Looking for some advice

[playfelt]

Local Ottawa advice (I am in Orleans) is to join CCPRN and take advantage of their start up sessions and supports as well as check out their childcare connection meetings - which are a free monthly meeting where parents needing care and caregivers with spaces can meet. It is done by area of the city. You can also post at www.usedottawa under services childcare but kijiji and daycarebear have always given me more leads.

[ashott]

Thank you ladies for all of your comments and feedback / advice.

As for the CCPRN - I am a member and have gone to 3 courses in the last month - but good advice to attend the meet and greets - haven't done that yet.

I will take that one photo down as suggested. As for my hours - the interviews I have had so far have liked those hours - I do get what you are saying - that being opened later would help - however there are some things I am not so willing to change and that is one of them at this point.

Also - thanks for the heads up on how this can happen in cycles - like after long weekends.

And for the person who asked about the photos - yes I took all of them.

Thanks again!

[playfelt]

The hours is an example of what I was going to give as one of the explanations for more hits than emails. If you do a search yourself - ie put in your postal code and all that comes up is a list of caregivers starting with the one closest and then branching out. A parent needs to click on each name to check for what is important to them. For some reason you didn't meet their criteria and it could be the ages you are trying to find, the price you are charging, the hours, and other information down the side such as do you speak french, do you offer part time care. We had the discussion on another thread about programming - some want total structure, some parents are anti-structure. I have always had more emails when I have pictures added to my website so parents get an idea of the setup , what kind of activities I have available.

Also many parents start several months in advance looking for information so they can start budgeting and planning. Many will contact you back even 6 months from now - it seems to be something moms up through the night breastfeeding like to do - surf the web for baby related info.

Some of those hits will be other caregivers. I go into the list for my area even when I don't have open spaces just to get an idea of norms like how many caregivers are charging each rate. What do they seem to be offering and how can I adapt my daycare to be in line with others - which will make me more competitive assuming I agree enough to adopt the ideas. I like looking at the pictures and when I am bored I just pick a postal code out of the air - just follow the order for letters and numbers - and check out anyone in the list that has pictures (there will be a camera beside their name). So for some of you across the country at some time I might even be one of those hits but it is all random so I wouldnt' even be able to match info, names and anyone on the list cause I just look at the pictures not much else.

Right now any contacts I am getting are for June so it is possible that parents looking for August or beyond aren't actually looking. Long weekends seem to help change people's focus. I tend to get tons of emails after such as after the long weekend in May I will get people wanting Aug, Sept, Oct and even a few for beyond that.

Also school haven't told parents if they are in as far as JK goes so I have two leaving for school and if the program is full they will be sent somewhere else if there is space and that then effects full day/half day. Also one of them is on a wait list for the school based daycare so once mom finds out about that she will be able to make her plans - is she even looking for daycare or not as I do not take JK/SK or school age kids as I no longer do the bus runs.

[Skysue]

It also may just be the time of year that your opening most Moms’ on mat leave will go back to work after the summer. In my experience Sept/Oct is always busy!

Everything else looks great!

Good luck!