How to Start a Daycare

Coaching and managing are related roles, but separate ones. Managers make sure that a worker’s performance meets explicit goals; coaches strive to help people meet their potential and exceed expectations.

When you start to think about growing your daycare and adding other teachers you need to think about how to coach your new members so they are the best they can be and you are happy.

To hone your coaching skills more keenly, follow this advice:

• Be a full-time coach. Don’t limit your coaching opportunities to regularly scheduled meetings, no matter how frequent. Look for ways to be a coach in staff meetings, workplace conversations, even voice and email messages.
• Exercise your empathy skills. Watch dramatic TV shows and movies to practice your skills at reading body language and picking up hidden emotions from nonverbal cues.
• Clarify goals. Train yourself to clearly define the behaviors you seek in other people, and what behaviors need to change. The better you can flesh these out, the better your ability to suggest improvements and offer useful feedback.
• Respond quickly. Closely monitor the people you are coaching so you’ll be able to provide timely and helpful feedback.
• Listen. The more someone talks about a new idea, the easier it is for him or her to become excited and committed to it. Let the person you’re coaching do most or all of the talking during your conversations.
• Practice what you preach. You can’t expect others to behave in a certain way if you don’t demonstrate the desired behavior yourself.
• Provide practice opportunities. When teaching a new skill, give your people plenty of opportunities to practice. This builds not only their proficiency but also their self-confidence.
• Talk positively to yourself. Some positive self-talk—affirming your own skills and talents—will keep your morale up and will, in turn, help you to lift the attitudes of others.
• Believe in people. When you anticipate great things from others, and let them know your expectations, your confidence will help them work hard to live up to your vision.

Social media brings with it pluses and minuses but there are ways to make sure you can get the most out of it while not embarrassing yourself in the process.

One good tip is to develop your brand, which essentially just means thinking about the one sentence that defines you the best and carrying that with you through all of your online social media profiles.

It is also important to monitor your social media privacy. Even privacy settings are not always one hundred percent secure, particularly on sites that are continually changing them, such as Facebook.

Never use profanity on social media and think before you post or tweet. Freedom of speech is one thing, ending up as the next media headline because of needlessly causing offence is quite another.

It is important to remember that your social media comments can be seen by lots of people, including your college administrators, employers, parents and potential love interests. Do not say anything you would not be comfortable with all of these people seeing.

Work can become a stressful place when basic etiquette is not followed by teachers and directors. Office etiquette is of vital importance due to the fact that bad manners are also bad for business, having a negative impact on employee productivity and morale.

Poor manners also reflect badly on your school when parents see them.  This is one of the main reasons parents note for being unhappy with a child care program.

All employees need to demonstrate good manners. You should not show up to work when you are genuinely sick. Punctuality is important and if you are running late, try to have meetings scheduled in forty five minute increments in order to make sure you have plenty of time to get to the next one.

Meetings should be kept to the scheduled time limit. The next group should not be forced to stand in the conference room because they are waiting for your group to leave.

Cell phones should be placed on vibrate in order to avoid disturbing other people, and you should pay attention and avoid multi-tasking such as checking emails during meetings. Lunch should be eaten in the break room or the cafeteria and not at your desk.

Work-life balance can sometimes be an emotional and psychological matter. One person’s murderous schedule can be normal and healthy to another, depending on their personal beliefs and thoughts. It is important to keep a few mantras in mind to make sure that your balance between work and life does not get thrown out of whack.

One mantra to remember is that working well does not have to mean working more. Some people hide behind the label of being constantly “busy” in the hope that that means they are really getting things done, but working more efficiently, learning how to prioritize and reveling in the creative and energy boost you receive from taking a break now and again is far more important, not to mention healthier.

All too often we hear daycare owners tell us they are too busy to market, yet when we look at their schedule we find they have plenty of time IF they used it wisely.  Learn to break up marketing tasks into small ten minute project that can easily be done over nap times or when their is a small break.

Another mantra to keep in mind is that it is up to you to find your happy work/life balance. Whether your child has a ridiculous schedule when it comes to extracurricular activities, or your boss is absurdly over-demanding, in the end it is up to you what you are willing to put up with and if something really is transgressing your personal boundaries then you need to learn to stand up and say no.

Promoting a nonprofit can be a bit on the tricky side, especially since you want to keep your costs to a minimum to ensure the most amount of money reaches the organization. Here are some great tools to help you promote your nonprofit in a cost effective manner.

#1 Use Social Media

What a great tool at your fingertips and it doesn’t have to cost you anything. Use social media networks like Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook, which are all free. There are other networks so make sure you search to find the ones that will work best for you to bring you targeted traffic. There are also cost effective advertising options that you can use.

#2 Join Professional Networks

Establishing your nonprofit takes a lot of work and support. One way to get the momentum you need to get the word out about your nonprofit organization. Join the Chamber of Commerce in your area and find other professional networks you can take advantage of.

#3 Create Your Website

Create a website that can reach a wide audience. Make sure it is done professionally and has been search engine optimized. If you want to create your own website, there are many affordable places that you can do that.

#4 Don’t Stop Talking

If you do not tell anyone about your organization then how will they know about it? That means you need to be talking about it at every opportunity that comes your way. Speaking engagements are a great way to share information about your nonprofit. You might also create workshops or participate in trade shows or artisan fairs to share the word. Make sure that you do a press release for your local newspaper for every event that allows you to spread the word.

#5 Create Good Partnerships

Establish good partnerships to help you reach a broader audience. Nonprofits often use manpower and resources and you can create a better base to work from by creating strategic partnerships that help you create a strong presence.