setting up a day nursery-advice needed

[arizona]

Me and my friend (we,re both stay at home mums) are forever having conversations about how to make some money doing something we really enjoy and one of our recurring favourites is setting up a day nursery. I would love to hear from anyone who has done this, or thought about it, sucess stories and horror stories alike! My gut feeling is that it's very hard work and not very lucrative? Let me know your views.

Hi arizona, I think your gut feeling is probably right! I haven't done this but was Chair of a local pre-school for a while and so have been involved a bit. The PLA are probably the best people to talk to and should be able to advise you. Will find a link in a minute. The trouble is that a lot of parents send their children to nurseries and pre-schools attached to schools and so if yours isn't affiliated to a school you might find you have low numbers. My experience is that there are also lots of regulations (understandably) and it's difficult to find good qualified staff. However, it all depends on your area, the demand for your nursery and the competition. So depending on those factors it could be worth doing some market research and taking it from there. Health Visitors are good sources of stats on no of children and ages in your area. Good luck.

The Pre-School Learning Alliance site is here

www
Thanks! That's really helpful. I think that we would probably be targeting the 0-4 age group as this area is well served for nursery school provision for 4 year olds. Good tip about the health visitor and yes, market research is the starting point. I must get on with it and stop dithering!

arizona, I did some research on this a couple of years ago and have various books, which detail ways to go about it and a years subscription to nursery world, a magazine for nursery workers. I also attended a seminar / exhibition run by nursery world all about starting a nursery - it was held at the design centre in in Islington, London. They run them annually so it may be worth looking out for.
I never went ahead, basically because I changed direction not because I didn't feel it was viable.
So if you would like stacks of literature you are more than welcome to mine, just ask Mumsnet to let you have my e-mail address if interested and I will arrange with you how to get it to you.
Good luck.

sobernow
It's really interesting to hear about the nursery your dd goes to. The fact that its just six children appeals and also running the nursery from home sounds good.
Viv
Thankyou for your generous offer. Will be in touch about books etc.
I'm actually a primary school teacher so I feel I know the territory a bit. I just don't want to launch back into being a classroom teacher again with all the stress, out of hours work and so on (my youngest child is 2). Does anyone know if there's a Teachersnet?