We’re blue in the face hearing about our recessionary times, heard about the continuing economic downturn and are already tired of listening to the doom and gloom emanating from the experts. Should you start a day care business in spite of all this you ponder? Honestly, this could be a great time to start your new child care business. Tough times for many can be a golden egg for some. Certain ventures will flourish in the toughest of financial times – because they research, identify a niche market and service the need of that market.

There will always be a demand for some form of childcare because people will always need to work to make ends meet despite all talk of downsizing and tough times. Their income levels and conditions of employment may change so they will in turn be looking to make changes in the day care department. Sadly, one of the first areas to get hit by cost cutting measures is the area of child care – and a recession is sure to see many people re-evaluating their cost of living. Expensive, fancy day cares will see clientele trickle out in search of more affordable options.

Your day care business can be one of these affordable, more recession friendly options…so, how can you service this niche market? Starting a home day care is considerably less expensive than opening a large day care center. Equipment can be obtained from your kids old stuff, charity shops, recycling sites and persistent calling around to everyone you know who has kids and will be offloading toys and equipment, save on your taxes by offsetting your daily expenses, no more gas bills due to no more work commute and minimize wage costs by staffing it yourself with a friend or family member as an assistant. These are all savings that you can pass on to your clients in terms of fee reductions.

Thorough, market research is vital. Your goal is to make your day care supply a service for which demand is high and provision is scarce in your local community. A structured, quality educational curriculum in a home day care will make you stand out from the competition. A quality learning environment in a home day care is not something ex large day care center clients have been conditioned to expect. You will most likely gain them as clients because you have pleasantly surprised them, you have an edge and you are addressing their needs.

Could the niche in your area be shift work – are there factories, hospitals or industry where people are required to work odd hours? This tends to be a hugely under supplied area of care. Is there a large community of foreign nationals locally who may require a bilingual day care? Most towns have a substantial demand for overnight care which is also generally under supplied. Could this be your gold mine? Parents can find it very difficult to find quality, convenient before and after
school care so if your day care is situated close to schools you may have found your niche.

Downturn or not, there is always a demand for certain types of child care. The undersupplied niches are out there waiting to be discovered, the gaps waiting to be filled and it is up to you to find them. Clever research and due diligence are the keys to getting it right from the outset. Start your day care the clever, recession proof way.

Fiona Lohrenz shares her 10 years experience of running a day care on her website where you’ll also find her ‘Start a Day Care Business’ DVD guide: Open Daycare She can be reached at her Daycare focused website.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under Home Business Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.