Just a quick blog post to let you know that I’ve “unlocked” the mysteries of how to get quality families to enroll in your program, and I’m revealing it ALL during my brand new 5-Week Intensive Enrollment Bootcamp! This is a “virtual” bootcamp featuring live coaching and training calls, an online resource center, and tons of awesome bonuses! Go here to learn more:
If you want a FAST program that’s affordable and guaranteed to help you get fully enrolled, you’ve found it! This is for child care center owners, family daycare owners, directors, managers, and anyone who wants to get better at marketing and promoting their child care program. Please join me! The Bootcamp begins on Thursday, August 26th, so don’t delay!
Daycare Centers or Home Daycare Programs:
Whether you’re seeking full or part-time care, either of these options could provide your children with a summer of fun. Many programs not only offer terrific activities on site, they also offer field trips and transportation to outside activities, such as trips to the zoo and swimming lessons.
Teen Babysitting: Another option could be a part-time teenage babysitter (with a car) who can take your kids to the pool, the library, the playground, and other fun places. If you choose this option, be sure to hire a responsible teen with a clean driving record. Ask for references, then check them.
Day Camps:
The best resources for finding camps in your area, are more than likely your local Parks and Recreation, Athletic Clubs, Swimming Pools, Dance and Gymnastics Academies, Community Churches and Children’s Museums. By choosing a variety of camps and alternating them, your child can experience a well rounded summer by attending those that offer sports, arts and crafts or educational activities.
Summer School or Enrichment Classes :
If you’re looking to enrich your child’s summer with learning, you may want to check with your Community College, Parks and Recreation Department or Local School District. Typically a variety of courses are offered from all three resources on topics varying from acting and writing to foreign languages and math.
Regardless of the type of care you choose, be prepared by having a back up plan in the event that the class, camp or center is closed or canceled due to lack of enrollment or already filled to capacity.
Above all else, when you are selecting care for your child at any level, it’s a good idea to ask the following questions:
For small or private facilities:
How long has the business, organization, class or camp been established?
Do they have references?
For all types of facilities:
Can you tour the facility prior to enrolling?
Do the teachers, aides, coaches and providers have background checks?
How many children are enrolled?
What are the child to adult ratios?
How are illness or injuries handled?
What are the discipline policies?
What safety precautions are taken regarding the arrival and departure of your child?
With a little planning and thought, you and your child can experience a summer filled with fun activities.
If you’re a childcare provider, here are some tips to get ready for summertime play:
1) Ask parents to bring cool clothing to keep on hand
2) Keep the children out of the sun during the hottest time of the day. Good times to play outside in summer are from 9-11 a.m. and 3-6 p.m.
3) Check all outside toys and play structures for loose or missing parts. Do regular cleanings of toys & play structures with eco-friendly cleaner, a scrubby sponge, & a spray hose.
4) Walk your fence line and check for loose or missing boards or nails
5) Check trees with low large limbs for splits which could fall if pulled on
6) Fill water bottles ¾ full the night before and freeze. Have the children make a name label put to on their bottles. Place the bottles in a box or on a tray outside and encourage the kids to drink 2-4 bottles of water each day.
7) If having trouble getting the kids to drink water, add some lemon or orange slices or make kool-aid or juice ice cubes to add to drinking water
Serve fruit smoothies, milkshakes or POPSICLES!
9) Coat everyone well with Sunscreen (Have a signed authorization form prior to application)
10) Fire up the sprinkler (if allowed by your licensing agency)
11) Keep a small first aid kit outdoors
12) Encourage bathroom use before going outdoors to prevent children being unsupervised.
13) Create a separate list of outdoor rules i.e. No one leaves the yard, no climbing on the fence, no throwing except for balls, shoes off before reentering the house, etc. Go over the rules the first few days of outdoor play.
14) Do not apply bug repellent to the children unless authorized in writing and requested by parents.
15) If you have your home sprayed for pests, check to make sure that it is safe for children and pets and confirm what precautions you need to take when the children go outdoors after being sprayed.
16) Do not fertilize your plants or lawn during the week, do this on the weekend to allow time for the fertilizer to dissolve.
17) Encourage indoors toys to stay in and outdoor toys to stay out.
18) Offer fun yet messy activities such as sidewalk chalk, finger-painting and play dough.
