I started working as an Ofsted-registered childminder nine years ago when our daughter was born. After two years of quality time with her I felt ready to go back into part-time employment.
The hours involved early starts and as my husband was a lorry driver also with early starts child care was immediately difficult. We managed to juggle childcare with a number of different arrangements. However this often fell apart when either two people would arrive to collect her from nursery or sometimes no one would turn up and I would get a telephone call from the nursery telling me that our daughter was still there. I had to leave employment and return to childminding. If I was going to offer childcare as a service and do it as a business I wanted to do it well, my ethos was to try to provide quality, flexible childcare.
Starting any small business, especially a childcare business, is dificult to begin with. It takes time to get known and trusted. As time went by I became known in the area and I gained more children. This eventually progressed to the point that I needed an assistant especially at meal times and afternoon school pick up time as I had children to pick up from two schools at the same time. At this time my husband was looking to change his job so the solution became evident. My husband became my assistant, however this posed other problems. He could not have the children on his own because he did not have a paediatric first aid certificate. We also needed more children to now cover two incomes. By becoming a registered childminder in his own right we were able to address both of these issues at the same time so in September 2010 he became an Ofsted-registered childminder. You will need to address similar problems as your business grows. You will progress to the point where you may need assistance but to be able to justify the cost of employing someone you may need to increase in size even further. This can be really challenging and for some periods may mean working long hours.
When my husband joined me we had a parent approach him specifically as she particularly wanted a male childminder as she felt her children needed a male role model in their lives. So don't be put off by employing male childcare staff it may even bring in more business!
Throughout our time working together we have continued to keep in mind our initial ethos of providing quality, flexible childcare. Its worth trying to stick to your initial goals don't provide a lower quality service just because your business is growing, if you do you may find your business shrinking again. For us it has meant that at times we have taken on work that other childminders have shied away from such as early starts, (07.00) and even Sundays. We now tend to start at about 07.45 and our last children go home about 18.20 although at one time our last children would not go home until nearly 19.00. Bear in mind though that offering such a service can easily put a strain on your own family and personal life.
Trying to run a successful and profitable business whilst also being good parents and having time for each other is a struggle. The best advice is to provide a quality service and eventually you are able to be more selective about what you choose to take on. Also as your business grows you may well find yourself in more of a management position looking after your childminding assistants rather than the children themselves. That may be where you want to end up for us we prefer to keep our business at a size that enables us to continue doing what we love looking after children. Remember it takes time to establish trust in any kind of new business and this is especially true when running a childcare service. It also takes time to determine the balance between trying to run a successful business while not encroaching too much on family life.
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