Daycare Franchises? Montessori Day Care? Start Up Decisions Tackled

The realization that starting a day care is a pretty enormous task slams into you as you slide your resignation across the desk to your ex boss. Weighty questions must be tackled, decisions must be made e.g. Montessori day care or Steiner, daycare franchises or go it alone and the to do list continues to grow.

Turnkey, tried and tested, lots of hand holding - all make a day care franchise vey appealing. Customer loyalty is more easily acquired thanks to instant brand recognition. Licensing, staff/owner training, building selection, getting funding, the building process and actually opening your business will be covered in the development process.

Packages may also include design templates for buildings, proprietary curriculum plus ongoing training and support for owners and staff. Operations manuals will make hitting the ground running a breeze and having the use of a recognized brand for advertising may well mean a busy opening day. Some deals even offer home office support.

There is no doubting the appeal of all of the above. However, franchises are extremely pricey and require an upfront financial commitment plus proof of a healthy net worth (and that's before you even open your doors). Now, where did I leave that goose with the golden egg laying capabilities??

So, to the curriculum question. There are many, excellent programs to choose from so you really need to do some thorough research to establish which method might best suit your day care (or you could just draw straws :-)). Ever helpful I've included a list of some of the more popular curriculums with a brief explanation to get you started:

- Play based program - play is the educator with children learning through focused play - Montessori - development is observed by the teacher, who neither interfere nor get in the way but support the child - Waldorf Method - learning through imagination, imitation and play due to an inbuilt love of play - High/Scope - teachers are facilitators as children have responsibility for their work and learn through doing - Reggio Emilio - focuses on the natural development of the child in relation to their environment - Piaget - interaction based - Steiner - the changing needs of the children as they develop dictates how the education is designed

If you do have a large cache of dosh but not a lot of spare time then daycare franchises will have definite appeal for you. Your curriculum definitely requires lots of thought and whilst I find my Montessori day care to be a wonderful learning environment, so to are many of the other excellent programs.

To discover more about starting a day care, visit Child Care Only where you will find this an much more, covering all aspects of how to open a day care.

- Fiona Lohrenz