19) Provide safe outdoor activities such as a child friendly play structure, sand box; ride on toys and balls. Set up sporting stations with a mini basketball hoop or cones for mini soccer games.
20) Keep a cellular or cordless phone outdoors so you can be available to parents as needed, while being able to supervise outdoor play at all times.
If you’re thinking about starting your own business in 2010, you owe it to yourself to check out this great website. My friend Matt interviews over 20 experts on all different types of businesses, and he recently interviewed me on how to start a daycare business.
The winter holiday season is a GREAT time to promote your child care program. Here are four easy ways to tie into the holidays, and get some great publicity for your center. The key thing to remember is, it’s all about your community. Learn about what’s going on in your community, and tie into existing events…or create brand new events that really get your name out there!
1)Research all the child-related events in your local area, and choose one or two to tie into.It helps if you can partner with a large non-profit in your town, like the Rotary Club or Jaycees, because the local media is more likely to pick up on your story if you are raising money for a good cause.
For example, in our town, I just helped my child care center partner with the Rotary Club during its annual Santa on the Green event. We held a raffle that raised $520 towards the Rotary Foundation, and a staff member dressed up as “Elf” handed out cookies to all kids waiting in line. The cookies were given in cute bags with our logo on them. We received 3 mentions in the local paper and one photo.
2)Hold a canned food drive, a toy drive, or a clothing drive (i.e. used winter coats and boots).Do a press release letting everyone know about the drive, where to bring the items, and who it’s benefitting.
3)Host a party featuring Santa, at your facility.Invite the community to come, provide refreshments, photos with Santa, etc. for anyone in the community.
4)Give away a complimentary Holiday Gift, such as a children’s book or educational toy. You can get cute postcard-sized glossy cards printed very inexpensively (I use VistaPrint), and hand out the promotional cards to local retailers’ for their counters. We placed cards at our local bookstore, the children’s hair salon, Gymboree, and children’s consignment shops.
With a little creativity, you can find some really fun ways to promote your program and get a big boost in name recognition, leading to more enrollments in the long run.
You’re invited to join me and my friend
Julie Bartkus for the first ever, one-of-a-kind
holiday party for child care professionals!
This party will take place via a LIVE conference
call. No special equipment is required to join
us. All you need is a telephone.
During this call we will be featuring several guests
who will fill your notepads with ideas that you can
implement immediately to promote your child care
program and have a holiday season that really
sizzles!
These ideas and strategies are guaranteed to propel
your child care program to the next level of success
in 2010!
*********************************
The party is tomorrow, December 10th! Don’t delay!
P.S. If you’re looking for ways to take your child
care business to the next level, or simply survive the
current challenging economy, you must not miss this call.
Plus, we’re going to have a lot of fun!
“Snow day for kids” - that was the headline from Austin, MN yesterday (12/8/09). Winter is coming on strong and schools are beginning to cancel classes. However, what happens to the children? If school gets cancelled, mom and dad will probably have to go to work anyway, so what do you do with the kids? Could you add a “snow day drop-in” service to your daycare to help these parents?In today’s economy, parents just can’t afford to take a day off just because it is snowing. Most people are already overworked and fearful of downsizing so if you can provide them a means to still work and know their children are well taken care you can earn great money. Parents may even be willing to pay over normal daycare rates for such a service.
If you live in an area of the country where the snow falls enough to cancel school from time to time you may be sitting on a gold mine. If you have open slots available now in your facility or home, you can start accepting drop-ins right away. Just make sure your state’s licensing rules allow for you to offer drop-in care without any special rules or regulations.
So whom should you offer these extra spots to? First, offer it to parents who have siblings already in your child care center. It makes sense and you may have cared for these kids when they were young. It may be nice to see them again.
Second, advertise on a first come, first served basis. For this, you can probably charge well over your normal rate. You will get more people than you can handle anyways, so pick the ones that will benefit you the most. Realize it is going to cost you extra and you are doing them a huge favor.
Another great idea may be to have a “snow membership” for a small monthly fee during the winter months. Parents can pre-register their kids for snow days. This way they know they will have a spot, and in exchange, you may charge a more normal daily rate. In addition, you will know how many kids you should expect on any given snow day. With this plan you could also advertise it before the first snows, making your life easier. (Hey, another great idea for a press release!)
