. (More on this later). Make SURE that the zoning is applicable! If you are renting commercial, it should already be zoned appropriately. But please double check with county/city zoning officials to be sure a daycare can be operated there. They know the code, real estate people may NOT! Trust me on this. Here are some things to look for: GOOD VISIBILITY on a semi-major, well traveled road. Don't go for something hidden deep in an office park. Good signage availabilty too. Being near elementary schools, even other daycares is a big plus. (CVS always opens near a Walgreens, right?). Now renting VS owning. If you can, buy. If you can get a mortgage on a place, do it. We bought a home. Zoned residential, so we had to do a "major conditional use" to be allowed to open. That meant having available parking, a 6' landscaping buffer with our neighbors, a fenced outdoor play area, and other more minor requirements. We paid about $6000 for all the zoning change requirements. It was expensive and time consuming. But WORTH IT! We paid $320,000 for it, but now own a commercial property that is valued at well over $500,000. Our mortgage is $2000 a month. Most commercially zoned properties are VERY expensive to own, and to rent. Make sure a rental has adequate outdoor area, parking, visibility and above all, a cute, homey appearance. Cinderblock and metal is a turn off. Our place is super cute, appearance matters.

So to summarize: Consult zoning FIRST, good downtown area, good visibility, cuteness, buy if you can, don't rule out a house if it is in a good spot on a well known road.
Ok. More thoughts....if you keep it small, you and your future wife and one employee could run it yourself. No boss. Your business, your hard work, your profit. Small size keeps costs lower. We don't get rich, but we pay for our business expenses, and pay our home expenses, and have a comfortable living. It can work for you, IF you want to have a hands-on approach. Now, if you just want to "administer" the facility and hire a staff to do the work, then probably not. Then you'd want to be a BIIIIIIIG center, and you loose the small-center appeal to parents. Its all up to you and your level of commitment. It can be done.ALSO: Most states I'm sure require a center to have a formal director, so be sure your fiancee or yourself meet that criteria, or you may have a problem. I could go on and on and on if you are interested more in our small center approach, details on how the financials work, our curriculm, even just what our typical day is like, let me know, would love to help!





I love this idea! No , my question is for a small center are you required to have a certain degree as you would for a big center

[Wizdom Kids]

Childcare Teacher

First off, I want to applaude you for being a male person and involved in early childhood education!! We NEED men in this industry. Your post is on a topic very near and dear to my heart, I have been contemplating it for an hour. I will tell you how my husband and I did it and hope you find some inspiration. We wanted to start a facility, seperate from our home, for many reasons, the first being the sanctity of my home, I love leaving the business at night. Secondly, we feel like a center has more legitimacy and oversight, and parents will tell you this as well. There are many wonderful home daycares that provide great, loving and attentive care, especially for infants. I actually think home daycares are BEST for those under one year. Some, not all, lack structure and educational opportunities, and older children need more social interactions. On the flip side, some centers are too large, and high levels of staff turnover that leave children feeling uncertain. They may have a lot of structure, but not much close personal attention/interactions. Like home day cares, there are good ones and bad ones. Our concept was to combine the best of both worlds and open a SMALL center that the two of us could operate with one additional staff member. Here's how we did it....and it was NOT easy, but NOT impossible.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!!!! Find the area of your community where most people work/live, like downtown. Then start looking for either a rental or property for sale. (More on this later). Make SURE that the zoning is applicable! If you are renting commercial, it should already be zoned appropriately. But please double check with county/city zoning officials to be sure a daycare can be operated there. They know the code, real estate people may NOT! Trust me on this. Here are some things to look for: GOOD VISIBILITY on a semi-major, well traveled road. Don't go for something hidden deep in an office park. Good signage availabilty too. Being near elementary schools, even other daycares is a big plus. (CVS always opens near a Walgreens, right?). Now renting VS owning. If you can, buy. If you can get a mortgage on a place, do it. We bought a home. Zoned residential, so we had to do a "major conditional use" to be allowed to open. That meant having available parking, a 6' landscaping buffer with our neighbors, a fenced outdoor play area, and other more minor requirements. We paid about $6000 for all the zoning change requirements. It was expensive and time consuming. But WORTH IT! We paid $320,000 for it, but now own a commercial property that is valued at well over $500,000. Our mortgage is $2000 a month. Most commercially zoned properties are VERY expensive to own, and to rent. Make sure a rental has adequate outdoor area, parking, visibility and above all, a cute, homey appearance. Cinderblock and metal is a turn off. Our place is super cute, appearance matters.

So to summarize: Consult zoning FIRST, good downtown area, good visibility, cuteness, buy if you can, don't rule out a house if it is in a good spot on a well known road.
Ok. More thoughts....if you keep it small, you and your future wife and one employee could run it yourself. No boss. Your business, your hard work, your profit. Small size keeps costs lower. We don't get rich, but we pay for our business expenses, and pay our home expenses, and have a comfortable living. It can work for you, IF you want to have a hands-on approach. Now, if you just want to "administer" the facility and hire a staff to do the work, then probably not. Then you'd want to be a BIIIIIIIG center, and you loose the small-center appeal to parents. Its all up to you and your level of commitment. It can be done.ALSO: Most states I'm sure require a center to have a formal director, so be sure your fiancee or yourself meet that criteria, or you may have a problem. I could go on and on and on if you are interested more in our small center approach, details on how the financials work, our curriculm, even just what our typical day is like, let me know, would love to help!

Hello Sugar Magnolia! I am so ready to open a childcare center, but I want to do it in a house zoned for daycare, but not in my home. I would love more info on how the financials work, and what steps to take, including what kind of expenses to plan for. I am trying to write a business plan to prepare.

Thanks!

https://www.wizdomkids.com

[LysesKids]

If you can be so lucky as to find a home that is historically designated, BOOM, you just won the lottery. You can do many commercial uses with a historic home and they are often ADA exempt. I found this out AFTERWARDS, of course. My dummy realtor said "oh no, historic designation would be bad" boy was he WRONG!

Historic homes can be good or bad... where I use to live it was bad because unless the city approved (and they never did) the state refused to touch you... that and most homes couldn't be redone to legal childcare specs without federal approval due to being National Historic... yeah, no gas heaters in the bedrooms etc etc. Finally gave up after running license exempt for 6 years

[midaycare]

I know some people who had a home daycare and then opened a center. They regretted it, mostly for staffing and financial reasons. They made good money at home and lost everything when they opened the center. But....that's the only experience I know of. You won't get rich doing it, it's definitely more of a life calling!