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There is one thing that I know for sure and that is….IT TAKES A TON OF ENERGY TO OWN A CHILD CARE BUSINESS!

The first time that I discovered how emotionally draining the business could be was in 1999. I was changing a babies diaper and while she was crying, I felt like crying too. I was new to the business and did not realize how much energy it took to care for children.

Thank God…today I have discovered how to be more energized, so that I am emotionally able to handle what comes with the business. In fact, I must say it has taken me 14 years to discover how to be more energized and my hope is that it will not take you that long.

Are you drained at the end of your day? Do you find that you just do not have the energy anymore to handle issues with parents, staff or even deal with fluctuating enrollment?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, I want to share with you 4 ways to be a more energized Child Care Business Owner.

1. Focus

If your focus is on too many things at one time, this will drain you mentally. Try to focus on one thing at a time and refrain from multi- tasking. A focused mind is an energized mind.

2. Drink Plenty of Water

Water energizes the body! According to Live Strong.com, ” Have a glass of water early in the morning, as soon as possible after you wake up. Spend a few minutes meditating or doing breathing exercises as you sip your water. This will help you clear your mind and energize you for the rest of the day. Do the same before you’re going to bed as a ritual to clear your mind and body of the tensions of the day.”

I can hardly believe that June is already here! In fact, it seems like I was just writing my business goals for 2013 and here we are half way through the year.

This week, I thought I would share some fun Summer Camp Activities with you to provide you with more great ideas  for the kiddos enrolled in your Summer Program or Camp.

In fact, I love it when the summer comes, because it usually means; more kids, lots of warm weather, fun field trips and lots of fun Summer Fun!

Here are my Top 5 Summer Camp Activities:

1. Painting while wearing Sunglasses. This activity is so cool. Simply invite the children to wear sunglasses while they are painting!
2. Painting with Flip Flops. Provide the children with old flip-flops, construction paper and paint. Instruct the children to dip their flip-flops in the paint to make flip-flops imprints on the paper.
3. Summer T-shirt Art. Simply give each child a white t-shirt, provide the children with paint and seashells to make seas shell imprints on their t-shirts. Be sure to paint the words: Summer Camp!
4. The Tiny Tot Travel Station.  I borrowed this idea from the mailbox magazine about 10 years ago and I still implement it in my program today. Simply, provide the children with luggage, travel brochures, a telephone, luggage tags to practice writing skills, add clothing to practice packing skills, post travel deals on the wall and to enhance the children’s imagination;  encourage the children take a trip to their favorite place by boarding their pretend airplane. Be sure to make a big sign that is Titled: Tiny Tot Travel Station!
5. Beach Ball Fun Outdoors. Be sure to take beach balls outdoors to have lots of Summer Time Beach Ball Play!

What do you think about my top 5 summer camp activities? Feel free to share your top 5 Summer time activities. Be sure to Subscribe to my weekly Child Care Business Weekly eNewsletter or Email tips. Click Here

Have a Great Summer!

Shiketa

Enrollment building tips…inspired by my Garage sale!

I love to go to garage sales and have my very own garage sale at least twice a year. Garage sales are a great way to find great bargains, shop for items that you need for home or for your business and garage sales have taught me so much about how to market a business or a sale.

On Friday May 24, 2013, I displayed my garage sale signs at the most traveled intersections in my neighbor hood. In fact,  I posted the signs shortly before rush hour, so that my neighbors would see my signs and plan to stop by my garage sale on Saturday morning.

After displaying my signs, I went home to get organized for my sale; I prepared my pricing stickers, created signs for my tables and my entire family was involved in the process; after all they will benefit from the proceeds of the garage sale.

On Saturday May 25, 2013 at 6:30am, we let up our garage door so that we could bring out all of the items for the garage sale and there was a man waiting in his car for my garage sale! I thought…Oh wow! Maybe he saw my Signs that I displayed on Friday night!!

This really caused me to think about the importance of signage when you are trying to build enrollment or simply market your business.

About 2-hours into the sale, 2 of my garage sale customers told me that, they could hardly see my signs and they began to give me suggestions to buy larger signs for my next garage sale.

Then I thought..Signage is important, however, if you want clients or your customers to find you; be sure that you have BIG SIGNS!

So in summary, my garage sale was a success, however, I wonder how many customers I missed, because my signs were small?