Enjoy the snow - it may provide some business opportunities for you. Looks like those of you in Minnesota should have a nice white Christmas.
More and more people are searching online to find child care. If you are not in the top couple of results you may be losing business as parents pick other daycares because they don’t know you even exist. Fixing this is very easy and most centers are not even trying.
A recent report by independent research firm eMarketer.com (September 2009) provided some great insights into how people are searching online for local products & services. Here are some of the major findings of the study:
37% of people who conducted an online local search ended up visiting the store in person.
People were 46% more likely to go to the store after finding them in a local online search, when compared to other ways of finding a business.
Even more local searchers contacted the business by phone after finding them online.
The top 2 business categories for local searches were child care and hotels.
All in all, the days of the phone book are gone. People now search online for a business when they need them, and child care is one of the TOP business categories that people are searching for online.
When you search for anything, who do you contact first? The top few results, maybe the top five. If you are like most people, you start with the top two results and only if they don’t work out do you continue down the page. Moreover, page two might as well be the moon - only the few diehard searchers get that far.
Based on these findings, your child care center needs to be high up in search results for your area (preferably in the Top 5), in order to increase the number of prospects contacting your about future enrollment. Now you don’t need to be number one, although you should be trying, but you should be “above the fold” so nobody needs to scroll down to find you.
The first thing you need to do is some keyword research. What terms are people typing into Google and Yahoo search to find child care in your area? For my area, here are the keywords I came up with. Feel free to adapt this list to your local town or region:
Child care, Hudson, OH
Childcare Hudson Ohio
Child care centers in Hudson OH
Best child care centers, Northeast ohio
Daycare in Hudson Ohio
When choosing keywords, do not forget about the areas and towns surrounding you. Far too often child care centers focus only on the city they’re in, but you likely have customers from other towns. Would you fit with a surrounding town, or neighborhood? How about big employers nearby? Target all of these too, not with as much effort as your main term, but still with some effort.
(By the way, the techniques that I’m going to teach you in this article are not being used by many centers, so by taking action on these tips, you’ll come out ahead of your competition!)
After you take action on these tips, it won’t take much time at all to see some results. Here’s an example I did the other day just for illustration purposes. These results took less than 5 hours to achieve.
I targeted Aurora, Ohio, the town next to ours for this example. Here you can see the results for “child care” and “daycare” in Aurora.
You can do this with any location. Now I did my example quickly and I would get even better results if I had let this run for more than 5 hours. However, I followed the techniques I will teach you and here are the results.
Yep, there I am number 5 for child care, and number 2 for daycare!
Do you think I would get some calls and customers off being that high up? Yes, I would. In addition, if I gave it more time I would be higher, and on the map section. It can take a couple of days to get there, which is still a relatively short amount of time to get a huge amount of online traffic.
I took the whole thing down after 5 hours, because I didn’t want to confuse parents actually trying to find child care. I just didn’t think that was right to do to them. Try this for yourself and you will be amazed at the results you get, and how little time it takes.
To get the 7 steps click here to check out my child care marketing informational site.
My day – kids and tots- A captivating adventure for kids and adults. The show mode can be used to entertain little ones while also reinforcing and acknowledging all the good things in life.
Kids game pack – talked about in Forbes magazine. Designed to improve the brains working memory and motor skills with vivid colors and great entertainment. Great for all kids in child care.
Pediatric Symptoms MD – This app was referenced in the November 2009 edition of Parents Magazine. This care guide help you make smart decisions on what level of care (if any) is needed, and how to provide speedy symptom relief for minor illnesses or injuries.
Kidivities – at a loss for good new activities to keep your children happy? This app has plenty of great kid approved games and craft projects you can do in your daycare.
Family fun – family friendly activities.
Toddle teaser quizzing – Great interactive games for small children to help teach them skills they will need. Designed with different skill levels for kids of all ages.
Voice toddler cards – the talking flashcard – English and Spanish allows you to teach your kids with talking flashcards.
My baby signs - ALS for toddlers. Study after study keeps showing the ability and importance of teaching small kids to use simple sign language. This app can help you teach you kids the basic signs.
Magic sleep – Music and sounds designed to help get small children to fall asleep faster. With a built in timer function plays the music for as long as you want with no need to continue restart a CD.
Zatz – days to — countdown of days until Christmas, Halloween. Just leave the iPhone docked and let the kids watch. Need I say more?
