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Career decision for my wife

CPA

CPA

Elite Member
I'll try to keep this short.

My wife has worked in retail for almost 20 years. She has been a store manager at various retail stores for the past 10. Of course, she has greater aspirations (District Manager, etc.), but she is getting a little impatient and is getting tired of all of the weekend hours, vacation blackouts, holiday work and such (DMs usually have it better, though there is more travel). Her current DM and her spoke very candidly last night (their both helping another store in Dallas this week). Her DM, who has known my wife for some time but just starting working with her recently confided that she plans on retiring within 3 years and has told my wife's peers that my wife is the leading candidate, in her mind, as her replacement. This does not guarantee anything, by any means, but it will help when the outgoing DM nominates my wife to be her replacement.

Now, recently, we had an opportunity open up to us to start a Daycare business, with my wife running the business and me continuing to work at my job. We would have to pump in some good money as it will be a start up. The opportunity opened up because my dad has a building he is going to empty out and lease to us at a good rate. A business is something my wife and I have wanted to do for a long time.

so here's the pros and cons as I see it:

Work in retail hoping to get DM position within 3 years
Pros:
Opens more career opportunities
More money, bonuses & perks
More stable hours (many of which can be worked out of the house)
Weekends freed up (usually)

Cons:
More travel
May have to wait for up to 3 years and not guaranteed


Open own business (It's a daycare)
Pros:
Self-employed (I consider this a pro)
Stable hours and all holidays and weekends off
Could be good income producer
We're relatively young, so if business fails she could easily get another job and we have time to recover financially

Cons:
Large risk, especially with 4 kids
Potentially lower income, especially first year or two of business


So, which route would you take?
 
if you have a chance to own your own business, go for it! you don't want to be stuck working for DA MAN for the rest of your life. i'm sure she'll be happy with the change of scenery. GL!
 
daycare brings in good money. well depends on the area...but what the heck..it'll be a struggle, but im sure u guys can make it work
 
if she's sick of retail, let her start this new career. 20 years is a long time. What company does she work for (would she lose any significant benefits)?
 
What state are you in? Have you checked the demographics for the area? Are the other day cares around full with waiting lists? My wife does this job and it's not for the money, but for the satisfaction of working with kids. 4 kids IMO wouldn't make it any harder because it is a Day care 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Stark
if she's sick of retail, let her start this new career. 20 years is a long time. What company does she work for (would she lose any significant benefits)?
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Just to clarify, the decision is solely hers. I, of course, will give my input, but she has to make the decision.

She currently works for The Children's Place, but has worked for Lane Bryant, Old Navy, the now defunct Service Merchandise and others, most in a managerial role. Benefits would be lost, but could be picked up through my job.
 
Originally posted by: Monoman
What state are you in? Have you checked the demographics for the area? Are the other day cares around full with waiting lists? My wife does this job and it's not for the money, but for the satisfaction of working with kids. 4 kids IMO wouldn't make it any harder because it is a Day care 🙂
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TX, and yes we have worked the demographics. Pro - high dollar area, many lawyers and doctor types. Cons - competitors are not full.

The kids will not be a problem. Three of them are in school, the other could go with her. She would easily be able to leave early enough to meet them after school when they get home (about 4:30).
 
IMO..

Life is way way to short. Your wife should go with her heart. If she enjoys being her own boss and enjoys working with children then she should persue daycar.

I've seen and worked with people who don't like or enjoy their jobs but their afraid to try take a chance at life. In my opinion, they are empty souls and it's a shame.

Finally, I look at my own father when I need inspiration. He has been self employed for years now and he loves it. Him and my mom have a cafe and they do extremely well . They wouldn't have it any other way, and if they wouldn't have taken the chance that opportunity to own a cafe would have passed them by.
 
It seems like it would be an easy decision if its something she wants to do. You are young enough to recover from a failed venture but also young enough to put the time and effort in to make it what you want it to be.
 
Originally posted by: CPA
Originally posted by: Monoman
What state are you in? Have you checked the demographics for the area? Are the other day cares around full with waiting lists? My wife does this job and it's not for the money, but for the satisfaction of working with kids. 4 kids IMO wouldn't make it any harder because it is a Day care 🙂
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TX, and yes we have worked the demographics. Pro - high dollar area, many lawyers and doctor types. Cons - competitors are not full.

