Fee's

[wonders]

I know Fee's are different for everyone,
however doing some reasearch in my area and I am 5-10 less then most of my conterparts in my area.

I am an ECE and Resource Teacher and have been doing child care since 2004, up until Spring 2011 I worked in Licensed Centre based child care and then had 2 of my own children and decided to stay home and do day care from home. I have a great client base and offer my families alot of "extras" Early Early Drop off's, late pick ups etc.. as well as 1 weekend a month (for parents to do stuff together) and 1 friday evening a month (all which they do pay for)

I have current first aid, CPR, safe food handling certificate, back up child care (when I am sick/children sick/appts/vaccation)
I give recepits (which you are suppose to do any way)

I offer very healthy meals with a wide variety of food (including different ethnic foods) daily kindergarten prep, lots of outside time and field trips. The children are exposed to different outdoor adventures including growing there own foods (veggie garden)

I guess I am just upset that I am charging 5-10 less a day then these others who do not have ECE.
Should I just be less and continue on or should i rasie my rates ?
I dont want to ake current families upset but I also want be near the same rates as everyone else
My rate is $30 per day currently

[cfred]

It's pretty tough to raise your rates by too much once your clients are in the door, signed and following the program. However, you can and probably should, raise your rates annually by a small amount. I raise mine by $1/day every year. However, you should start thinking about a change in rates for any future clients coming in. When I moved my business from a rural area to a high density, high competition area, I checked out what everyone else was charging. I charged $1 below them to fill, then raised my rates slowly for all subsequent families. Within 1.5 years, I've gone from $39 to $45. I'm now advertising for Sept 2015 at $47. I'm not getting many bites. It might be too early, but it also might be too high. In 6-8 mos, if there's still no interest, I'll drop the rate by $1 and see what happens. Another strategy that works for keeping rates increasing at a faster rate is to 'specialize' in a particular age group. I only take kids till school aged, so typically they're gone by 3.5 or 4, so it keeps my turnover at such a pace that I have them for a decent stretch, but gives me more opportunities to tinker with my rates. It also limits the different supplies I need for crafts, books, etc as I'm dealing with a narrower age bracket.

While one can arguably do this job without ECE, I tout mine and use it as one of the reasons to justify my higher rates. Why not? I've got it, so if it gives me a leg up, all the better I love that you grow your own foods. I do that as well and have made it a constant theme in my daycare...even in the winter. My schtick is sort of an earthy, hippie kind of thing and if marketed well, parents really go for it. Use it as what sets you apart from the others and sell the hell out of it.

[mickyc]

I first started off charging $27. I then changed it to $28 for all families but gave them 6 months notice. I also informed them that in July 2014 my fee would be $30. so they got over 2 years notice of that increase. any new child I take is charged $30

[5 Little Monkeys]

I raise my fee for new parents but current parents stay the same. The rate a family signs on with is the rate they will always pay.

[FunnyFarm]

I have added a clause on my contract that states "this contract may be subject to change one year from the date of signing and anytime thereafter". I am therefore able to adjust my fees if I feel the need.

[momma2two]

I also have in my contract that fees are subject to change at any time and that I will give plenty of notice before this happens. The cost of living is going up they just announced that natural gas bills will be increased by 40% and not to mention how high food costs are now. I need to run my business and keep it profitable so that sometimes means I need to up my rate.

[Momof4]

Do you renew your contracts annually wonders? I do that and it's a great time to raise my rates or change any policies and because the parents reread everything annually I don't have issues with parents remembering the rules.

Like you, I started out in the business charging a low fee, got a good client base in place, then slowly started raising my rates. I have gone up $19/day in a 6 year span so that now I'm in line with others in my area, but I did it with $5 jumps the first 2 years, then a few dollars a year since then. As my experience, reputation and confidence built up, so did my prices.

You can make a plan like this to pull yourself in line too. I send out a letter to clients a month before contract renewals explaining any changes that will be happening and blame food prices and cost of living as reasons for my rate increases. The food goes to their own children, so how can they begrudge that?

[Lee-Bee]

I'd definitely raise your rates for new incoming families. Have you been raising your rates annually for current families or have your rates remained the same over the years and your competition is slowly raising theirs?

I am about $15 more than the other daycare around me. I only opened 3 months ago but had no problem filling all my spots right away. I have my ECE, teaching, daycare experience and nannying experience etc.

I truly believe that if we are qualified (through education and experience), we are providing quality care and we advocate for the quality of care that we provide that parents will see it, respect it and will pay accordingly. It is hard, because it means we have to be willing to keep a spot empty longer, but from what I have seen so far the wait for the great family that is willing to pay for quality care is well worth it as it results in high quality families.

I will note that while I charge a good chunk more I am still new and I am putting a ton of money into my daycare so it is not $15 more profit, per child, per day than the other daycares in my area. I don't expect it will be more profit for some time coming.