Moreover, my sale was 4-hours long and I had lots of time to reflect on the importance of marketing your business. Today I am going to share with you seven marketing strategies that I  gained from my Garage Sale!

1. Create signs that has large print with bright colors. BIG IS BETTER!!

2. Display large signs (in your yard or windows)

3. Place signs and ads where a high volume of people will see them

4. If they know that you are there..they will come

5. People do business with friendly people

6. Listen to your customers, they just may teach you how to market your business

7.  Add balloons to your signs…its a great way to stand out!

Home Providers: Many municipalities may not allow signs in yards, however, creating a festive home, with children decor is a great way to cause your home to stand out and attract parents to you. Also, when marketing your business online, skip the small ads and go big.

You can never market your business too much! After all…your enrollment depends on your ability to market your business.

I look forward to reading your thoughts and comments about this post. Talk with you soon!

Shiketa

Be sure to subscribe to my weekly childcare business owner enewsletter. Subscribe today!

Will you enroll school-age children in your program this summer? Do you have a plan to make your program a cool place to be ? If so, I have some cool tips to share with you for your summer program and for your before/after school program.

I began transforming my school-age program in the spring of 2010 with the help of a Missouri T.E.A.C.H. project Pilot grant. The information and resources that I gained while completing nine college semester hours of youth development training hours inspired me to create a cool place for school-age children.

In this blog post, I will share with you 5 ways to create a cool place for school-age children:

1. Solicit feedback from the children. Ask the children what type of activities that they would like to see in the program this summer.

2. Assess the environment and added materials that are appropriate for their age group. Changed the classroom centers to ,”Clubs.” School-age children love to belong to clubs and this makes the environment a cool place to explore. For example, The cooking center is now called the, ” Cooking Club” and the Art area is now the “Art Club.”

Fun materials to add to your environment: Games, clay, paint, paper, scrap booking materials, yarn for crocheting, hobby magazines, wood working materials, variety of books, dress-up clothes, blocks, large cardboard boxes, computer, sports equipment, puppets/theater, dramatic play prop box (hair dresser, store,etc)

3.  As you make changes  observe the children to see how they are responding to the environment. If the  children seem to be very involved in the materials and more focused…you did a great job!

4. At my childcare center, we plan a cool and fun-filled summer camp every year. The weekly activities are theme based and there are  a variety of field trips planned every week. For example: Mondays- Park Day; Tuesday- Visit a local attraction; Wednesday- Free Movie Camp; Thursday- Library (Summer Reading Club) Friday- Visit local attraction.

The parents are responsible for all field trip fees and the field trips are planned for the entire summer. Furthermore, the last week of camp is back to school fun and we plan a big back to school party for the children.  See my website for ideas

5. Ideas for the Fall Before/After School - Kids Club- In many cases parents need some place for their school-age children to go before/after school and creating after school club activities, is a great way to keep the children from getting bored. Some of the after school kids clubs could include: Art, Science, Music, Cooking, Drama, Technology, Math, Literacy Club. For more tips on how to create clubs visit, After School Training Tool Kit website.

Cool Summer Camp Marketing ideas:

• Add a large Summer Camp Here Sign in your window (if permitted)
• Market your summer camp program on your website and on your social media pages
• Decorate your windows with summer decor
• Be sure to insert Summer Camp Enrolling signs in your van window (if permitted)
• Issue Summer Camp Flyers to your local schools
• Offer incentives for parents who refer families to your summer camp

For more summer camp ideas, check out my Summer Camp Planning eGuide.

Have a Happy & Safe Summer!

Shiketa Morgan

Follow my Child Care Business Tweets @ccarebusiness

Empowering Center Owners to Succeed!

Owning a Child Care Center is a very rewarding business and it takes a very creative individual to operate a child care center.

As a Center Owner of Over 10 years, I know first hand that it takes plenty of energy to manage a childcare center and a ton of patience.

Moreover, the challenges seem to never end and that is why it is very important that you grow as a business owner.

Furthermore the best thing that you can ever do for your self and for your center is to grow as a Business Owner.

To grow as  a business owner it is vital that you have access to information that will empower you to succeed and that is what the Child Care Center Owner’s eClub will do for you!!

