Do you know about - The 7 Biggest Mistakes Most New Daycare Owners Make - And How to Avoid Them!
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Obviously, you should have a deep & passionate desire to take care of children, a huge number of patience, and the ability to juggle any tasks at once (such as warming a bottle while helping toddlers with an art project).
It also helps if you have a detach space in your home, such as a done basement, where you can run your child care business.
But as if that isn't enough, there are many things that a flourishing home daycare owner needs to be good at also caring for children. Honestly, it can be quite daunting.
Things like getting paid on time from parents, writing solid policies & contracts, marketing your company to new potential clients, obtaining the right insurance policy, comprehension record-keeping and how it affects your taxes, and overall, just getting started in a manner that will optimize success.
To help you get started more successfully, here are seven of the biggest, costliest mistakes women make when starting their own home-based child care business, and how to avoid them.
Big Mistake #1: Not doing the proper investigate on the child care shop in your town or city.
This is a crucial step that many new child care company owners miss, ordinarily because they're not sure how to go about it. Or they may think that it's not de facto necessary to do the research, because they don't understand how it could impact them.
After all, it's just a small home-based business, right? Why do you need to do all that extra work up-front?
The goal here is not to spend weeks or months completing some huge shop investigate project that you're not ever going to use.
I'm talking about spending a few hours over the next few days, calling colse to (or maybe visiting some other child care businesses) and asking key questions.
Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. My neighbor Mary, who runs a child care company in her home, discovered a couple things about our local shop that helped her create a more profitable business. The first thing was, our town has ½-day Kindergarten, not full-day. By talking to other Moms in our town, Mary found there was a need in our town for "before-and-after care", that is man who could watch Kindergarteners & older kids before and after school. She structured her daycare to fill this need. All she had to do was make sure the buses were able to pick up & drop off these kids at her home, and she was able to start taking kids.
So what you want to uncover, when you do your upfront research, is a "pocket of unfulfilled need" in terms of child care. You don't need it to be a huge pocket, but something unique about your company that will bring you customers who have that need.
Other examples of this are:
- offering second or third shift care if you have large companies in your town who employ population on evening or overnight shifts
- offering bilingual care or extra languages, such as sign language for babies
- offering extra meals (such as organic or vegetarian) if you live in a town where that would be carefully desirable (like Boulder, Colorado or a similar college town)
Again, you are asking key questions and trying to find an unfulfilled need in your town or city. You can begin by calling your local Child Care reserved supply & Referral group (Ccr&R), your local elementary schools, talking to neighbors and friends, and visiting other child care businesses in your town. You can even call other home child care businesses and talk to these women about what they are finding in the market. Usually, women in child care help each other out by forming friendships and partnerships, so don't be intimidated.
By taking the time to do the research, you will gain a huge benefit by comprehension your shop and how you can be flourishing within that market.
Big Mistake #2: Not getting the right liability protection for you and your business.
If you want to be able to sleep easy at night and not worry about getting sued, you'll need to be properly covered. You need the real scoop on what type of insurance to buy, and how much it should cost, so you don't overpay.
Many new child care company owners make the mistake of thinking that their homeowner's procedure is sufficient to cover them if there's a problem. But the truth is, that procedure ordinarily doesn't furnish sufficient protection, nor the right kind of protection you need for extra situations that a daycare owner can face.
An example of this situation would be if your house had a power outage, and you had to close temporarily due to the loss of electricity. If you had a company liability procedure with coverage for "business revenue interruption", you would be covered by your procedure and you would still get that income.
Likewise, if you were sued by a parent for some situation, your procedure would cover you in most cases.
Surprisingly, a company liability procedure for a home daycare is not that expensive, and is well worth the investment (in my opinion). These type of policies ordinarily cost to per month. Is that worth a good night's sleep?
Big Mistake #3: Not charging the right fees.
Do you know how to find out what other child care homes and centers are charging? Most new daycare owners de facto leave money on the table by not setting their rates properly. You'll get short-changed by charging too little, and if you payment too much, you won't get any clients!
