One of the biggest challenges facing working parents today is caring for their children. With more and more parents needing someone to watch over their kids, the market for child-care services is exploding. If you enjoy working with kids, a child-care service is one business you’re sure to find very rewarding, both financially and personally.

Whether you want to start a family-style child-care center in your home, a large center at a commercial site or a niche business like child transportation, our guide has got you covered. Loaded with proven strategies, valuable information and insider tips from business experts and successful child-care service owners, it tells you everything you need to know to start, run and grow your own lucrative child-care business, including:

Chapter 1

One of the biggest challenges facing working American parents today is caring for the children. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 13 percent of all families fit the traditional model of husband as wage-earner and wife as homemaker. In 61 percent of married-couple families, both husband and wife work outside the home. Six out of every 10 mothers of children under age 6 are employed, and the labor-force participation of women in their childbearing years continues to expand. As the number of working parents in America rises, so will the demand for child care.

Another issue that has an impact on child-care issues is the new, 24-hour global market. Occupations with a high number of employees working nights and weekends—such as janitorial, hospitality, customer service and technical support—are experiencing substantial growth, and workers in these fields are finding obtaining quality child care an even greater challenge than their 9-to-5 counterparts.