In the Child Care Center Owner’s eClub, you will be Provided with information that will empower you to:

•  Become a Dynamic Leader
•  Effectively Manage Staff
• Improve your business management skills including: Enrollment Building/Marketing strategies
• Build a Quality Center with (health/safety, curriculum, administration, family interactions tips,etc)

Club Bonuses:

• Weekly Child Care Center Owner’s Executive eNewsletter
• Access to an Exclusive and Private Center Owner’s Online Group
• Book of the Month Forums, Fortune 500 Cafe’ for Center Owners with multiple locations and More!!

Are you ready to grow as a Leader, Reduce your level of frustration, Discover how to be the best boss ever, improve your business skills and connect with other big thinking center owners?

Join the Child Care Center Owner eClub Today for only $9.97.month! 

When you join the eClub, you will receive a Free copy of :

The Art of Owning a Child Care Center ebook!

See You in the Club!

~Shiketa Morgan

The month of May is the season for Graduations and Year End Parties and graduation events are such a wonderful way to wrap up the preschool year.

My first preschool graduation was held in my family home childcare business in 2002. I ordered two preschool graduation certificates, decorated my home with graduation hats and streamers.

Before the graduation day, I bought a large poster board and invited all the children in my home daycare to add their hand prints to the poster board (with paint) and in the center of the poster board I wrote the following words: We will miss you Drue and Jordan!

The day of the graduation, the mother of the graduates was my only guest. The day of the graduation, I simply issued the preschool diplomas to my graduates along with a special gift; we took pictures and celebrated with the graduates.

When I expanded my program to a Center, I wrestled with the thought of having a formal graduation, because that meant inviting family members and a formal ceremony (which caused a little anxiety in me).

So, I decided to hold a simple year-end party at the end of every school year beginning in 2003. Then in 2007, many of the parents began to request that we hold a formal event and I am so glad that I decided to hold a formal preschool graduation.

My year-end parties were so much fun, however, I find that parents prefer to attend a preschool graduation. In fact, in my 14 years of being a Child Care Business Owner, only one of my families thought it was a silly idea to hold a graduation.

Need ideas for your upcoming End of the Year Preschool events, see the links below. So which do you prefer? Preschool Graduation or a Year End Party? Do you choose not to hold a preschool graduation and why? Feel free to share.

Shiketa

Graduation  Resource Links

10 ideas for a fun preschool end of year party

How to set-up a graduation for preschoolers

It has been two week’s since I have written a blog post on the Child Care Business Owner blog. In fact, I have been so busy working on expanding my Child Care Business, enrolling children in my Summer Camp and preparing for our upcoming preschool graduation.

About a week ago, I was presented with an opportunity to move into a larger location and my intuition tells me that it is time to Grow.

Have you ever thought about expanding your childcare business? If so, be sure that you are ready!

I was caught off guard when an expansion opportunity was presented to me, because I was not expecting to buy real estate; I was expecting to lease my next building.

Moreover, as I talk with bankers and calculate how much money I will be saving my business by owning the building; I have concluded that owning your property is the way to go.

It is an amazing feeling to be presented with an opportunity to expand and it can be stressful if you are not be prepared.

For the next 3-4 months, I have decided to focus much of my attention on expanding my center, to meet the infant/toddler need in my community and to increase the income in my business.

Furthermore, I have been in prayer about the expansion and every time the phone rings I think that it’s the banker calling. The last time that I was this excited about making a major change was when I bought my home 6 years ago.

So.. Exciting!!!!

I am just in the beginning stages of expansion and it could be months before we close the deal, start renovations on the building; move into our next building and hold our open house.

My Reason for Expansion….

One of my goals for this expansion  is to be able to provide health insurance for my employees, provide more jobs, provide larger classroom space for the older children, meet the need in my community and create a new business challenge for myself.

After 10 years of being in the same location, I have become bored with the center and I am ready for another level. Also, what I am learning through my expansion, I have been sharing with my coaching clients and I have discovered how to allow Gods will to unfold and not force anything to happen in my business, because after all, opportunities will present themselves to you!

My expansion deal is not final and I am still making major decisions on buildings and funding, so once I close the deal, I will share more expansion news with you!

What ever the outcome may be for my expansion and I am expecting great things to happen, I am enjoying the Journey!

If you plan to expand your childcare business in the near future, be sure to check out my latest eNewsletter, where I will share three  tips to prepare for an expansion, click here. You may also want to check out my Webinar: Tips for Expansion. 

So, what’s happening in your childcare business and do you plans to expand in the near future. I look forward to joining the conversation!

