Daycare advertising. ..

[Suzie_Homemaker]

If you are going to take anyone who wants to come, if you are going to extend hours to suit them, if you are not going to be choosy, allow 6 months because every area has lean periods/years and there's no way to predict the demand for your own location.

If you are going to be selective, if you are going to define your boundaries of service and seek only those who fit it, if you are seeking people who are a good fit and happy to turn away those who aren't, then allow a solid year.

You can't force people into your dayhome but you can make yourself appealing to more, which with advertising, will bring more inquiries. Some serious, some tire-kicker.

So do some research. Find out what parent in your area want as a min. And at least have that. Find out too what they want ideally, and decide which bit you can offer.

Here, parent want a minimum, police and criminal record check for everyone over 18 who is in the house, insurance, infant CPR and first aid, references, receipts, meals included in fees. They want reliable carer. They want someone who will invest in development of child and treat it as their priority vs watching kids while doing housework.

What they don't want is new parent with no experience of offering child care to large groups of unrelated children (i.e. babysitter a couple siblings, for a few hours on odd occasion, does not count for much locally). What they don't want is a new parent who is topping up their mat leave. What they don't want is a carer who gives KD or other packaged food, they want home cooked nutritionally healthy food. They don't want carer who goes to appointment and leave children in care of mother/husband/someone else - although that common in other areas.

Find out what your local market expects and that is normally driven by other carers and their service level which then becomes the parents experience and expectation going forward. Make sure your fees fit with local market too. If you have no experience running dayhome and no proven track record, no experience/child qualification, no dedicated space, no yard (apartment), no food offering, no references, etc then don't price yourself top of local scale as your competitors have you beaten. Likewise, don't under cut your competitors so much that you alienate them. My community is great for all in-home carers supporting each other. If one is full and is having to turn away parents, they often will give names of people they know with vacancies.