These characteristics include the level of teacher education and specialized training, teacher wages, child-to-teacher ratios, teacher turnover, and administrator's prior experience.
Children today as young as three weeks of age are being placed in child care centers throughout the country. Group care has existed in this country and abroad for more than a hundred years; rarely did it extend fro children under the age of two. Times have changed, it is now the norm for children to be placed in care while parent(s) work or go to school. The statistics are astounding. Today's children in center based care whether three weeks or three years spend an average of ten hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year in child care (Child Care Bureau, 1997 ). It is not surprising with these kind of statistics that quality suffers. The learner will lay the foundation for what it takes to begin a quality child care center in this paper.
In order to be successful in any type of business, understanding the market that is to be served is the first essential step. In most newspapers or magazines, stories imply that there is an unmet demand for child care that all a person needs to do is open the doors to a new center and children will flood in, this is rarely the case. Owners of small businesses usually have limited resources to spend on marketing but child care centers need to perform thorough market evaluation prior to opening a center (U.S. Small Business, 2003). This will ensure that there is a sufficient demand to meet operating expenses of beginning a new business. Along with that there needs to be a sufficient amount of income brought in to meet quality standards.
A clear system needs to be developed and followed to ensure the success of any new child care center. Several different approaches can be taken, when deciding what kind of system needs to be put in place. One needs to look at the environment, human resources, structure, culture and outcomes when designing the system that is going to meet the needs of the community.