Have you ever heard of someone doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons? Most of us can think of someone who has been guilty of that. There are a lot of questions you ask yourself when you start the planning for setting up your own day care center.

You have to spend time on issues like location, financing, market share and licensing. But there is one fundamental question maybe more important than all of those things. And that is the question, why are you doing this?

The objective you are looking to achieve in doing all the hard work of starting a day care center will be a big factor in when or if you consider your hard work to be a success.

In any big operation whether it is starting a business, going on a diet, invading a country or learning a skill, you have to know in advance what your definition of “winning” is so you know when you have arrived and when you can call yourself a success. And what winning looks like to you when you build your own day care center will be determined by your reasons for starting one.

There are a wide diversity of reasons people launch out and create their own day care center rather than just accept that the day care centers already in existence are enough.

Some reasons for taking this step might include:

• Because the day cares you have had your own children in have not done the job so why not just do it yourself?
• To do for a living something you love to do anyway which is to take care of children.
• To own your own business and be the boss.
• Because you know there is a need for a day care in your community and you feel you can provide that service.
• To make a lot of money.
• To provide a safe place for children while their parents do their jobs and to provide a place where they can learn social skills in a nurturing setting.

It is not for this article or anyone else to judge why you set out to start a day care center. But the simple process of putting down in a sentence or two as we did here exactly what your reasons are for wanting to start a day care center is a process that could be crucial to your success.

For one thing, starting your own business is hard work. In addition, there is always a risk in doing something new like this. Statistics tell us that a big percentage of new businesses fail within the first year. There will be long hours getting the day care built and ready to open. There will be struggles and frustrations getting and keeping good people, building relationships with suppliers and building your customer base. There will be set backs such as licensing problems, issues with your physical space or emergencies such a hurt or sick child that can come up at a moment’s notice.

We don’t mention these things to discourage you. Rather its good to know the dangers and the challenges going in so they don’t broadside you when the going gets tough. But moreover, if you have a firm grasp on your motivations for starting your own day care center and you can “keep your eye on the prize” despite the problems and challenges, your chances of success go through the roof.

So you are wise to spend some time in reflection and understand exactly why you want to own your own day care center. Then when you know what the prize is that you are going for, go for it with all your might so you can know great success.