Starting a Part-Time Child-Care Service The market is there for this type of service--so here's how to find it.

Q: Would there be a market for a family child-care provider that is only open four days per week? What about weekends only?

A: Our 24/7 society with unlimited lifestyle choices creates a need for 24/7 services, including child care. Couple this demand with a shortage of available quality child care, and you have opportunities to serve parents who work nights and weekends, those who telecommute part of each week, single parents with child custody arrangements that don't work as decreed, and other parents who simply need time off for a holiday weekend. In addition, parents of children with special physical and educational needs also require child-care services.

So the chances are quite good there's a market in a community of any size for customized configurations of day care. A recent tally over a month's time of calls from parents to a Southwest Florida child-care agency found that one of 20 parents wanted weekend day care. But none of the 114 centers in the county offered weekend care.