Shiketa

Resources:

10 Steps to starting a Child Care Business

The Art of Owning a Child Care Center

The earth is what we all have in common.

– Wendell Berry

Every year in April I look forward to earth day events!In fact, I look forward to all of the gardening projects with the children at my Child Care Center and so much more.

Earth Day is an annual day on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection and Earth Day is observed on April 22nd each year.

Also, Earth day is a great day to teach young children how to be earth friendly with fun enriching activities. Need some Earth Day ideas? Check out the Activities below:

Take of Shoes! If you have a grassy area in your yard or on your playground; encourage the children to take off their shoes and feel the grass in between their toes.

Look up at the Sky! Encourage the children to lay down in a grassy area and look up at the sky. be sure to ask the children the following question; “How does that make you feel?”

Turn Our the Lights! On Earth Day, open the blinds and turn off the lights. This is a great way to save energy!

Clean-up Your Neighborhood! Consider taking the older children on a walk around your home or your center to pick-up trash in the neighborhood. * Be sure to carry business cards with you. On the back of the card write the words, ” We are an earth Friendly Child Care program.”

Want more ideas? Check out this blog post: 100 Ways to celebrate earth Day.

With the Earth in Mind,

Shiketa

I’ve been marketing my childcare business online for about 3 1/2 years now and in the beginning days of marketing my business online; I did not think much about lawsuits over my social media post. After all, I always get the parents permission to post photos of their children online and the parents love my social media post.

However, periodically, I may post helpful information  for parents or share fun photos on Facebook and an article that I read recently inspired me to think twice before I share photos or helpful information online.

If you have a social media presence for your childcare business , it is vital that you read an excerpt from an article that I recently read in the St. Louis Small Business Monthly titled: “Libel Lawsuits in Social Media: A Concern for my Business?”

Gerald M. Richardson, attorney, labor and employment lawyer shares his expert advice in the article also, regarding businesses who market their business online:

” Businesses whose marketing includes social media face heightened liability risks: libel; copyright infringement; invasion of privacy; false advertisement; advertising infringement; trade libel; and unlawful harassment based on gender race, national origin or disability to name only a few. Businesses should investigate whether they have the right insurance to cover social media risks such as errors and omissions, media liability,etc.”

Be sure to check with your general liability insurance company to be sure that you are covered in the event of a social media lawsuit. In fact, ask your agent if the policy covers defamation.

I look forward to your thoughts about this blog post and thanks in advance for joining the discussion.

Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes and not a substitute for individualized legal advice.

With your childcare business in mind!

Shiketa

Source: St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Build a website with Enrollment in Mind!

You website is your online business card and it is vital that your website it attracting families to your child care business.

Several months ago, a parent called me to enroll her preschool age child. I asked her if she would like to schedule a tour and she said, ” No I have already made my decision to enroll, I love your website!”

I thought wow! She made her decision based on my website.

However, I still insisted that the mother come to the center to meet the staff, see the classrooms and meet with me. The day that the mother met with me she told me that, she was  still convinced that my center was the best place for her child.

Today I want to inspire you to experience what I felt the day that the parent told me that she made her decision to enroll her child based on my website.

Here are 15 steps to building a website that compels parents to enroll their child in your child care business:

1. Be sure to include your prices on your website, including your registration fee

2. Include photos of children engaging in activities or give a virtual photo tour ( get the parents permission)

3. Upload enrollment forms to your website

4. Upload menus to your website (use www.scribd.com)

5. Include Curriculum Information on the site

6. Describe what a day is like in your program for each age group

7. Invite parents to join your email list (mailchimp.com)

8.  Connect your social media pages to your website

9. Create an Owner or Director’s Page on your website

10. List any accomplishments such as: Accreditation, Licensing or Recognitions Received. Don’t Forget the Parent Testimonials!!

11. Create a tab for every program: Infants, Preschool, After School and/or Summer Camp

12. Don’t forget the contact page that includes your phone number, address and email address

13. Update your content on a weekly basis

14. Include your calendar of events

15. Finally add a Staff page on your website. Be sure to include staff requirements and what it is like to work in your program. This is a great way to attract the best employees. Moreover, include how potential employees can apply for employment in your child care business.

I look forward to checking our your website, so be sure to post a link to your website below!

With Your Success in Mind,

Shiketa

Resources For You!

Tuition Policy Make-Over 5-Day eCourse

Summer Camp Planning Guide