Interviews

[FunnyFarm]

When do you interview families? During your daycare hours or outside of them? (on a side note, I really hate when you arrange your day to meet someone and they cancel last minute. Messed up my whole day...) Secondly- how do you find most of your clients? word of mouth or advertising? I've been advertising for a couple of weeks now as I have an opening in September and January and only had one response from advertising at the moment. I get panicky when I can't fill a spot. I'm sure you understand.

[Crayola kiddies]

For security reasons I never do interviews during daycare hours and I usually send an email the day before the scheduled interview to confirm with the family. I have found all my families through kijiji and daycare bear. This is a slow time cause families are on holidays and it generally picks up towards the end of the summer.

[playfelt]

I only interview after hours or on weekends. My preferred time is right after the close of daycare so interview is over by 6:00 and I still have the rest of my evening to myself. The idea is they come as soon as child is done nap and has a snack and dad gets home from work. The advantage is they don't tend to stay long and just do the interview and go.

I don't want them her during the day because my attention is on the other children and it is hard to talk to people and look interested when I am changing a poopy diaper or referring is dispute over blocks - as in they either have to follow me around the house or we end up sitting on the floor in the playroom and that is just too many adult legs in the way of play. Also it often becomes just mom and child at the daytime interview and then she wants to bring dad by for a visit before making a final decision so you end up interviewing twice wasting even more time. I just explain my policy of evening only because my daytime attention is on the children not company and usually they appreciate that.

As for advertising daycarebear, kijiji, godaycare are my best sources other than word of mouth - ie recommendations for past or present clients.

[mimi]

Yes, I hate that panicky feeling. I get it when a parent gives notice. My husband knows my panic response as I start reviewing our finances and spending. He just lets me be as within a couple of days I am in proactive mode and get busy finding a new client.
I get about half my clients through referrals. The remaining are from a local registry of providers and forum advertising. I am in the same county as you. I have a couple of spots opening up in September so the hunt is on.
I due my interviews in the early evening around 6 or 6:30 and always on a Monday as my home and daycare space looks a lot better than it does on a Friday!!! Interviews last about an hour including a tour and then the parents are usually on information overload and child is getting fussy so they leave by 7 - 7:30. You can pm me if you want any info regarding local registry's.

[bright sparks]

I advertise on godaycare and daycare bear. Only ever listed on kijiji twice and got lots of spam and crazies contacting me so scrapped that. I also have a free website which comes up when people search for home daycare in (my town). I also have my daycare listed on google places/google+ so again whenever someone searches for daycare in my area I always come up. When choosing a name for my business I also picked a name at the beginning of the alphabet, B in my case, so it always comes up either at the top or at the very least on the first page of search results.

I only interview on weekdays after work. I finish at about 5/5:15 and schedule my interviews for 5:30. I inform my families that I have an appointment so they need to be sure to not be late for pick up. I initially do a telephone interview to address any red flag questions which may identify lack of suitability prior to taking extra time with a face to face interview. Things like hours, allergies, specific things they a looking for from a daycare. For example, if a parent tells me they are looking for lots of one on one time with their child, I can talk more in depth about if it is a small group/ intimate setting they are looking for, which I can offer, or if they are looking for someone to entertain their child constantly which I do not offer as they need to learn to play. A parent who wants to pop in twice a day to breast feed or someone who just has different principles and values to me. I can usually establish this during the phone call and if from that info I feel we aren't a good match or for that matter they don't feel I am a good fit for them, then we go no further. If we do they come and meet me, see my setting and ask any further questions. The telephone interview makes the face to face interview much shorter too. 30-45 minutes vs my typical 1-1 1/2 hours previously.

[apples and bananas]

I only do first interviews after daycare hours. Once I meet a family and we are close to signing them on they are welcome to do a second doing daycare hours, but it's not my preference and I make sure a second adult is near by and aware when I'm doing them. I also let my daycare parents know.

I advertise here and on kijiji. I also make sure to do interviews whenever they come up. Even if I don't have room I will still meet with a family and wait list them. I find that this is how my word of mouth gets around. Even if I don't have room for that family I can be sure that they know someone who will be looking in the future. And when that person asks them if they know any good daycares I hope they will say " sure, I met with this amazing daycare, but they didn't have room for me. Here's their card. " cause I always make sure ppl have lots of my cards. LOL

[FunnyFarm]

I agree with the after hours. I've taken care of kiddies for years, but only recently started my own daycare so I'm still trying to get the swing of it with clients. I think the more I do it the better I'll be. I really need to do a better phone interview first. The lady who cancelled on me today already seemed "flighty" and I had a gut feeling that this would happen. I don't think I will reschedule. I also agree with mimi- Mondays are definitely my neater day LOL! Thank you all so much for your information! I love this place

[Artsand crafts]

I do all interviews during daycare hours and all parents are informed. I do it in the late afternoon in case any of my families want to pick up earlier. My hubby is usually here for safety reasons. The second time we meet is to sign the contract and that one is after daycare hours which I hate, because we are usually busy, but since it isn't that often I can take it. I get my clients mainly from Kijiji, Daycare bear and referrals.

[Momof4]

I prefer to interview as early in the week as possible as well, since I do major housecleaning on the weekend, and definitely after daycare hours. I try for about 1/2 hour after I close so that I have time to sweep, vacuum and clean myself up. Forget dishes and other things, people know you have been working all day long, but you want your house to be a clean and neat as possible for interviews because first impressions are important.

If somebody doesn't show up for an interview I don't chase after them because I figure I didn't want anybody that would be disrespectful like that as a client. Keep going FunnyFarm, you'll find the right clients. Sometimes it feels like it's never gonna happen, then the right family finds you.

[sunnydays]

I do my interviews mainly on weekends. I don't like evenings as I have young kids of my own and they are hungry and want my attention after daycare hours. I once booked an evening interview, thinking that my husband would stay with the kids and feed them...well he had forgotten to tell me he had a meeting that evening and I ended up on my own with two hungry kids while interviewing...fun times! I prefer a Saturday late morning. I do all my cleaning in the morning before the interview and then it's done for the weekend as well. I am fresh, my kids are fresh and my husband is there to take them outside if they get rowdy. As for advertising, I find most people through Kijiji or Daycare Bear and some through CCPRN here in Ottawa. I find it's slow in summer as everyone is on holidays. I have been advertising for over a month and had pretty much no repsonse (mind you I am looking for an over 2 year old)...but I am not panicking as the space is for November and I know things will pick up in September.