These days, it’s tough being a Cleveland Browns fan, especially when you’re surrounded by Steelers fans. But as you can see from this photo, I don’t mind being surrounded by the competition.
Nevertheless, what should you do if your child care is surrounded by the competition?
In my child care consulting practice, I’m seeing more and more centers with increasing levels of competition. Whether from in-home daycares or new centers that were built recently, more centers are competing for fewer new clients. This can be a problem because the new competition tends to drive down the price customers will pay, drive up costs, and overwhelm new parents.
However, you don’t have to roll over and give in. With the right strategies, you can beat the other child care centers in your market. The greatest tool for doing this is a strong marketing program that clearly states how you are UNIQUE and different than your competitors. Can you honestly say that your marketing answers this all-important question:
“Why should I choose to enroll my child at your center rather than any other child care center in town?”
Average marketing will only get you average results. To be highly successful, you need to use a marketing plan that enables you to stand out. Effective marketing will:
Make sure your center’s name comes up when parents are looking for child care.
Enter the conversation already going on in parent’s heads.
Make the competition a non-issue.
Return to you $2, $5, $10 or more dollars for every dollar you spend on marketing.
Allow you to charge higher rates than average.
Have a system that allows you to fill vacancies at will.
Provide better care for the kids under your care.
Have a waiting list of parents.
Hire the best staff.
And best of all, improve your profitability (or financial health if you’re a non-profit).
As you can see, great marketing is important regardless of your situation, whether you are surrounded by competition or not. An effective marketing plan simply has too much to offer.
As you may know, I have been helping child care centers with their marketing and enrollment-building challenges for a while now, as a coach and teacher, doing just what I have shown above. I love doing it and helping centers grow…but I also understand many child cares can’t yet afford this level of personal coaching and consulting (I regularly charge $150 an hour plus).
So to make this available to everyone and help you beat your competition, I have put together the Child Care Business Success System. With this one-of-a-kind training program, you will be able to win against all the other centers in your area – I guarantee it!
I came across a great article in the paper this week. The article is about which volunteer jobs are the most helpful to kids. Here’s the article: http://online.wsj.com/article
I like the information of where to volunteer and think parents may like it (i.e. something for your newsletter:-)). I found this section to be very relevant to those of us in child care as well as parents:
“Throughout school, the most important parental role of all is to shape your child’s attitude toward learning and school, communicate high expectations, and help him or her set goals and solve learning problems.
And setting expectations doesn’t mean telling kids, “We are bound and determined that you are going to get into Harvard,” Dr. Hoover-Dempsey says; it means sending a message that “doing the best you can is important for all the things you’re going to be able to do in life.” In elementary school, such coaching has roughly twice as big an impact on children’s grades and test scores as volunteering.”
As caregivers we have a massive impact on the kids in our care. We owe it to them and ourselves to do the best we can for them. Teach them to love learning, have fun with it, to do their best in everything they do, and to set meaningful goals in life.
Microsoft has some great lesson plans for kids aged K-12, so if you have some older kids in your child care program, you’ll definitely want to check it out. Yes, they focus on how to use Microsoft products, but hey, it’s a great way to teach computer skills.
Here’s the site: http://www.microsoft.com/education/lessonplans.mspx . Take a look. As you will see they have some great plans with fun activities, like setting up a virtual lemonade stand, or making graphs with M&M’s. An innovative way for kids to learn something new.
In this new video, I walk you through step-by-step a quick & easy way to get more prospects finding you and calling your center.
This is one my top-secret “super-stealth” strategies and I decided to reveal it to you for free, because I know lots of child care owners are struggling with enrollment in this economy.
If you click on the video, you’ll also get information on a new free tele-class I’m teaching next Tuesday November 17th.
It’s known that habits we form as kids tend to continue into adulthood. The habit of exercise and outdoor activity is especially powerful when taught to young children and maintained as a regular practice.
Here are some startling statistics:
39% of adults are not engaging in leisure physical activity
60% of Americans are not regularly active
25% are not active at all
The average American spends the equivalent of 60 days a year in front of the television
The average time spent playing video games has gone up 25% in the last 4 years
34% of children are overweight or obese
And we wonder why we are fat as a society.