The kids will not be a problem. Three of them are in school, the other could go with her. She would easily be able to leave early enough to meet them after school when they get home (about 4:30).
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at least om SA, it's fairly easy to get a day care licence. Some of the kids you should be able to get will be an after school class so get a company van and pick em up! 🙂 at least in the past 2 day cares I had knowledge on.
 
Run the numbers on the daycare biz. I know several people who've tried it and lost a lot of money. You can get sued and/or shut down for the strangest things.

And if you're looking to not work weekends/holidays, don't be an entrepreneur. You'll be spending that time on the business details that you couldn't do during working hours. It takes a long time to get to the stage where you can relax.
 
Life is so simple when everything can be decided by ATOT polls 😀

No, but seriously, I think the daycare thing sounds good...her current job just seems sort of "blah" to me, and burnout sucks.
 
Yeah... I think having a daycare is a pretty poor business model. What about all the barf and kiddie-poo? What about getting sued for nothing? I'd wait 3 years and see what happens - but knowing how politics works, your wife will get screwed over the week before she gets the DM job 😉
 
If you need full-time employees to make the daycare work, then don't do it. If she can do it herself, I'd give it a shot.

I had a family member do the daycare thing and she got burned out pretty quickly. Parents wouldn't pick their kids up on time because "something came up" and instead of showing up at 5PM, they would sometimes not come until 6 or even 6:30! What can you do? You can't put them in a cab and send them home, so she was stuck. She was sick all the time because parents wouldn't keep their sick kids home and of course the other kids got sick as well. It was a rare day when every kid was healthy.

She wanted to hire some help but for what she could afford to pay ($7-8/hr) she couldn't get dependable help. So she went through a series of people which became more trouble than it was worth because they would keep calling off or quitting, or else were just not competent or suitable for the job. She was able to run everything herself but at the cost of no days off. She had hoped that a dependable helper could run things on his/her own for an occasional half-day or day. If she had had so many kids that helpers were mandatory, she couldn't have kept things going.

I'm all for self-employment. But from my observations, the daycare gig is really tough.
 
Originally posted by: badmouse
Run the numbers on the daycare biz. I know several people who've tried it and lost a lot of money. You can get sued and/or shut down for the strangest things.

And if you're looking to not work weekends/holidays, don't be an entrepreneur. You'll be spending that time on the business details that you couldn't do during working hours. It takes a long time to get to the stage where you can relax.
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I will take care of the business/financial details. I am not so concerned with this issue. And I have run the numbers, but numbers mean much to nothing when you finally open the doors. We know what we need to break even, but you can't force people to use your service.
 
Originally posted by: kranky
If you need full-time employees to make the daycare work, then don't do it. If she can do it herself, I'd give it a shot.

I had a family member do the daycare thing and she got burned out pretty quickly. Parents wouldn't pick their kids up on time because "something came up" and instead of showing up at 5PM, they would sometimes not come until 6 or even 6:30! What can you do? You can't put them in a cab and send them home, so she was stuck. She was sick all the time because parents wouldn't keep their sick kids home and of course the other kids got sick as well. It was a rare day when every kid was healthy.

She wanted to hire some help but for what she could afford to pay ($7-8/hr) she couldn't get dependable help. So she went through a series of people which became more trouble than it was worth because they would keep calling off or quitting, or else were just not competent or suitable for the job. She was able to run everything herself but at the cost of no days off. She had hoped that a dependable helper could run things on his/her own for an occasional half-day or day. If she had had so many kids that helpers were mandatory, she couldn't have kept things going.

I'm all for self-employment. But from my observations, the daycare gig is really tough.
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hmmm...good thoughts.

It sounds though that you're family member ran it from their house. Is that correct?

My wife already has planned out a "Wellness Room", something that is becoming more popular with daycares. They isolate the sick kids from the rest and still allow revenue generation.
 
does the business venture have to be daycare?

i voted for entrepreneurism. getting the location at a very good price is a strong factor for opening a business.

also, with all that experience, if the new business does not work out, it sounds like your wife could get a DM job somewhere else. would you be able to find work if the business doesn't work out? if you're a cpa i think finding work would probably not be a problem.

what would be the most you'd lose if the business failed? and would it just be money?
 
Originally posted by: maziwanka
what about opening a montessori? one of my friend's parents currently do that and they are doing quite well.....
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It's a franchise, though, and I personally would like to stay away from a franchise. I could get in with less money starting myself and don't have to pay royalties.
 
Entrepreneur

I had forgotten how retarded retail managers were til I picked up a weekend retail job...Basically you only get promoted if you are stupid and like to kiss ass.
 
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