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How much could I make by running my own in-home
Joy
School
?
If you charge children $65/month (a pretty good deal for parents in many areas) to come to Joy School two mornings a week and have 6 children enrolled in your program, you’ll receive $390.00/month or $3510 for a 9-month school year. After you subtract out your $150 one-time start-up fee and your $170 for franchise fees ($85x2 for two semesters), you’d gross about $3200 for your first year. And this is for working just 6 hours a week (Joy School typically runs 2.5 hours, two mornings a week and it typically takes an experienced teacher about ½ hour to prepare each lesson).* Unlike many new businesses, you’d make a good profit after expenses in your first year. Then your next year, since you don’t have to pay your startup fee again and since you’d likely increase your group size, you’d make more money. If you had a group of 8 children in year two, you’d make $4510 after expenses ($65 x 8 children x 9 months = $4680; subtract $170 for franchise fees). You’d charge children separately for their dues/CDs so the per-child cost of Joy School is not included in these figures.
As time goes on, most Joy School operators add more children to their groups, teach more than one Joy School group, and/or increase their tuition as the good reputation of their preschool spreads. For example, with one group of 10 children paying $85/month, you’d make about $7480 for the year (after taking out your franchise expenses). Of course, if you chose to teach more than one Joy School group (i.e. one morning class and one afternoon class), you could make more money. You can double, triple or even quadruple the money you make as you offer more groups and/or make your groups a little larger. **
If you figure out how much you’d be making per hour in your first year, it would be almost $20/hour. If you increase your class size to 10 children and your tuition to $85/month (as in the scenario above), you’d be making almost $40/hour.*** If you’re teaching your own child as part of your group, it works out very nicely to be making money rather than spending money on your own child’s preschool experience. And this would be money you can make without having to leave your home or find childcare for your children. Plus you basically get paid vacations since you are paid the same amount every month by parents, regardless of holiday breaks when you don’t hold Joy School.
Another thing to bear in mind is that when you run a business in your home, you can write off part of your mortgage or rent payments when you do your taxes. You can also write off your supplies and all expenses related to running your Joy School. Many Joy School operators find that their tax savings are substantial.
But the most important payoff involved in running your own Joy School is that you’re using your own unique skills to make a real difference in the lives of many children and families. You’ll have a special relationship with many young people and will participate in teaching them the social skills and values that will help them be successful in life.
* As your actual income is dependant on the amount you charge for tuition, how successful you are in recruiting students, and the overall quality of your preschool, the Joy School Company cannot guarantee any particular amount of income.
** We don’t recommend that you try to teach a group larger than 12 children in your home.
*** This estimate is based on working 6 hours a week – 5 teaching hours and one hour of lesson preparation – for 31 weeks (9 months times 4 weeks in the month is 36. Subtract 5 weeks for school vacation weeks and holidays minus 2 weeks at Christmas, 1 in the spring, 1 in the fall, 1 week worth of random holidays.) If you take 31 weeks times 6 hours each week, you come up with 186 hours for the semester. Then if you divide the money you make in a year by 186 hours, you come up with the figures included above.
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Why is it better to become a
Joy
School
franchise rather than just running my own little preschool, making up my own curriculum and using the good craft and activity books out there?
As a
Joy
School
franchise you get some very important benefits:
- You get to use the
Joy
School
name.
Joy
School
has been around for over 30 years now and over 250,000 children have participated in a
Joy
School
program.
Joy
School
is a well-respected name and the curriculum has been tried and tested by thousands of satisfied families. By attaching the
Joy
School
name to your program, it will probably be easier for you to recruit participants for your preschool.
- You get a tried and true curriculum that teaches children important social skills and values that will help them become successful and happy people. You get to lead children through a series of themes backed by fun stories, songs and crafts that help reinforce positive ideas and skills.
- You get start-up materials so that you don’t have to figure out what forms you need on your own or spend time creating registration forms, recruitment fliers, brochures about your program, etc.
- You get a full set of lesson plans, spelling out everything you need to do to prepare and present each lesson. Without prepared lesson plans, you would have to spend countless hours researching and preparing your own crafts, stories, songs, etc. With the
Joy
School
curriculum, it only takes an experienced teacher about a half an hour to prepare each lesson.
- You get support. You can access the Joy School Company website for new ideas any time and you can contact us for advice and help whenever you need it. You become part of a network of professional
Joy
School
operators who share ideas and learn from each other.
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What education and experience does it take to set up a successful
Joy
School
?
The best
Joy
School
teachers are those who’ve had considerable experience teaching and caring for young children. Many in-home commercial
Joy
School
teachers are former elementary or preschool teachers. Some have taught
Joy
School
as a co-op with other mothers and got their teaching experience that way. The most important qualifications of a
Joy
School
operator are
- an understanding and appreciation of the
Joy
School
curriculum
- experience working with children and a good natural rapport with children
- an ability to work well with parents
- good organizational skills and basic computer skills
- a sincere desire to provide a wonderful preschool experience to children and to involve their parents in their preschool education
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Are there other suggestions or requirements involved in setting up my own
Joy
School
?
