I am licensed. It's nice for the parents to know you are licensed because of the guidelines you need to adhere to. On the other hand licensing can be a pain in the way of busy work. I found that alot of what I already do as a mom is required through licensing with the exception that it must all be documented and though I read excessively about child development there are so many hours of continuing education (from approved lists) that must be provided.
Childcare is not your typical 8 hour day...it's usually much longer than that. When the kids leave the day is not over, you have to prepare for the next day as well as be a mommy. Some of the paperwork is mindless space taken up in my opinion. I will actually be going without my license if I open again solely due to this. Also, as a side note, my neighbor does daycare and is not licensed though she was an early childhood/special ed. teacher. She's great. What is boils down to is quality not the quantity of the busy work needed to be done. I also know of licensed providers that were able to use their license as a "smokescreen", they had no business watching kids, but their paperwork was up to par.
The best resource you can look into for licensing is your DCFS branch...they are in charge and will send you a booklet on how to do it and what needs to done for it.
J.