It is important to teach kids at a very young age to get outside, to move and to be physically active. If it’s not taught as kids it becomes progressively harder to teach at older ages. If kids are allowed to sit in front of a TV or computer all day as a toddler, they don’t learn the mental skills and enjoyment of physical activity.
I understand you can’t have the kids out playing every minute of every day. That’s just not reasonable, there’s other activates, learning, napping, and just bad weather (I’m near Cleveland, Ohio - we can go weeks without being able to get outside). But you should aim for 60 minutes a day.
The “one hour a day” plan is a great place to start. You don’t need to do all the time at once, it can be broken up into several 15 minute or 30 minute time periods. In fact the NFL has a current campaign, their Play 60 program. If you go there you will see they have some great idea and helpful activities.
Here are some other ideas you can use:
Go for a walk/hike around the neighborhood. Even walking is good for you. Have the children all hold onto a rope as you lead them around. You can even use this time to stop and learn about things as you pass them.
Play the hokey-pokey or Hullaballoo Game. These are great fun and get the kids up and moving around.
Create your own TV shows. Do skits or plays with the kids. Again it is more important for kids to learn to get up and move not so much high levels of physical activities.
Have the kids clean up the childcare toys. Yes this may take a lot of time and you may still pick up most of the toys but in the process you will get the kids up and moving. You also get to teach the kids great responsibility life skills.
Let me know what other activities you do with kids to get them physically act every day.
Those of us in the child care industry have a responsibility to try and teach the kids in our care to be the best they possibly can be. One part of this is to teach them to be physically active.
Here’s one of those strange but true stories that can drive anyone nuts. Talk about laws that try to override good neighborly values. And yes, this is a true story.
A Michigan mom has been told to stop watching three of her neighbor’s kids before school, because she doesn’t have a state daycare license. Lisa Snyder, the mother of a first grader, is just trying to help the other mothers by doing something she would be doing anyways, and she’s not charging for her services.
But Michigan law requires care givers to get licensed if they watch other’s kids for more than 4 weeks during a year. Ouch! This is not much time, just think about a local group of moms that rotate watching kids before the bus each week; they would fall into this trap before New Year’s.
There are a couple of things to be learned from this story.
Please, please know the rules of the state you are in. Officials do not look kindly on the defense of “I didn’t know”. I have a brief overview of each state here: daycare license requirements, but if you have any questions, check with your state and local authorities.
In most cases, common sense applies but not always (as in the Michigan example).
It’s not that hard to become licensed in most states. It sounds scary but often it’s just a matter of paper work, very much like registering your car.
There might just be a business opportunity here. If you know a couple of people who need help with before & after care, you may have stumbled onto a profitable little business for yourself. Talk to as many people as possible, and do your research.
Hopefully in the end smarter heads will prevail and this Michigan case will be dismissed. Stay tuned.
The ghosts and goblins will be out and about before you know it…Halloween is just around the corner. This year it’s falling on a Saturday, so Friday, October 30 will be a great day for a party. Then send the kids home all hyped up on sugar to let the parents know what your life is like all day. (Okay, maybe that’s not such a great idea.)
As you know, kids AND adults love Halloween, so spend a little time planning some fun activities, and you’ll be loved by kids and parents alike.
Here are some ideas:
Host a costume party. You can have the kids bring their costumes from home, or make new ones. Help the kids make masks of their favorite scary animal, then let them march around in a parade pretending to be that animal.
Read Halloween books and tell spooky stories.
Play silly Halloween songs like “The Monster Mash” and have a dance party!
Make decorations they can take home. Here’s some websites packed full of great ideas.
Now that I’ve given you a few of my ideas, please tell me when you plan to do for Halloween or great ideas you’ve done in the past. Just use the comment section below, let’s see how many ideas we can come up with.
Why do you need a business plan? First and foremost, a business plan is a basic requirement to getting government grant and loans, as well as bank loans. It is also a great way to focus the complete picture of your daycare, get it out of your head and down on paper.
There is something about writing a plan down on paper that brings it into reality, and requires greater precision. This is what a business plan will do for you and your child care business. It does not matter if you’ve been open for years or just starting out - you will gain tremendous value from writing it down.
Preparing a business plan can be a long and daunting task, but I recommend using a daycare business plan template to give you a head-start and save you hours of time. If you’re not already convinced, here are 10 big reasons why should have a business plan:
Sets specific objectives for your daycare. Good owners set specific objective that can be measured. This allows you to keep track of how you are doing and make changes if needed.