Space: We suggest that in-home
Joy
School
teachers have a large enough home so that they can set up a dedicated area for their
Joy
School
(a spare bedroom, basement area, converted garage, etc.). It can work to set up and take down
Joy
School
materials every time you do
Joy
School
, but it’s easier and gives more of a sense of a “real” preschool experience to the children if you are able to dedicate one room or area to
Joy
School
. In this area, you’ll need space for a rug or circle time mat for children to sit on and wall space for hanging the
Joy
School
calendar, weather chart and other materials. You can make the room very welcoming and cheerful with inexpensive posters, a chalkboard or dry-erase board, etc. You’ll probably also want to use other areas of your house. Many
Joy
School
teachers use their kitchen table for art projects and snack and a couch for story time plus a child’s room or play room for free play time and a backyard for outdoor time.
License: In some states, you need to obtain a “family day care provider” license in order to run a preschool in your home. There is no separate category for preschools, so you have to meet the requirements (which are generally very minimal) for holding a daycare in your home. Some states only require that you get a license if you have more than a certain number of children or if they will be with you for more than a certain number of hours a day. You may not need a license if you state that you’re providing an educational program, not day care. If your state does require you to have a license, don’t worry, the fee per year is usually less than $100 and the requirements typically involve attending a 2 hour meeting, filling out some forms, and having someone visit your home to be sure it meets basic safety standards.
Insurance: You generally don’t need special insurance to run a preschool in your home but we recommend that you have all parents sign a waiver stating that they won’t hold you liable for any common injuries that may occur while their child is with you.
Permission: If you rent, you need permission from your landlord to run a preschool in your home. If you own your own home, it’s generally advisable to give a nice note to your neighbors, letting them know about what you’re doing and asking them to let you know if there are any issues regarding noise or parking during drop-off and pick-up.
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What if I want to take a break from running my
Joy
School
for a few years?
No problem. Many
Joy
School
operators need to take a break for various reasons (new babies, moving, just needing a rest, etc.). During the time that you are taking a break from
Joy
School
, you don’t pay your franchise fees or dues. When you want to start up again, you don’t have to pay your start-up fee again. Instead, you just pay a $50 restart fee (pays for the lesson updates and new forms, newsletters, etc. that have become available in your absence) and resume paying your franchise fees and dues semester by semester and getting the support and materials you need from the Joy School Company.
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What if I already run a preschool and want to enhance my program by adding the
Joy
School
curriculum?
No problem. The
Joy
School
curriculum can be added into just about any preschool schedule very effectively. The
Joy
School
curriculum can give your preschool music, craft ideas, book lists and more to go with a series of themes that teach children important social skills and reinforce basic values and positive character traits. We supply you with all the lesson plans you need as well as CDs with fun songs to go with each theme. We also supply ideas and newsletters to encourage parent participation and understanding of the
Joy
School
curriculum. Moving forward, we provide ongoing support, helping you with problems that arise and offering new ideas and the opportunity to network with other
Joy
School
operators through our website.
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How much do I have to pay to use the
Joy
School
curriculum in my preschool?
A small preschool with 12 or fewer children would pay the same as the above rates for an in-home
Joy
School
. For larger preschools, the start-up fee is slightly increased and each teacher must become a member of valuesparenting.com and pay the $50 lifetime membership fee (only members have the legal right to use
Joy
School
curriculum or the
Joy
School
name). The franchise fee increases based on the number of children you have enrolled so that a large preschool with considerable income would pay more for their franchise fee than a fledgling in-home preschool. The per-child CD cost stays the same regardless of the size of your group.
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What are the benefits of using the
Joy
School
curriculum in my preschool?
- You get to use the
Joy
School
name.
Joy
School
has been around for more than 30 years and over 250,000 children have participated in a
Joy
School
program.
Joy
School
is a well-respected name and the curriculum has been tried and tested by thousands of satisfied families. By attaching the
Joy
School
name to your program, it will probably be easier for you to recruit participants for your preschool.
- You get a tried and true curriculum that teaches children important social skills and values that will help them become successful and happy people. The curriculum leads children through a series of units or themes backed by fun stories, songs and crafts that help reinforce positive ideas and skills. Rather than offering a hodge-podge of fun themes, your preschool will set itself apart by offering a series of units on such meaningful subjects as respecting the earth, appreciating and taking good care of their bodies, feeling good about themselves, setting and working towards simple goals, sharing with and serving others, etc.
- You get a full set of lesson plans, spelling out all the quick and simple things that need to be done to prepare each lesson. This makes life much easier for the teachers in your preschool and helps ensure quality content. With the
Joy
School
curriculum, it only takes an experienced teacher about a half an hour to prepare a high-quality lesson.
