TKW Consulting

Effective Management of a Child Care Business
There is a lot of work attached to opening a day care business. The list of things to do will seem overwhelming and unending. You have your research, your business plan, designing an area, acquiring staff, obtaining clients and countless other tasks. However, it is equally important you lay the groundwork now for the effective management of your day care business once you are up and running. This article provides some tips on how to do just that.

It goes without saying that you have designed your area with the children in mind. You designated an area where the children would be watched over, where games and activities could take place, where the children could eat, and where the children could rest if they so desired. Did you stop you think about incorporating a specific area where you could work with no distractions. In order to manage your home based day care business, it is important to have a small work area designated specifically for where you can conduct the operations behind the business. This is where you deal with taxes, staff paperwork, regulatory issues, advertising etc. This is your control center.

Try to focus on keeping all things business separate from all things personal. If you start mixing up appointments, calendars, tasks, and so on, your business is likely to suffer. You should make sure that the daycare business is a completely different persona from your personal life. This holds true when it comes to emails, telephone lines, and even business supplies. In order to effectively manage your home based day care business, be sure that business is kept separate in all aspects.

Time management is vital, particularly if your day care is attached to your home. If you are not fastidious about organising your time you will become disorganised, inefficient and frazzled with little pieces of you spread all over. Timetable your day with core slots of time devoted to the day care and within those slots schedule specific activities. Assign quieter parts of the day to complete domestic chores enlisting family members to help out. Don't forget to factor in breaks and relaxation timef or you too. Child care is a tiring business and you need to keep fresh and energized.

A disadvantage of working for yourself especially if you are home based is the tendency of friends and family to assume you are always free for visits. They feel that, since you work at home, you have time for their phone calls and visits. This can be detrimental to your time management system thus your business visits. It is important that you inform these well intentioned people that this is a job. They must understand that you have certain hours each day that are dedicated to work and your family and this time should not be interrupted. Explain that you are a professional and as such need to focus completely on the task at hand during these hours. Then switch on your answering machine!

Approach planning your day with your business head on. You can effectively manage your daycare and family life intandem, it just takes a bit of thought and a lot of discipline. Policies and procedures take a little bit of work to put in place but once there they make for the smooth running of any business. Ultimately, your success depends on it. Get planning.

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 4:11 PM