Childcare for Small Business Owners
Posted by servScene on July 31, 2009
If you own a small business, child care is especially important for you — not to mention especially complicated. If you are like most small business owners, you are likely to work long hours and some off hours, which makes it difficult to find child care that will fit with your schedule.
Your options are typically day care, nanny care, babysitters, family, or some mix of those four. Day care and preschool or after school care centers are typically only open during the hours when most people work — for instance, from 6:30 in the morning to 6:30 in the evening during the week. This doesn’t leave much room for working late or working on weekends.
If you hire a nanny, on the other hand, you may be able to have much more flexibility over the hours of childcare provided, but the cost may also be prohibitive. Babysitters are much more affordable but typically not as experienced, and may not be able to recognize the difference between your educational European toys and cheap knock-offs from Wal-Mart.
Family, of course, is familiar and often free resource for childcare, but it also comes with the potential for misunderstandings, miscommunications, and hurt feelings.
A very few small business owners actually get to provide their own care for their children, by working at home by the day (instead of at an office). But this is hardly the norm, not to mention it comes with a whole host of problems of its own, most of them having to do with trying to juggle kids and work at the same time.
Finding childcare is just one of the challenges that you are likely to face as a small business owner, but it certainly doesn’t make owning a small business any less rewarding. With a little creativity and problem-solving skills, you should be able to find a solution that allows you to run your business AND ensure that your kids have the best possible care.
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