Helps define your strengths. A major part of any plan is learning what your strengths are in a business both personal, professional and as a business. Knowing your strengths will allow you to play to them.
Helps uncover your weaknesses. Just like with your strengths, knowing your weaknesses can be a massive advantage for you. If you know where you are weak, you can focus more energy on this area, or find somebody else who can help you. Or best of all, delegate this area to someone else completely! An example is my friend Christine who runs her own daycare, and she is weak at keeping track of her business paperwork and finances. Luckily, her husband Robert is an accountant. He handles ALL the paperwork, receipt tracking, payments, and accounting for her. Sounds like a perfect marriage!
Helps you know and understand your competition. In developing your plan, you will get to know your competition, what their unique benefits are, and what their weaknesses are. From this you should be able to determine where you can compete with the greatest success.
Enables you to deal with professionals. Having a business plan will allow you to deal with other professionals, such as lawyers, accountants, insurance agents, and consultants, in a confident manner.
Understand who your customers are and what they want. To be successful in child care you need to give the customer what they want, not always what they need or what you are best at. The business plan process will help you to find out more about your customers.
Determine how much money you will make. Knowing your customers, your competition and your strengths, you will be much better able to make an accurate projection about how much money you will make, how much you may need to pay out in expenses and how much you get to keep!
Understand how much it will cost to start your daycare. If you haven’t yet started your daycare you will learn how much money you will need to get started. Depending on the size of your center this may be almost nothing to 6 figures for a new child care center. Knowing the costs will help you figure out where you can save some money too.
Help you sell your daycare. Right now you may not be thinking about selling the business you are just starting but down the road you may decide to. It is always good to get paid a large amount for all the hard work you put into your daycare. A good business plan that has made you successful goes a long way in receiving a good sales price.
You simply must have one to apply for grants and loans. To get any money from the government or banks you need to have a business plan. Not having a plan is one of the biggest reasons people don’t apply for government grants and loans and why that money goes unused. The money is out there for the asking, but you must have a business plan to get any of it.
Yes, preparing a business plan can be a daunting process. And if you take it on from the beginning alone it will be. But luckily you have several great options. There are several business software programs on the market you can use. These are good and they walk you through the process with examples for each section.
Another option is to have a business plan created for you by a professional. This is the easiest but also the most expensive route. Search the web and you should find several companies willing to do all the work for you and send you a professional plan.
A third option is a “done for you” daycare business plan template. I’ve have a couple of these for you, (daycare center business plan, home daycare business plan), with just about everything already done. I’ve helped enough daycares to know what 90% of the business plan should be. I find from coast to coast the same information in just about every business plan.
It’s up to you how you go about writing your business plan, but you should strongly consider getting started today writing one. Success is just so much easier with a good business plan for your daycare.
For anyone who thinks the daycare business is a thankless job please take note of this story. It goes to show that when you do a good job taking care of children, love your work and have faith good things can come to you.
Sandy Morris, a St. Paul woman whose home day-care business is known as the heartbeat of a multicultural neighborhood learned Friday that her family will be featured on the popular ABC television series, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
Sandy Morris and her children, 15-year-old Catricia and 12-year-old Mychal, answered a knock at their door to find host Ty Pennington. He will lead a cast of thousands to demolish the house and build a new one in its place.
“It’s so surreal. I’m shocked. I feel blessed,” Sandy Morris, 40, said outside her 100-year-old house just south of downtown St. Paul.
Morris, who grew up in the house, said “Extreme Makeover” came just in time, because the foundation is crumbling, the roof is sinking, walls are buckling and the basement has mold. Still, she said she is sad that it will be torn down because of all of the family memories. She bought the house from her mother, who has since died.
Sandy Morris was working as an early childhood education teacher when Catricia was born. Frustrated that she couldn’t find suitable day care, she started her own. Tia (Aunt) Sandy, as she is known to the children, teaches them Spanish and creates a regular curriculum that keeps parents coming back, said Nina Edmond, whose daughter NaTouri has attended for four years.
The day-care area in the new 2,800-square-foot house will have its own kitchen and a pint-size bathroom for the children. Designers also added a play area above the garage.
