I am 53-years-old, raise 4 children on my own since my
youngest was 6 months, and have worked at the same job for
many years. I would like to buy a small house and use it for
daycare. Transition over 5 years from my full-time job at the
College to only the daycare. This is much needed in my area
and I know would be utilized. The problem - I just went
through a bankruptcy d/t helping my daughter and her husband
through a very long (6 year) court custody case, which they
won. Court and attorneys for 6 years ran over $40,000. I used
all of my retirement, which I am now paying back. It took
every dime we had and then some and now I have to rebuild
quickly. How do I get a mortgage being a single woman who just
went through bankruptcy? Can I even entertain the idea of
starting my own business? My thoughts, buy a small house in
the neighborhood, have 6 children at the most so licensing is
not an issue right now, my daughter whom I helped with the
court case would be the primamry care provider, even offer
services on a co-op basis where if you signed up to work one
day your child could use that day and another day for free.
Any thoughts out there?  I am not getting any younger and all
my life I have taken care of other people. I need to start
looking at doing something for me while at the same time
offering a service. 

Have you thought of starting the daycare business in your home first? There are many, many tax deductions available to home daycare providers. Where I live, in Michigan, one can be licensed to care for up to six children without hiring any additional assistance.

I believe most states post their daycare regulations online, including rates for government subsidized care of children. You could use those amounts as a base to compute what you could, at least, earn caring for six children to see if a home daycare would be as or more profitable than opening up a center. My guess, and from my business experience, unless you're in a high cost area - able to charge higher rates - you'll need more than six children to support the expense of a center.

Good luck,

Anna I Mayer, EA, CSA
AIM Tax and Financial
6213 Dixie Hwy., PO Box 271
Bridgeport, MI 48722
www.aimtax.com
anna@aimtax.com

Actually, I hadn't thought of that. That may be a good way to go. If things progress I can always get a separate building in the future. I will check into our city/state regulations and see if this is something that would work. Thanks for the suggestion.