- You get support. You can access the Joy School Company website for new ideas any time and you can contact us for advice and help whenever you need it. You become part of a network of professional
Joy
School
operators who share ideas and learn from each other.
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Where did the
Joy
School
curriculum come from? What are the names of all the units involved?
For full information on the
Joy
School
curriculum, please go to our partner website, valuesparenting.com.
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Who runs the Joy School Company?
Jared and Saren Loosli run the Joy School Company. Saren is the daughter of Richard and Linda Eyre, best-selling authors of parenting books and founders of Homebase and the original
Joy
School
co-ops. Saren did her Masters degree in Education at Harvard, focusing on curriculum development with a focus on character education and social skills development. She ran a company in Boston providing educational character-based after school programs for the lower elementary school grades and went on to develop and conduct training conferences and sessions across the country for people working in preschool and after school programs. Most importantly, Saren and Jared have practical experience thanks to their five children (one
Joy
School
graduate, two currently attending
Joy
School
and twin baby boys). Over the years that Saren’s taught
Joy
School
to her own children and worked with preschool teachers in a variety of settings, she gathered a lot of ideas and information to help bring the
Joy
School
materials to the next higher level of quality. Her husband, Jared, is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has worked in marketing for the last 6 years. With his expertise, Saren and Jared hope to offer
Joy
School
to a much larger market.
A word from Saren and Jared:
Our vision is that in a few years, we’ll see Joy School-based preschools all over the place. We hope that you’ll help spread the word about the benefits of running a commercial
Joy
School
. Our goal is to help motivated and educated stay-at-home mothers make extra income in a meaningful way as they provide a wonderful program to other families in the area. We’ve done a lot of research on the many preschool approaches out there and have seen the wonderful things that
Joy
School
has instilled in our own children. We firmly believe that there is no better curriculum than the
Joy
School
curriculum. For the sake of our own children and of the many other children out there who could benefit from
Joy
School
, our goal is to continually improve
Joy
School
materials and expand the reach of the
Joy
School
curriculum.
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What are
Joy
School
operators saying?
“I did a
Joy
School
with each of my 4 older children and loved the curriculum but I couldn’t find a group to do
Joy
School
for my fifth little guy. Everyone wanted to send their kids to a preschool. I was going to do the same – but my husband said ‘Joy school has been the best thing for our kids – please just do it one more time!” So I kept trying – and after showing the curriculum to several other mothers, they were really excited about it, but didn’t feel confident in their teaching abilities and asked me if I could just be the teacher and they’d pay me. I was so glad when I found that I could do
Joy
School
this way. Now I’ve got a nice little group of 5 kids and I’m making a little extra money while giving my son exactly the preschool experience I want him to have.”
“I was selling Mary Kay and doing day care for one little girl 8 hours a day 5 days a week to make extra money. It occurred to me that I might be able to make as much money in less hours if I ran my own little preschool and I was so excited when I found this option! I did
Joy
School
co-ops with my older kids and loved the curriculum so I searched the web to see if there was a way to do
Joy
School
as a preschool instead of a co-op. I love being able to use a curriculum I know and trust and provide a really good program for other families around here – plus make extra money while teaching my own little boy and others. It really only takes me about a ½ hour to prepare each lesson and I’m having so much fun with my little group! The parents really appreciate it as well and we always have fun at our monthly parent meetings.”
“I’ve been doing a commercial
Joy
School
for years and I’ve always had a waiting list. I run 2 sessions, one morning session for 3-year-olds and one afternoon session for 4-5-year olds. I keep it to 10 children in my three-year-old class and 12 in my older class and that works well for me. I’ve got all my marked-up lesson plans in a big binder so I just have to glance over the lesson plans each time. I’ve transformed my garage into my own little preschool classroom (and wrote off all the expenses on my taxes!) and we’ve got a great system going here.
Joy
School
keeps me young and since my grandkids live far away, I’m so glad to be able to have all these young people in my life!”
“When I first started my
Joy
School
, I only had 4 children enrolled but now in my second year, I have 8. Once the word spread about how great my program was, recruiting was pretty easy. I put an add in the paper each spring and post fliers in the local elementary school and the library – but mostly I get students by word of mouth. When you run a good program at a good price – word spreads! Once parents come see the fun room I have set up in my basement, observe a lesson, and look at the flier I give them about the
Joy
School
philosophy, they’re hooked.”
“I used to be a preschool teacher in a Montessori preschool and then once I had kids who were preschool age, I started a little preschool in my home. It was fine but I felt like I needed some more focus to my curriculum and I wanted help putting together fun and meaningful lessons – I was spending way too long on lesson prep. When I found
Joy
School
, it was perfect. I loved the different “Joys” and so did the parents when I presented the idea to them. I like being able to teach important concepts and social skills to kids in an organized way and it’s so nice to have the lesson plans all set for
me.
”
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What if I have other questions?
Please send your questions to Saren Eyre Loosli at saren@joyschoolco.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you for your interest!
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FAQ