Every Family Childcare Provider will tell you we are not in this business to make money. Chances are money is the afterthought of the business. For most FCC providers, the idea is to do what we love, take care of our families, and then make money to support our families. This belief structure works well, because to make a profit beyond our salaries we would have to charge our enrolled families an outrageously high rate. We all get that…I get it, and I don’t mind.
Yet…it is a delicate balance based on being fully enrolled, reducing expenses, etc. Any slight change can hugely impact the businesses profit, and thusly your income. Though this has never happened to me before, I had a family unable to return for second semester. (She is a part-time professor who has a reduction in classes she is teaching.) Ergo this year is the first year I feel like I might need to take a second job, or find another source of income. Part of me wants to express a frustration for the realities of FCC. I am working an ungodly amount of hours, and still can’t meet my families needs! We did increase our family size with the birth of our son in 2011, so I imagine that is impactful as well…
Without further ado, here are my “second income” ideas:
- Take a part time job
- start an etsy shop
- donate plasma
- promote my amateur photography business
Lets explore these ideas in greater detail…..
#1: The part time job:
Though I am a strong candidate for this opportunity (I have an awesome resume); I do not want to take even more time away from my family. In addition…I am already working 55-60 hours a week. Do I really want to work 70?!
#2: Start an etsy shop:
Though I am a good artist, and creative…I do not have a “craft” to sell…could I find one? Absolutely. Do I want to??? what about the net profit? Is the time & expenses going to outweigh the efforts?? not so sure.
#3: Donate Plasma:
Honestly for my situation, this seems the easiest solution. What I go in….read a book or whatever and pump my arm for an hour 2x a week? make 200 a month?? this idea is not sounding so bad; what mom couldn’t use an hour to themselves to catch up on reading?
#4: promote my amateur photography business:
This would be my ideal choice: to have a photography business operate parallel to my daycare. Afterall this idea is my long term professional goal. Even though this is my goal, I am merely happy exploring photography for personal growth right now. I do not feel as though I have a handle on my skills and cameras abilities well enough to charge someone an hourly rate for my work. I guess you could say the business is still in the infancy stage.
So why isn’t my first option to expand my daycare by enrolling another family??? I would love to…but my only available opening is for 1 day a week…who can do that? I did however post the opening just in case…
after reviewing my options: I am deciding to donate blood, and research an etsy shop. Who knows maybe I’ll find something I know I can do well to market.
I’ll keep you updated. Which brings me to my question..how many FCCP do you know who take on second sources of income?? Is this a common practice in the field?……