It's very competitive where I live as well. Aside from the multitude of day homes in my neighbourhood, I back onto a school with daycare and there's another in the highschool on the corner. Yep....oodles and oodles of competition. I've done really well here so far, but worked my ass off to get here. Lots of looking at other daycares to see what's already being offered and mixing that up a bit, totally flaunting my ECE (paid for it, might as well make it useful) and aggressive advertising. It's soooo different working in a high density area opposed to rural. Holy cow....soooo competitive! I'm very, very happy to see another provider has moved in not too far from here and upped her fees to even be above mine (I'm $5 above the rest). FAB!!! It's time for our rates to go up On the upside, I just did my budget. Even with just 4 kids, I'm still financially ok....got a good chunk left at the end of the month....big relief! For now, I'll enjoy the easier days and wait for my perfect client to walk through the door.

Good luck to everyone else who're finding it slow. Hope you fill soon