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Sigh. I am so frustrated. I knew filling the 3 and 4 year old spots would be hard, but I didn't think that I wouldn't get ANY calls at all!! This is SO stressful! I know that once I get a rotation going, things will flow a lot smoother... but I need to fill 2 more spots! Any ideas of where else to advertise besides here and Craigslist? I've had some word of mouth, but again, it's typically for the under 3's and all those spots are full! HELP!
Are you with an agency? Most people looking for daycare are going back from mat leave with a 1 year old. I advertise at Godaycare.com, kijiji and on this site only. I've never tried craigslist. But I do ask my friends at large companies with internal sales type systems if they can post my ads to reach lots of people.
My local Child Care Resource and Referral has my information to give out, as well as godaycare, here and craigslist, I'm not a huge fan of kijiji... I don't find it to be very user friendly, but maybe I'll give it another try. I also have an ad in one of our main newspapers over here in BC. I get a lot of calls for under 3, many parents are calling for after their mat leave, I've even had people call when they haven't even had their baby yet! Or their baby has JUST been born! It's brutal! I have no idea what is going to happen next month, let alone next year! I just need a 3 and a 4 year old. Sigh.
I would start with telling all your current clients you have a spot. The reason I say that is because they are already happy with your care and will know others with kids in already in daycare. Every kid I have ever had start after age 2 has come from another daycare wherein the parents were not happy with the care provided. So, start targeting people who already have kids in daycare or know others with kids in daycare. Give your current clients some business cards to give to co-workers etc.
I wouldn't advertise on craigslist as it has a very shady history of "crazies" dominating it and I wouldn't like to think what kind of people it would attract. Maybe it isn't so bad in BC but I personally wouldn't even look on a classifieds site for childcare services. I know a lot of providers in Ontario who advertise on Kijiji with success. I have only ever heard a couple of complaints about spammers contacting via their advert. Again, I personally dont advertise there, but that is my personal preference. I think a lot of people advertise on kijiji because it is a high traffic site and there are limited places to advertise.
I advertise om here, have registered with a provincial home daycare online registry. I used to advertise on GoDaycare also but in my 7 years have never had an enquiry via that site. My number one source of advertising which always seems to 9 times out of 10 be a parents source, is a free website. I went to webs.com and made a really simple website for my daycare. Easy as ABC. I also made sure when initially opening my business that the name of my daycare was within the first few letters of the alphabet so when people searched daycare and the results were alphabetical, then my daycare would always appear on the first page. In addition, I listed my business on Google Places/Google + (Its free!) and that has been invaluable.
Other than that, maybe invest in making some posters/flyers with tear offs and post them in schools, early childhood centres, and even leave a stack of business cards with elementary school receptionists. They quite often get called to see if they know of local providers.
That's just a few ideas, good luck!
I feel your pain! I was just going to post about my struggles getting new clients too! One client is leaving in November and another in October (3 spots in total) I have been advertising for weeks now. Very stressful time! Hang in there- either its a drought or a storm ;)