Turning a Home into a Childcare Business

Walk into Andrea’s home in Butler, Missouri, and it is easy to see the thought she has put into what children need.

Her bright playroom has spaces for science, sensory play, blocks, music and movement, and imaginative play. Outside, she envisions an outdoor classroom with plenty of room for children to run and play.

It is a warm, welcoming home. It is also a business taking shape.

Andrea is working toward becoming a licensed family child care provider, building on years of experience caring for and educating children. She has worked in home-based child care, as a substitute teacher, as a childcare center director, and in a corporate childcare setting.

“I’ve been watching kids since I was 10,” Andrea said. "It’s what I’ve always known"

Years ago, she operated a licensed home childcare business in Belton that grew from an unfinished basement into 24-hour licensed care that was full around the clock. Life eventually took her in other directions, but the desire to work with children never went away.

Now it has brought her back to Butler.

Finding Her Place in a Rural Community

When Andrea returned to Butler to be closer to family, she found a home across from the school and saw an opportunity to provide childcare there.

Families responded quickly. She gave tours her first week and began enrolling children the next.

She currently serves six children on varying schedules while staying within the limits allowed before licensing. Some need before- and after-school care. Others need care during the day. One family recently approached her looking for a pre-K option for a five-year-old who had not yet started school.

The interest confirms what Andrea suspected: families need more options.

But recognizing a need and building a licensed child care business to meet it are two very different things.

A Fence Is More Than a Fence

Childcare providers care for children, but they are also business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals.

They manage finances, enrollment, payments and schedules while creating learning environments and meeting state requirements for the care and safety of children.

For Andrea, one of those requirements is a fenced outdoor space. Her porch provides some room outside, but not enough for the active children in her care.

“Plus with licensing, you have to be fenced anyway,” Andrea said. “I’m so excited to start putting up our fence.”

New Growth provided Andrea with a microloan to purchase the fencing.

It is a relatively small business investment, but it removes a very real barrier between where Andrea’s business is today and where she wants it to go.

With a fence, she can create an outdoor classroom with space for the children to run, play and enjoy sports.

Supporting the Business Behind the Child Care

Soon after returning to Butler, Andrea reconnected with New Growth’s Women’s Business Center and learned about the Family Child Care Champions program.

The program is supporting Andrea as she works toward licensing and builds her business. That support matters even for an experienced provider. Childcare entrepreneurs must navigate financial, regulatory and business hurdles alongside providing quality care.

For Andrea, opening in Butler also meant taking a risk. She left a low-cost living situation near family to start a business in a rural market very different from the Kansas City area, where she had previously operated childcare.

“I do see the need here, and I think that it’s a good location,” she said.“I definitely feel like this is where I’m supposed to be right now.”

She says the support made a difference in taking that chance.

“This was a big risk for me to take,” Andrea said. Without connecting with New Growth and receiving funding for things she needed, including the fence, “it probably wouldn’t have happened.”

Growing Childcare One Business at a Time

The need for childcare can sound like a big, complicated community problem. Solutions often look much smaller up close.

Sometimes they look like an individual turning space in her home into a thoughtful learning environment.

A family finding care before school.

A child having a safe place to play outside.

An entrepreneur figuring out licensing requirements.

A small loan paying for a fence.

None of those things alone solves a community’s child care shortage. Together, they are how capacity grows.

That is why supporting child care providers as professionals and business owners matters.

Communities need people who are willing and able to do this work. But willingness alone cannot overcome every financial, regulatory or business hurdle. Entrepreneurs need access to capital, business guidance, training, connections and people who can help them navigate the steps between an idea and a sustainable licensed business.

Andrea already has ideas about what might come next. She would like to grow into a licensed childcare home and potentially, someday, a larger group home. She has considered extracurricular classes and other ways to serve local children and families.

For now, though, she is building one step at a time.

The playroom is ready.

Children are coming through the door.

And soon, there will be a fence around the yard.

Supporting Child Care Champions

Andrea is working toward licensing with support from the Family Child Care Champions program for home-based providers.

For providers already in business or those considering starting, New Growth Women’s Business Center’s Child Care Business Accelerator offers one-on-one business support and connections to childcare resources across Missouri. The program is open to both home-based and center-based child care providers, with enrollment for 50 providers beginning this winter.

Learn more and sign up:
https://www.newgrowthmo.org/post/child-care-business-accelerator

Read more about Andrea on the Family Child Care Champion's page and about another child care provider from Bolivar.

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