How Much to Charge for In-Home Daycare? What’s the monthly cost for in-home daycare? How much should I charge an hour? How many hours a week does it take to make a living wage with in-home daycare? These questions are all you might have if you consider opening up your home as an in-home daycare.
In this post, we’ll discuss how to figure out the fair market value for the services you offer and how to determine whether your pricing will allow you to earn enough money each month and still provide quality child care!
What is in-home daycare?
In-home daycare is a child care assistance service in a caregiver’s home rather than in a center-based child care center. A third of American households spend more than 15 million annually on child care. Moreover, child care charges overrun college tuition rates.
In a survey, 67 percent of respondents say that they get confused by the amount families pay for childcare. In-home child care providers can range from informal arrangements like the retired neighbor who watches a few local children at her home to a more formal setting offering state-licensed and accredited programming.
How much should I charge for in-home daycare?
For in-place home care daycare services, the costs should not exceed $900 per month for one child. Costs and location vary depending upon the types of child care workers. Commercially available child care centers charge substantially higher costs due to their size. Moreover, the most expensive type of childcare is a nanny with an average national price of $596 a week.
The daycare center is often more affordable to access as it includes both traditional daycare units and mixed age groups. This includes infant care and older children.
With the lower costs of an in-home daycare, you can afford to charge less than your commercial counterparts.
How do I set the prices for my child care service?
Experts provide the following tips for setting suitable pricing for children’s services.
Calculating the price for space in your center will depend on three variables.
- State laws limit the number of kids that you can have in your home. (Depending on the state you should research this number).
- According to the child’s age, most home child care centers charge families of children under 12 more because they may have toileting.
- The number of hours the parent plan to leave their child with you should also be a calculating factor.
What is the actual cost of in-home care?
Costs of daycare vary according to the age of the child and the location where you live.
The size of the facility and its granting of permits may also affect costs. Connecticut, Maryland Massachusetts New York, and Virginia are the most expensive states for home daycare for infants and toddlers for costs between $102 a day up from $53 a day.
For kids who attend preschool, the average cost for home education is $359 a month to $685 a month. The most expensive state is Connecticut with the highest costs for home care for children.
Typical In-home child care provider’s charges
Yvette Jackson, 45, has been operating Yvette’s childcare since 2015. The nurse became licensed in 2016 and can now care for up to six children in the house. Parents pay $325 a week ($64 a day) per child for full-time care and half that for half-day care.
Yvette’s child care is in Northeast Ohio, and these are the average prices in the Northeast and the rustbelt but each state has its own average prices.
Things to consider before starting an in-home child care center
In general, there are several things to consider before starting an in-home child care center.
- In terms of pricing, providers need to make sure that they understand how much the market can afford and what their parent clientele will find reasonable rates.
- Similarly, understanding your local area’s daycare center rates will provide you with a point of comparison.
- The local newspaper, classified ads, and the internet are all good sources for this information.
- You also need to think about your costs both business and personal. As well as how much money it’s going to take before you can start generating income from daycare services provided in your home.
- How much cash do you require to set up a daycare center? For example, will you require additional staff and equipment? How long before revenues cover these expenses?
- You should estimate the costs for at least one year of operation. This information can help you decide if starting an in-home child care center is right for your family and whether or not you should seek additional financing.
- Once you have a good idea of the costs involved, it’s time to look at your business plan which is where you will determine how much money you need and what steps are necessary to generate that amount of revenue.
- You should create a business plan the covers all the above things. This plan typically includes an executive summary (which highlights why people should do business with you), a description of your business, its goods and services, management information (who’s going to run it?), marketing strategies, financial projections for the first year of operation.
- Calculate the cost of living in your area and which other daycare centers are around.
- Determine how many hours you want to work each day. How much time are you willing to spend with each child? How many children will be in your care at once? How do you plan on marketing yourself and what is the cost associated with that process.
- Find out what other daycare providers are charging for similar services in your area.
- Consider whether or not you will offer before and aftercare services for the kids especially young children.
- Figure out if there is a minimum age requirement where you live (some states require that kids be at least 6 months old) and if there are any child care subsidies available for low-income families. Will the state offer you childcare payment assistance services and do you need to register your parents for that.
- Decide on the days of the week and hours per day you’ll provide child care services.
- Find out how much it costs for each child you plan on caring for and determine if you will offer any early childhood education services.
- Figure out how many children you can care for at one time
- Determine if you want to offer different rates based on age, number of hours, or days per week
- Decide whether or not to charge parents an extra fee every time they pick up their child from daycare
- Consider whether or not any additional expenses should be factored into your pricing structure (i.e., food)
- Determine what type of payment system will work best for you – monthly fee or hourly rate
- Be sure to include any extra services that are provided, such as meal preparation or transportation
- Don’t be anxious to ask parents about their budget when discussing rates – it shows them that you’re willing to work with them financially
FAQs: How Much to Charge for In-Home Daycare
How could somebody go about deciding how much to charge for in-home daycare?
If you’re thinking about starting an in-home daycare, here’s your answer! For example, if you plan on having 4 children enrolled at a time, you would want to charge at least $25 an hour. That means you’d be bringing in $100 a day after subtracting expenses!
Is it ok to charge a set price for each day, or should daycare providers have a low or high standard?
It is completely acceptable to charge a set price for each day of childcare. Similarly, in-house daycare providers might charge low or high prices depending on the child care option and the market.
What are some things to consider when deciding how much to charge people for daycare?
Here are some points to think about when you’re determining your prices for in-home daycare services.
- How many children will I be caring for?
- Will I be providing additional services along with childcare, such as housekeeping or meal preparation?
- How do other local in-home childcare providers set their prices?
- How much do I need to earn to meet my expenses and support my family?
- Will I be offering discounts to bring in new customers?
Conclusion
Home daycare prices can vary from state to state, but you should be able to find a few averages online. Typical daycare rates for an infant in the US range from $200-$400 per week or about $8-12 dollars an hour.
For example, according to a 2020 Cost of Child Care by State report, child care costs ranged from as low as less than a dollar per hour up to nearly 30 dollars an hour based on location and type of service offered.
Moreover, the cost also varies greatly depending on what is included with your services, such as meal preparation and transportation.