So how do you go about figuring out what to charge? This is a similar process as doing the upfront investigate in your town...it's naturally a matter of production some phone calls or visits to other child care businesses and setting you prices appropriately.
Many new family daycare owners payment the same weekly rate for each child, regardless of the child's age. However, if you talk to centers in your town, most of them payment the highest rate for infants, and the bottom rate for older kids (pre-K and older). Many parents are used to this type of pricing structure.
So depending on the ages of kids that you can accept, if you payment a bit more for infants and young toddlers, you may find that your revenue will be a bit higher than a flat-rate for all ages. You'll have to look at your personel scenario and choose what's best for you.
For example, let's say that agreeing to your state, and the ages of your own children, you can accept 1 infant, 3 young toddlers (15-24 months), and 2 older toddlers (3-4 year olds). If you payment 0 per week as a flat rate, you would have a weekly revenue of 0.
If, however, you expensed a bit more for infants (5/week), and young toddlers (5/week) and less for older toddlers (5/week), your weekly revenue with this scenario would be 0. That amounts to an extra per month, or an extra ,040 per year.
Small adjustments like these in your price, if it makes sense based on your local area, can make a difference in your take-home profits at the end of the day.
Big Mistake #4: Not outside yourself with a proper daycare procedure handbook and contract.
Okay, this is a de facto big one. You need to have a well-written contract for your parents, and you need a allembracing procedure handbook. If you use your contract and procedure handbook properly, you can de facto save yourself thousands of dollars of lost revenue (and countless hours of headaches!).
So what's the difference in the middle of a contract and a policy?
A contract is a binding legal business transaction in the middle of two people. If you agree to care for a child and the child's parent agrees to pay you for that care, you've made a verbal contract. If you put the contract in writing, it becomes a written contract.
There are 5 key elements of a child care contract: the names of the parties, the hours of operation, the termination procedure (that is, how whether party may terminate the agreement), terms of cost (including rates, due dates, and extra fees), and the signatures of the parties. Be specific and clear with your wording.
A procedure handbook is longer and more detailed than a contract. It should consist of all the rules that state how you will care for the children, how you'll handle specific kinds of situations, and how you run your business. For example, you should consist of your vacation & sick day policies, how you handle behavior issues & discipline, and how the children will be fed.
It's a good idea to need a signature page at the end of your procedure handbook, where the parent agrees that he or she has read the entire handbook and agrees to abide by the policies you've laid out.
You need to have both documents in writing. (If you need actual examples that you can copy & edit to fit your business, they are provided in my Daycare Success System...more about that later).
Big Mistake #5: Not using the best ways to shop your company to future customers.
Let's face it, you may not be a marketing and advertising whiz, but you need easy and low-cost ways to get the word out and bring in new customers.
We've all heard that the best advertising is word-of-mouth. That's after you've gotten started and your clients advise you to their friends and neighbors.
But what about when you first open your doors, and you have no proven track record?
Fortunately, there are lots of ways you can get the word out about your new child care business, and most of them won't cost you much money. Here are 4 marketing ideas to get you started.
Marketing Tip #1: Register with the Child Care reserved supply and Referral (Ccr&R) Office in Your Area.
This is the very first thing you should do to get your name out there, and it should be done prior to opening your doors. The website is located at: www.childcareaware.org
Then enter your Zip Code in the crusade field and you will receive the experience data for your nearest Ccr&R office. You can also call them toll-free at (800) 424-2246.
As of December 2007, in order to be registered with most Ccr&R's, you do not need to be state-licensed or certified. However, they may have extra requirements to be listed, based on your state.
For example, in Ohio, they invite that solo family daycare providers have a maximum of 6 children at any time, and no more than 3 children under the age of 2. If there is more than one caregiver in the home/facility, the numbers can be higher. These rules vary by state, so be sure to call your local Ccr&R subject to confirm your rules.
