SAHM community business idea for mums

[zoah14]

I have an idea but need advice.

Many mums in my area care for their children who cannot afford childcare for one child, let alone if they have more than one, so they cannot go back to work because the cost of care outweighs what they could earn. They are going stir crazy with a lack of childcare help and finances to entertain their kids.

So I have had an idea but need some direction to get it off the ground and see if it could be viable.

I would like to gather a group of mums to utilise their skills to build a business together, share skills and provide each other with more affordable childcare.

This would be a local based south wales UK group, where if you turn up, you will offer your time looking after everyone's kids in return for time away from the kids to learn and work for the group. You pay via helping provide care for the kids and entertain them. We would provide a list of business-related tasks for that day. The company would generate an income that would cover such costs as a venue, food, drinks, facilities for the kids and equipment needed to work. When it is founded, the group would tell us their individual skills. Our common collective skills would contribute toward deciding what this business would be.

But I am not sure how this idea would initially work, how we would get funds together or if people would even respond to this idea. So please can you guys give me some positive feedback on this thanks so much for reading.

It's a nice idea but I'm not sure it would work practically unfortunately.

I think you would have to meet childminding criteria such as ratios of children to adults and be registered as childminders, not sure it's legal to look after children without this in place.

I've checked www.gov.uk/become-childminder-nanny and it's considered being paid even if it's in kind rather than cash

You might fall foul of childcare regs. I understand that at a toddler group type of thing the parents/carers must stay with and be responsible for their children, so groups are not required to register with Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW).If the child is not under the supervision of their parent then you're into formal childcare territory with all that entails (registration with the relevant authority, insurance, first Aid, safeguarding etc)

Ask your local authority children and young people division for some real life advice?

Can’t see how it would even begin to work to be in anyway profitable. Would you be the business owner and the other mums earn a wage? If so it sounds ethically flawed as you’ll be turning a profit based on taking advantage of mums who will give their free time to do childcare in order for the business to operate?

Its a pie in the sky idea which won't work. Too many unreliable people and too many regulations. What about rentt for premises. How is that going to be paid for. Its a non starter IMHO.

Ah yes, I just came back to this because I noticed it was Wales. They define a childminder as:
"Childcare provided by one or more people for children from birth up to the age of 12
years within a domestic premises that is not the child’s own home for more than 2
hours per day for reward."

I think something like this only ever occurs organically when a small group of people who know each other well come together with a similar skill set to create a very specific business

So would the mums receive a wage for their time spent looking after the children and a wage for the time spent working?

To give positive feedback I would say that I would appreciate an shared workspace that had a crèche and if there was also a task finder service so I could source work that would be amazing.
It wouldn't make sense financially though:
Eg I rock up at 9am with a toddler and a primary school aged child, settle them in the crèche for 6 hours and then sign on to a terminal to do alloted administrative tasks for clients you've found.

I could be paid £10 per hour, you could charge the client £15 and I could pay £4 per hour per child for crèche.
I net £12 for the day [sobs]
You net £30 from client and £48 from me for childcare but you then have to pay for premises, childminder and computers and also get the clients in the first place!

What do you anticipate the business itself doing?

Thank you all for your replies, it was just an idea to see if there was any merit to the idea practically. Mostly I and some other mums are so frustrated with being unable to work or afford childcare. I was putting this out there to see what people thought. But yes I agree after seeing the comments it's a pie in the sky idea with no grounding as it stands. Thank you, everyone :) I just needed to see that so thank you.

I dont think it's the worst thing if you are breaking even on wage to childcare. It's short term, and keeps you working for those first few more expensive years til they go to school.