Starting an at home day care business (Chantilly, Manassas: HOA, insurance)

[Jon_In_NOVA]

Hello NOVA,
My wife at one point was a certified pre-school teacher for a prominent day care business in the area. When I was stationed in MD at Fort Meade she worked for another well known day care. Anyways, she is not really into the corporate grind and really misses working with kids, especially kids with special needs. She has been in classrooms with 15-20 2-year olds with special needs to the mundane quiet sleeping newborns, she feels very confident she can handle 5-10 kids at home pending laws and regulations.

She has been reading a few books about the logistics in creating her own daycare out of our home, more specifically in our 1400sq ft finished basement. Basement has a full bathroom and a half kitchen (sink, fridge and cabinets). We have this big basement that doesn't get much use besides some storage and our movie room, which we don't use that often.

We live in a pretty upscale neighborhood in PWC (home prices 490-700K currently). As we do not have kids yet, but are planning in the next year or two tops we thought this financial avenue may be worth exploring, especially since she wants to stay home for at least the first few years.

Why I wanted to post here is to see what your opinions and perspectives are on the market for home day care services. My wife is planning on doing a lot more than just "watching kids for 9 hours a day". She knows how to create her own curriculum, activities, food schedules etc. Of course, everything will be by the books and transparent to the parents (insurance, medical training etc). We are looking at investing a few grand to set up the basement for kids, adding a path from the driveway to our walk out basement for parents to use exclusively and before making the plunge we would absolutely love feedback from this community.

Here are a few other data points that may be helpful:
· Fenced in backyard
· Newly finished basement with carpet, open concept basement
· Flexible hours, holidays, possible pre-planned weekend
· We would like to establish contracts with clients (1 -year)
· Pre-planned curriculum parents can follow and adjust
· Food, drinks, snacks will be provided - maybe even diapers etc.
I am sure there are more, and she will probably scold me a little about making this post without fully understanding her plans but oh well. Oh and she is looking to charge between $190-225 a week, with prices fluctuating pending on age and needs.

Thanks in advance for any and all comments.
P.S. Apologies for the wall of text

[ChristineVA]

I think your wife has an excellent chance of doing a good business. My next door neighbor does this exact thing in her basement (it's about 1000 square feet).

What I will suggest you do: if you live in a neighborhood with an HOA, get approval first. Some HOAs have stipulations about having a business operating in your home. Ours does. Yet they haven't come down on my neighbor even though several people in the neighborhood have complained about her daycare business. She has quite a few kids and she has aides. There is a good bit of "traffic" and parking in front of her home. The neighbors aren't crazy about it. I am right next to her and, to be honest, I'm not thrilled with the backyard noise every evening (goes until 6:30). We are on 1/2 acre lots and I really can't sit on my deck or grill with out a few sets of eyes staring at me through the fence.

Be very mindful of the neighbors when doing this.

[Jon_In_NOVA]

Thanks Christine, good points about the neighbors, we are friendly with each other but we will talk to them independantly and see how they feel. According to our HOA documentation we should be O.K. as we are not operating the type of business that are not allowed, but we will get confirmation to be sure.

I am hoping to get enough feedback from the NOVA community here to convince us that there is a market demand for this type of service.

Thanks again!

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by Jon_In_NOVA

Thanks Christine, good points about the neighbors, we are friendly with each other but we will talk to them independantly and see how they feel. According to our HOA documentation we should be O.K. as we are not operating the type of business that are not allowed, but we will get confirmation to be sure.

I am hoping to get enough feedback from the NOVA community here to convince us that there is a market demand for this type of service.

Thanks again!

Oh, I can assure you, there is demand. There was always such competition when I was looking for daycare for the homebased ones. My neighbor is never short of children trying to get into her daycare center. If you are taking infants, then you really won't have a shortage. I think your prices may even be on the low side but it's been awhile since I've been using daycare.

[Forehead]

I think you'd have business, hell you fit the target for people like my wife and I. She works in Manassas, I work in DC. We chose a daycare right next to her work (run out of a church) for convenience. Without getting into exact number, we pay in the neighborhood of $1,400-$1,500 every four weeks for two kids (ages 2-1/2 and 8 months) which includes a sibling discount, so her price range seems competitive.

Since I leave for work each morning very early, my wife is basically tasked with getting them ready each morning by herself, and picking them up. We've talked about moving to a daycare closer in to relieve her of some of the burden. We can't be the only ones, there are tons of young families in the area. She could probably do good business if she puts her mind to it.

[Jon_In_NOVA]

Great responses so far, thanks! I'm up for work early in Chantilly anyway and so is the wife. I am usually out the door 5:45AM, and she is starting to get ready for work at 8. We are both early birds so that is helpful I suppose, many years in the military can do that I suppose.

Here we thought $225/week was a bit on the high side for PWC from the little market research we did, although we feel we would offer more in terms of educational learning etc.

[mdcrim]

I think getting parents to commit to a year contract is going to be tough. I would do a 30 day notice type thing. Also, the HOA situation may be an issue. I believe there was a big to-do in the Lansdowne community in Leesburg within the past few years regarding home daycare centers. I think the major issues were added traffic and parking.

I'm sure there are laws about how many kids per adult are allowed but she can look into that.

I know in Loudoun there is a HUGE need for parents night out type programs. She may want to offer a pizza and movie night once a month or so on a Friday or Saturday for parents to have a date night.

[Riley09swb]

I think the $225 would be about right for an infant price and then come down from there with the age of the child. We lived in Loudoun county and were paying $1590 for two kids (that included a sibling discount) at a very small church preschool/daycare.

[Forehead]

Originally Posted by Jon_In_NOVA

Here we thought $225/week was a bit on the high side for PWC from the little market research we did, although we feel we would offer more in terms of educational learning etc.

That might be a little high if it's an across the board price, but competitive for infants.

Originally Posted by mdcrim

I'm sure there are laws about how many kids per adult are allowed but she can look into that.

There are. I believe the limit is one adult for every four infants, and goes up a little with the age of the kids.

[PolandSprings]

Is your wife planning to have help? What will you do when it is time for a family vacation? Be sure to give lots of notice. I'd also be annoyed if there was an at home daycare next to my home and it disturbed my peace after a long day of work.