Inspirational and Empowering Child Care Business Owners To Build Successful Child Care Businesses

Archive for the ‘Administration’ Category

Do You Prefer to Have Employees or Work alone?

 

Having employees has been one of my top challenges in business. In fact, I prefer to delegate the duty of supervising others. I discovered this when I expanded from a home day care to a childcare center.

When I expanded my childcare business, I realized that I was no longer responsible for evaluating my practices, but  that I was also responsible for my staff members performance.

I was no longer just self-employed, I became and employer. When you have employees, you are doing business on a whole new level.

If you are comfortable working in your home and not having no employees, then this blog post is simply informational. However, if you want to expand your childcare business and provide jobs in your community, it is vital that you do the following:

  • Develop the leader within you
  • Learn how to Effectively communicate your goals and vision
  • Develop a capacity to think Big (People love to follow big thinkers)
  • Increase Your Human Resource Knowledge
  • Study the labor Laws that affect you
  • Learn how to do your own payroll in the event you cannot afford a tax person

In case you are wondering why I picked these areas to work on; I discovered that when I developed the leader within me, it was easier for me to lead others and I was less frustrated as a business owner. As I learned how to communicate my goals to my employees, I was able to get results.

Managing employee issues such as: tardiness, gossip, bad performance and many other issues….. is a full-time job all by itself. This is why many companies have a Human Resource Department.

However, when you learn the basics about human resource and managing employees, you will be on track to creating a great place to work and creating a professional environment for your employees.

It is vital that you become familiar with labor laws that affect you. Getting to know labor lawsuits may prevent a lawsuit.

Doing your own payroll is a sticky subject and many business owners hire a payroll company to process their payroll.  If you are great at math and you have the time to take a tax course or study the IRS Employer’s tax guide, you can do your own payroll.

In fact, I process my payroll every month for my employees from my home computer and I’ve been doing my own payroll since 2003. It saves me thousands of dollars ever year.

I do not recommend that you process your own payroll, until you have been trained and you are knowledgeable on processing payroll.

My thoughts about having employees

After eight years of Owning and Directing a Child Care Center, my attitude has changed about having employees. I find it to be very rewarding to provide jobs in the community, be a mentor and trainer for others and create room for my employees to grow as my business grows.

A message to those providers with no employees

There are many great home providers that choose to work from their home every day. In fact, many parents want their children in home daycare’s; so I say thank you for sacrificing your homes for up to 12 hours of your day, to care for young children in your home.  You may choose not to have employees, but I inspire you to grow as a leader, because you are leading children and parents every day.

I hope that you have been inspired to grow as a Business Owner, develop the leader within you and make your business a great place to work.

Do you prefer employees or working alone? Please share your thoughts?

Recommended Links

United States Department of Labor

Develop the Leader Within You

Human Resource.com

Businesses with Employees (IrS)

Category:

Administration, Child Care Center, Employee Management, Family Child Care, Leadership

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3 Steps to Effectively Training Employees in Your Child Care Business

                                                     

Photo Credit

My first employee was my sister Jenean. In 1998 when I opened my home daycare, I thought that  if I would hire family that the parents would be more comfortable with my childcare program. My sister was a great caregiver and she loves children. In fact, she worked so well with the infants that I assigned her to the infants and I worked with the preschoolers.

When my sister was no longer able to work with me, I was forced to hire someone who I did not know. In most cases I advertised for help at the local grocery store or placed an ad in the local newspaper, hoping to get great help.

After I hired the applicant that I thought would be a great fit for my childcare program, it was not long into the orientation process that I, I became  a control freak! I wanted the employee to do everything my way and when it was not done my way, I was furious. I also learned that, when you do not properly train your employee(s), they will do it their way.

Now….. that was over 8 years ago and I am no longer a control freak with my employees. In fact, Since then, I have learned how to effectively train my employees and I am going  to share those strategies with you.

1. During the selection process, find out how much education the employee has. This will give you an idea of how much training the employee will need upon hiring.

2. Plan to model for the employee. The best way to train an employee is  to model for them. This is a great way to clear up any misunderstandings and explain why you do what you do. On the employee’s first day, have the employee to work beside you or a designated mentor and suggest that the employee pay close attention to your practices. Then let the employee know that you will observe his or her practices on the second day.

3. Get the employee’s feedback.  Schedule a time where you and the employee are able to sit down and discuss the day. Ask the employee if he or she has any questions or feedback? Be very honest with the employee and let him or her know that you are there to help and you want them to succeed. Also, consider offering articles about caring for young children.

When you train and empower your employee(s) in your childcare business, this sends a great impression to your parents and your employee(s) will have great level of respect for you. Moreover, having trained and educated  employees assures that the children in your care receive quality care.

To Your Success,

Shiketa

Recommended Reading

Conducting Employee Interviews

Major Trends and Issues in Early Childhood Education: Challenges, Controversies, and Insights (Early Childhood Education, 88)

Category:

Administration, Employee Management, Quality Care

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