How Much Money Does A Daycare Owner Make? - Career Trend

Running your own daycare can be a good way to bring in additional income. Whether you start with a home daycare or plan to use other facilities, you should understand that the job is not highly lucrative. You will need to balance costs with the limited amount parents are able to pay. However, if you have a passion for working with children, owning a daycare may be a great career option for you.

Daycare Ownership

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A daycare owner is responsible for handling the daily operations of a childcare center. Their job responsibilities cover a broad range of activities including hiring employees, maintaining facilities, balancing the books, developing solid public relations between parents and teachers and satisfying legal requirements. If you decide to take on daycare ownership, you will need acute leadership skills and strong business acumen to keep the company on the right course.

Salary Expectations

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Daycare owners do not make extremely high salaries compared to other small business owners in the United States. Home daycare owners have a median income of $9.81 per hour, or just under $20,000 per year. The top 10 percent make $15 an hour or higher, while the bottom 10 percent earn less than $7 an hour. However, many daycare owners love their jobs and find that working with children is more rewarding than dabbling in more aggressive forms of business ownership.

Caring for infants on a full-time basis can bring in $4,000 to $10,000 a year. Watching school-age children can bring in between $2,000 to $8,000. Average weekly fees can rage from $250 to over $500 per child per week.

Additional Insights

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Before you decide whether or not to start your own daycare business, it's vital that you check with municipal and state requirements for licensing, insurance and inspections. New York, for example, requires a registration certificate for any daycare program with more than two children for more than three hours each day. To get this certificate, you must ensure that your daycare meets the state's health and safety requirements for children in care.