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FIVE ESSENTIALS FOR COLLECTING TUITION by Karen Marx

Timely TuitionThe following post is a Guest blog post by Karen Marx of Timely Tuition, LLC.

Collecting tuition may be one of your least favorite jobs.  But without enough money coming in, you can’t do all the other things you love.

Here are 5 tips to make collecting tuition a little easier:

1.       Give yourself permission:

You are running a business.  You have a right to be paid for the excellent service you provide.  Any time you feel guilty or reluctant to talk with a parent about payment, remember all of the things you purchase for your center and how you can use the money to improve your service or give your staff better training.  Parents agreed to pay you a certain amount when enrolling their child.  You are simply asking them to keep their word.

2.       Keep it simple:

Create policies that are simple to monitor and easy to follow.  Consider late fees, vacations (yours and students’), sick days, late pick-up, deposits, enrollment fees, and supplies.  Be strategic.  For example, charge annual fees in August for everyone, instead of tracking individual family’s anniversaries.  As much as possible, set up charges so that families pay the same amount every billing cycle.

3.       Put it in writing:

Regardless of the size of your facility, be sure to have a written policy outlining your expectations and the consequences for failing to meet them.

4.       Set the tone:

Go over your payment policy with new parents.  Be polite but firm about your expectations.  Don’t apologize for your prices or fees; instead explain the benefits you offer.  “The supply fee will cover all Monica’s art supplies for the year.  Expect to see some really creative projects come home.”  Require parents to initial key points and sign the policy before enrolling their student.

5.       Be consistent:

This cannot be emphasized enough.  Set your policies and expect them to be followed.  Follow up on consequences (like late fees) immediately and consistently for every parent, every time.  If you don’t care enough about your policies to follow them, neither will your parents.

Would you like a free review of your tuition policies?  Contact Karen@timelytuition.com for more information or visit Karen’s website at www.timelytuition.com. Would you like to be a featured expert or submit a guest blog post? If so, click here to review our theme and submission procedures.

Category:

Accounting, Administration, Policies, Tuition

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Your Staff Members Are Not “Perfect”

One the most challenging things that I have ever done was  to supervise employees. In fact, to get away from supervising staff (in the past), I have even hired an Assistant Director to directly work with my staff.

However, I must say that as a Center Owner, I can never really get away from supervising my staff, because they look forward to my feedback.

I  motivated to write this blog post, because several days before writing this post; I found myself questioning  my staff supervision abilities. In fact,  As I ended my business day; I asked myself the following questions:

  • Am I really getting what I want from my employees?
  • Do they really know what I expect?
  • Am I assertive enough?
  • Am I too assertive?
  • Am I being too controlling?
  • Am I being too flexible with my staff?

Furthermore, after asking myself all of the questions above and some questions that I did not mention; I realized that I was being too hard on myself and the staff.

After reflecting on how I deal with my staff and having a long talk with a colleague, I discovered that I was so frustrated because of the following reasons:

  1. I am a Leader not a supervisor. Leaders empower and inspire and supervisors manage people. Moreover, managing people is impossible and that is why it is frustrating for me and many other Child Care Business Owners sometimes.
  2. I was looking for perfection and not progress.
  3. I was too focused on “me” and not how I can empower my staff to do an excellent job
  4. My attitude was wrong!

I hope that my experience has inspired you to not stress over minor staff issues, but seek to empower your staff to do their best and strive to show progress or even exceed your expectations.

Please, know that I am not suggesting that you tolerate a lack of performance, but I do want to encourage you to keep things in perspective and approach every situation with an attitude of gratitude.

Moreover, I have decided to look for progress not, perfection. Also, I must say that I have a great team; my staff members are positive, they come to work everyday (on-time), they respect me as a leader and they love working with the children.

In summary, I want to share with you, 3- tips that a mentor shared with me in my early days of managing employees and they are as follows:

  • Choose your battles wisely
  • Let it Go!
  • You can’t control the actions of others

With Your Child Care Business in mind,

Shiketa

Resources That Will Empower You to Be an Effective Leader

3 Books that every leader must read

The 21- Day Master Mind eClub

Director’s Handbook

Category:

Administration, Business Management, Employee Management, Staffing

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