This is one of those amazing heartwarming stories that makes me proud to be in the child care industry. Keep you r eye out for when this airs.
And my best wishes and blessing to Ms. Morris and her family.
If you are looking to start a daycare and wondering how, I have some great news for you. Check out my latest video, then when it’s over scroll to the bottom for some more great help.
Enjoy!
Or if you would rather see this video on YouTube here’s the link: How to Start a Daycare Video.
As I mentioned in the video, find out more about the great resources in the Daycare Success System.
Pictures are one of the greatest ways to reinforce your value to parents. No matter the size of your child care center, you should be taking photos and using them to promote your business, both to current clientele as well as prospects.
Today I got the proof pictures from my daughter’s child care class photos. I’m just in love with these photos. These pictures will be going out to family for the holidays and great simple inexpensive gifts. And it is not just me, I’m sure the other parents will be doing the same thing.
Portraits
Portraits are a great benefit you can offer. It doesn’t matter the size of your daycare, you should be able to get something set up for a picture day. If you’re a small home daycare think about contacting the local college to find a top student, they may even do it as a project, or look for wedding photographers in the off season, they may do it to keep busy.
Everybody loves seeing their little boys and girls all dressed up in a photograph for years to come. And doing it at your daycare saves the family the trouble of going to a portrait studio in the mall…and will probably be cheaper for them too. What a great way to make parents happy and willing to refer your center to their friends, family, and co-workers.
Action Shots
Taking pictures goes beyond portraits. Think about taking pictures of the fun things your kids are doing. Here’s a picture of my daughter with what started as finger painting. She loves to get into whatever she does. I just love this picture, it’s framed in hallway. This picture was just taken by the daycare staff and emailed to me.
These pictures weren’t just sent to me, other parents get similar pictures when fun stuff happens. It allows parents to connect with their kids, and show them off.
An inexpensive digital camera from Wal-Mart should cost you less than $50. That’s nothing when you look at what it will earn you: great reviews, referrals, great enrollment… Plus you will likely be able to deduct the cost of the camera as an operating expense.
Daily Pictures
Parents love to see how their kids are doing at daycare. Before now it’s been hard, the portraits, and maybe some fun shots now and then. But the internet is changing that fast. With the growth of cheap small digital web cam and high speed Internet connection you can now broadcast your days to all parents. The best example of this is a service called Share In My Day. With this service, everything is set up for you and parents are given a login and password to access the daycare’s online webcam from anywhere, anytime. They can check in and see what’s happening and watch the fun. This is a new technology and everywhere it goes in, parents just rave about it. Could you do something like this for your parents?
Parents just love getting pictures of their kids. When you find unique and special ways to give them what they want, they will love you that much more.
If you’ve read some of my past blog posts, you know I’m a big believer in using daycare business forms. Making sure you have the right forms, completed and on file, will keep you out of legal trouble and help you manage your daycare business much more easily.
In addition to saving you time and making your life easier, here are some other great ways to use them:
As a checklist to be sure you have everything. This is one of those great simple secrets, when you have a complete set of forms you can simply crosscheck the list to see if you need to get a form completed. “Hey, I’m going to put sunscreen on the child…Do I need permission to do that? Yep, there’s a form.” This way you know you are covered.
As a communication tool with parents. When parents complete your required forms, it will remind them to tell you everything you need to know, and allow you to communicate your expectations. Often things simply “slip their mind” but completing the paper work may remind them of important things you need to know about their child. For example, the “Authorization to Administer Medication” form may remind parents to let you know Johnny is allergic to a certain medication.
As a double-check that your staff is doing their job. As a Director, you should be receiving copies of all forms completed in your child care center. This will help you keep an eye on your staff. If you know a child had an accident but you never see the form, you know either the staff was not paying attention or decided not to do their paperwork job. This is a great way to see who is really sharp and who is just getting by.
As a way to improve your level of professionalism in front of new customers. Your daycare looks extremely professional when you have all the forms you could ever need ready for the parents when they join you or as activities require. The simple fact you have all the forms for starters show you are a dedicated professional, then getting them to new parents from the start shows that you know what you are doing and not just winging it.
