How long would you hold out?

[bright sparks]

I have always done M-F and always had a lighter load on Fridays going from 5 to 2. When I had a family with siblings leave just before Xmas I decided that while my money was already down I was only going to take on new families requiring M-Th only. Sometimes I nearly caved as I had to turn away M-F enquiries. It turns out that come September I will only have kids M-Th and had two spots open up due to kiddies going to JK. I have only had 3 kids every day M-F all year and haven't had any M-Th enquiries until a few weeks ago when I got 2 families who want 4 days and grandma is having them the fifth day. I also have another one starting in the New Year M-Th which works fine for me to have a slightly lighter load to settle my newbies in and prior to Xmas. So come September my income goes back up but it was very difficult for nearly 9 months to be sitting at only 3 children out of a possible five. I was really fortunate that my husband got a new job paying a lot more at the time I lost the siblings which made up for my loss. I lose a little money for closing on Fridays but I only work a four day week and can now do volunteer work or academic work towards getting into uni in a year or two which means ADULT TIME :-) :-) Hold out for sure if you can manage it and I wouldn't change your rates or the fact that you serve healthy food and are green as much as possible. The people who would be put off by this are likely families who don't share your values and would likely mean other problems down the line. Maybe to increase awareness of your business would include additional advertising both on Google Places so you always come up in searches and a free website such as webs.com. If you don't have a name for your daycare or would consider changing it then I would also suggest naming your daycare something beginning with one of the earlier letters in the alphabet so that when search results are alphabetical you are always on the first page. I hope these tips help and good luck!!