Good to be entrepreneuring but although there is a baby boom the market has become very competitive. Our local crèche has reduced its fees from €1250 to €950. And has also started offering part time places - something they never had to do during the boom. A friend of a friend set up one some years ago and said the only way she could make any money at all was by employing people on back to work schemes (FAS) so she didn't have to pay them a full salary - she had very mixed experiences with staff; She was also running this crèche from her own house so didn't have direct rental costs.
It’s a very long day, you need to be open 8am - 6pm minimum and many crèches have longer opening hours, which means a long day for you unless you can afford to stagger staff hours.
In order to avail of the Government grants you have to have a certain number of Baby places, the staff ratio for babies less than 1 year old must be 1 staff for every 3 babies and you cannot exceed this. Also Health and Safety are very strict on hygiene, parking spaces etc.
Some of the larger chains can charge higher fees but I think overall for a small independent one you have to be flexible.
You are 'doubly' exposed to the effects of the recession as if one part of a couple lose their job and are unemployed they may cancel their kids' crèche.
Anyway good to see someone getting out and being enterprising!
good luck with it.