Once you register with your Ccr&R, they will furnish your experience information, along with any extra data pertaining to your daycare, to parents seeking child care....for free!
Marketing Tip #2: experience All Elementary Schools on Your Bus Line and/or in Your Community.
Most schools vocalize a list of Childcare Providers, which they furnish to parents upon request. Ask to have your name and phone number added to their provider list.
Marketing Tip #3: Verbally communicate to everyone You Know.
Tell everyone you know that you are providing child care and ask them if they know anyone who is seeking childcare in your area. Make an declaration at your church, and at all other groups to which you belong. If you don't belong to any community groups, join some! You're an entrepreneur now, it's time to start networking!
This may be your strongest source for enrolling daycare children. Most parents prefer to leave their children with a provider that was recommended by a friend, neighbor, coworker or family member.
Marketing Tip #4: Place Announcements or Small Ads in community Newsletters.
Ask every assosication you know and/or belong to such as a Church, Play Group, or community Group, if you can place an declaration in their Newsletter.
If you know a community group, church, and/or company pro that mails out a newsletter, ask them to advertise your company for the local residents on their database. In your advertisement, focus on the unique features of your company and the benefits that children and parents will receive from being enrolled with you.
Remember, this is just the tip of the iceberg. When you learn these easy and cheap (or free) methods to bring in new leads, you'll have a full and profitable daycare town and you'll invent an ongoing connection with your parent-clients that will have them raving about you to their friends and family!
Now let's get back to the 7 Biggest Mistakes and how you can avoid them.
Big Mistake #6: Not utilizing the tons of free resources in your local area, together with sources of grant money.
Many new daycare or preschool owners don't know about the local resources ready to them, and how to navigate the waters of state, regional, and local government agencies.
With so many organizations and websites out there, it can be de facto tough to outline out where to go and who to ask, if you don't know where to begin.
The best place to start is with your state. Every state in the U.S. Has an group within their state government that sets the rules for family child care providers. This group is ordinarily called something like the group of Child & family Services (Dcfs), or the group of Job & family Services (Djfs) and they all have websites.
(If you are in Canada or another country, you probably have a similar office in your government).
Simply go to your state's website (such as http://www.Illinois.gov) and look for the proper department, or type "child care" in the crusade box.
The website should consist of phone numbers for the Child Care experience man in your state. Call them on the phone and demand about your state's rules and what they advise for population who are just getting started in family child care.
Most counties also have a child care office that helps population at the county level. Ask your state experience man how to find help for your specific county. Then, experience your county rep and ask the following questions (these are also good questions to ask your state rep):
- What do you need to know that's specific rules or regulations for your county?
- What training are you required to take before you open your doors?
- What kind of ongoing training / learning is required?
- Do they have any recommendations on insurance providers for child care owners in your county?
- What resources do they have to help you get started?
- Do they know about any sources for grants or low-interest start-up loans?
- Are there local or county keep groups that meet to discuss child care issues?
There may be other questions you'll think of, too. Don't be intimidated. You have the right to get the best data to get started, and you owe it to yourself to start out as successfully and as knowledgably as possible.
Big Mistake #7: Not getting licensed or certified by your state.
Getting licensed or certified with your state can be a bit of work, but it's probably easier than you think. Usually, to get licensed you are required to take a inescapable number of training (often very low-cost or even free) and your home will be inspected once or twice a year by a state inspector to ensure that guidelines are being met.
There are lots of reasons why you should think it...the top fancy being that you can payment higher rates!
Here are some of the other benefits you will gain by being licensed or certified with your state:
- You will be proud to know you are providing the highest ability of care (and you can communicate this to others).
- Potential parents will be more likely to choose you, so you won't have to spend as much on marketing and advertising
- Schools and other businesses will be more likely to advise you.
- You may be eligible for grants or low-interest loans to expand your daycare or enhance it with a new outdoor play area, etc.
- You will stand out from the crowd as a excellent business.
You will have the highest opening for success if you strive to be the best at what you do.
Good luck!
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