As a way to make inspections go smoother. Daycare licensing inspections can be a pain, but when you have complete forms for every student, it simplifies the task. When an inspector checks a child’s file and finds all the needed forms completed and sees you have a complete list of other forms too, she or he will likely be impressed with your thoroughness. The fewer problems she finds, the less likely she is to dig deeper, and the sooner she will be on her way.
Remember, it’s a good idea to get all forms updated or new forms completed on an annual basis.
If you don’t already have a complete set of daycare forms, check them out here.
Check out my family in this recent picture. Can you pick out the one that doesn’t belong? Yep, that’s my husband, die hard to his old team to the end. Our family loves to dress up like this, and so do most kids, so have some fun with your local teams.
Check the schedule or the major sports teams in your town. Find out when they are playing and what the major games may be. If you’re not sure, ask the dads of a couple of your kids, they’ll know. Then plan a day or week around the team.
If your baseball team made the playoffs, have a baseball week with everyone wearing team colors on Friday. You can have hot dogs and caramel corn (Cracker Jacks has peanuts) for lunch.
When your football team has a weekday game or major rivalry, have a football week.
Some great ideas of things you can do:
Use the sport to teach math and words. Use the game as a basis for the learning.
Create art and projects around the game. Think painting helmets or a hand print.
Use this as a great time to teach fair play and sportsmanship.
Teach the rules of the game. Kids love to know how to play, so teach them.
Contact your sports team’s PR office and see if they can send you some “autographed” photos of players or the mascot. Most teams have piles of these they will happily send to you.
If you live close to a major team, you might even consider a field trip to the stadium if you can set up a tour.
Activities like this are a great way to grow your center and your brand. Children love sports and teams. They will get excited as they get ready for the week and the dressing up at the end of the week they will be bouncing off the walls with happiness.
The kids and their parents will tell friends and neighbors about the sports week. Now you will be the daycare on everyone’s mind. Plus all the art work and other projects come home and to the office. Yes the kids love it, but it is also another great way to show off and remind parents why you are the best place for their kids to be.
Today I learned some sad news. An associate, mentor and sometimes-competitor of mine has had to leave the business. I won’t mention who, because it just isn’t important and is somewhat personal. But I am sad to see him go, because even competitors can make us better in what we do, and I never like to see ill come to anyone. So I wish him and his family the best in the future.
I always believe in looking for the lesson in everything in life. This case has a lesson to be learned too. My friend’s problems came about by pushing the limits just a little too much. We’ve all been there, so we know how this happens. You start off following the rules…say driving the speed limit, then pushing it just a little, 5 mph over. Nothing bad happens, we don’t get pulled over so this becomes the normal and acceptable way. We do this for a bit then push again, just 5 mph more, nothing bad, push again. We can even begin to believe its okay to be going this fast.
Before we know it we are 20 mph over the speed limit passing the officer with the radar gun. Oops!
The ticket, the fine, the trouble just snuck up on us. This is just what happened to my friend, and if you asked him, he would admit this is what happened. Now he’s lost just about everything and will need to start his business life over.
Don’t let this happen to you.
Take a couple of minutes today and think about where you are pushing the limits. Look at how you are operating your daycare, should you be operating differently?
Are you following the rules of your state and local government about number of children? It’s just one over the limit, right, but what’s next?
Do you have all your policies written out for your parents so both sides know the rules, or are you just “winging it”? Not having policies can get you in trouble and allow parents to walk all over you.
Do you have all the forms and paperwork you need on your children? Who can pick them up, what can they eat, where can you take them, I know this might sound simple and obvious but what happens when something goes wrong? There are lots of kids that can’t eat peanuts or shellfish, or parents in nasty custody battle. Just 5 minutes to slid back into line and you will be much better off.
Are you setting a good example for the kids in your care? As a care giver you have a massive affect on your kids, what they believe and how they grow up. Even if they don’t say it they are watching and learning. Don’t teach them the wrong things. Think about the words you use, the feeling you have, and how you deal with problems. Maybe it’s time to make some small changes.
Pushing the limits can sneak up on all of us. It takes some effort to see where we are over the limit and some restraint to come back in line. Slowing back down to the speed limit is hard, but in the end easier than getting the ticket and needing to show up in court.
Serve fruit smoothies, milkshakes or POPSICLES!
Activities like this are a great way to grow your center and your brand. Children love sports and teams. They will get excited as they get ready for the week and the dressing up at the end of the week they will be bouncing off the walls with happiness.