Hello there,
Me and business partner ran a day care centre when i lived in Yorkshire. We had loads of interest. We tried to keep the costs as low as possible as most of the people who showed interest needed us 5 days a week. We charged £12 to £15 per day.
You will have to look into the legislation in your area in regards to the premises, that was the only time we had a problem, as sheffield didn't have any other day care centres, but if you keep your centre in line with boarding kennel standards and expectations you should be fine!
I hope that has helped a little, if you want any more info, please feel free to get in touch xxx

Another thing to concentrate on with todays current society is security. Definitely make sure you have somebody manning the front at all times. I only say this, because in recent months several animal rescues including a couple of blue cross animal centres have had bad people actually have the audacity to walk into the rescues, take the dog they want out of the kennels and load them into a van and away. I'm not sure if anybody got caught. :S I bloody hope so!

Just be quite careful with who comes in/out, and also if you are having a webcam link make sure you have the owners permission. Some people will love the idea of being able to see their dogs, other people may prefer it if others cannot see them. You could solve this, by perhaps having a log in needed to view the webcam so its not available to all the public. - set it as private.

It's just a thought, as the people who stole the rescue dogs are clearly scum. I just would hate to think they saw an expensive looking english bulldog on your webcam, and decided to pinch him/her.

I ahve not used day care myself, but would def consider it if the need arised. Here is a good site to look on, they work in my local area and are very successful and well known.

http://www.happiathome.co.uk/index.htm

I'm the original poster of this thread using this new username as, if you'd not already guessed, since posting this thread, I took the plunge and did it - Day Care 4 Paws is now up and running - very early days but we're getting there!

We had our Open Day on April 1st so we've almost been going for 1 month now. Sadly the local rags haven't published any of my editorial/press releases so thats been a bummer as was hoping the quirky nature of any new business in the area opening might've done it but sadly not. So if anyone in County Durham or surrounding counties knows an editor or journalist, PLEASE let me know!!

Paying to advertise in the local papers is crazy expensive and something we only did once on the run up to the Open Day and our mini questionnaires asking people where they found out about our Open Day from revealed that out of those who filled them in, only ONE person ticked the newspaper advert - certainly NOT worth the money we paid for the advert it would seem.

It is difficult getting word out and about as there'll be hundreds of dog owners in my area that still don't even know we're there - its targetting those that we really need to do but one step at a time!

Try asking the vets in your local area if they will put up a small poster and keep your business cards/leaflets available for people to pick up.

Vets are usually a good source of clients for animal related services