IMO how 'business minded and professional' a client prefers a home childcare provider to be verses 'informal' and more of the verbal agreement pay only for service used is totally a personal thing based on what the client is 'looking for' in the program .... IMO you cannot control what others might like and cannot 'change' to be something you THINK they might want you have to be who YOU AUTHENTICALLY ARE and ATTRACT like minded poeple into your program and business.

Honestly my direct neighborhood is FULL of people working without a contract under the table illegally .... however I could not and will not 'lower' my standards to their level ~ I have to be who I am and who I can be proud of being!

No surprise to anyone t hat I suffer from 'information overload' if you ask me how the weather is today instead of just saying 'rainy' like most do I would tend to start going on about the intensity of it and how gorgeous the rainbow was that we saw this morning and so forth ... I am not a 2 word answer type person not in my nature and if I TRIED to be I would likely come off as being 'rude' cause it would be hard for me

So as you you can guess from my advertizements to my website, my contract, handbooks and forms for clients are all EXTENSIVE because they reflect ME and my personality .... I come for years of regulated centre based care and my practice and policies reflect that based on 'learning from past mistakes' and so forth ~ they are meant to not only state the 'facts' about what to expect in my program but to educate around WHY these are the facts in my program because for me I find when people understand WHY I value what I do and so forth they are more inclined to support me in those goals and so forth ~ wordy WORKS for me

I am fully aware that I might intimidate some people from 'contacting' me for care or that some people might not want the 'rigidity' of my business in regards to contracts and consent forms so forth because there is no wiggle room for anyone to try to take advantage of me or try to make me do something against my philosophy.

To be honest I am OK with that because I would never want to 'serve' someone who is not comfortable or willing to accept me as ME!

Interviewing is a fine art it really is .... you have to be confident in yourself, your program and send that air of they need YOU more than you need THEM ... that they would be getting the experience of a life time in your program .... and when you can do that you will attract the people you WANT to you ~ the ones that value you and your service!

I recently interviewed potential clients who were referred from a friend ~ normally I would not have let them get to the interview stage because they wanted hours of care outside of what I work but the parent claimed they could 'make that work' for the right daycare because they were keeping their child out of JK and wanted to make sure he was 'engaged' and it was a friends clients who is retiring so I did it as a favor ~ they came, they went on and on about how awesome the program was and so forth and so on ~ the two children played well and did not want to leave to go ~ and than I heard through my friend that they ended up choosing a lady around the corner who offers 'illegal' care for 1/2 the price and the kids get to play Xbox all day long and they apparently 'love it' there ... bottom line is as much as it 'hurt' to be turned down for someone like THAT whose service is so obviously NOT COMPARABLE to mine the reality is that I would not have been HAPPY serving them because if that is their priority for their children if they are 'happy' with someone who takes in more kids than legally allowed in order to offer 'cheap care' and if their concept of 'engaged' is putting them in front of video games all day ~ we were not a MATCH for service!

My advice is to figure out what kind of clients you WANT to serve, make a list of interview questions that will help illicit feedback around the 'shared values' you are seeking in a client and than ATTRACT those clients to you .... yes you might have to weed through 20 potentials to find that perfect 'match' .... but it is an investment in your enjoyment of your 'career' .... this is not a job we can 'fake' you need to enjoy working with the kids and clients you serve or the STRESS created from that will burn you out!

I am empathizing with you because I have been advertizing since May for my September spots hoping to get them prefilled and I am not finding anyone whom I would want to 'serve' on a daily basis