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

Archive for the ‘Family Child Care’ Category

How to Create The Child Care Business Of Your Dreams

At the beginning of this year, I wrote down my vision for my child care center. I had a desire to transform the center into a state of the art facility by upgrading the entire center. In fact, my goal for 2011 is to create the wow factor in my center.

Now…. don’t misunderstand me, parents love the environment, however, I just want more of a jaw opening wow factor. After nine years of owning the center, I realized that I still had items from my home daycare in my center and I knew it was time to throw out the old items and bring in new items.

When you go to shop for a car and you walk pass the car of your dreams, you just might say ” Wow! I love that car and I must buy it! This is the wow factor that I want for my center. Moreover, I want parents to be at awe at what they see in my center.

In 2010, as I was conducting tours of my center, parents would visit the center and they would say, Oh! you have a nice center. I really appreciated the “nice” compliments, however, I really wanted more parents to think that we were more than just a nice center, I wanted to see that car of your dreams look their face, lol!

I knew that if I wanted a better response from parents, such as wow! or I just love your school!; that I must do something different in my center. This is when I decided to go ahead and really work on the environment in the center.

Changes I’ve made

  • Painted the walls
  • Threw away old shelving units and purchased new ones
  • Ordered new wooden kitchen sets that I’ve always wanted
  • Spent $100 on plants to create a warm home like environment and placed them all over the building
  • My state of the art digital recording camera system has already been installed by ADT.  Now I can monitor childcare from home and link the video to my website!

I share my story with you to paint a picture that you can create the childcare business of your dreams with much focus, determination and one step at a time. My dream is coming to pass one week at a time and as I make changes, I can hardly believe the transformation.

It may take longer than a year to create the childcare business of your dreams, but the key factor is…To Start Working Your Plan Today!

In this blog post, I am going to share with you seven ways to create the childcare business of your dreams:

  1. Write down your plans for your business (post them in your office)
  2. Create an action plan to accomplish the goals (raise funds with a fundraiser,etc)
  3. Start activating your faith by looking at childcare magazines and create a vision board for your business
  4. Every month focus on an area of your childcare business to upgrade and work at it until it is done
  5. Go visit a state of the art center. This will give you some ideas for your business
  6. Upgrade how you look. I am not saying where a suit and tie, however, simply step it up a notch. I know we can get dirty working with kids, however, we represent our business. Jeans, a nice shirt and flat shoes will do. * No sweat suits. (too casual) Wear a smock if you work with the kids.
  7. Share your dream with your parents and staff members. Also post a banner of your goals to build the business of your dreams.

Your dream may be to update the playground, be an accredited program or to buy a new van; what ever your goals may be for your business, I want to inspire you to never stop dreaming for your childcare business.

It’s time to turn your dream into a reality, share your dream for your childcare business in the comment box below.

To Your Success,

Shiketa Morgan

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Tackling the Self Study

The Self- Study Process Assures the Best Practices In The Field. ~NAEYC

When I created the editorial theme for the childcare business owner blog, I created the theme with quality care in mind. A sure way to evaluate if you are providing quality practices or not is by evaluating your childcare program with a self-study.

What is a Self Study?

A Self study comes in the form of a manual that is an assessment tool that normally covers the following core areas of  your program:

  • Health/safety
  • Curriculum/program planning
  • Parent communication/family
  • Administration Practices
  • Physical Environment

The time that it takes to complete a self-study is up to you and your staff (if you are a center.) My suggestion is that you take each area of the study, dedicate a set amount of time to focus on that particular area, make the necessary improvements and move on to another area of the self study.

As you complete the self study, you may discover that you may already be implementing some of the Accreditation quality indicators and that is awesome. However, if you find that you are not, make the changes and keep moving forward.

Each area that you tackle, celebrate!!  This can be done with a pizza party for the kids; hang a banner that reads: “We have quality health & safety practices,etc.” To assure that you or your staff does not forget the quality practices, post reminders or issue weekly memos that cover the Accreditation quality practices.

What if you cannot afford to Purchase your self study?

As I was preparing for this blog post, I reviewed the fees to apply for NAFCC accreditation and it was quite expensive. Now I see why so, many providers are not accredited. I was one of the lucky ones, my home daycare accreditation was paid for with a grant back in 2002 and I had no idea that  the cost of the self study was (for non-members only).

I decided to do a little research for you and I found some agencies that provide financial assistance for providers that want to apply for accreditation for their childcare businesses. After an extensive Google search for one-hour, I discovered three states that provided financial assistance. I am quite sure that there are other agencies that provide financial assistance, however, I did not discover many of them online.

According to NAEYC, there are many states that provide Accreditation facilitation financial assistance. Visit the NAEYC link below and watch the video for more details.

If you do not see your state below, I do recommend that you contact your local, childcare association or United way to request financial assistance with your accreditation. My childcare business is in the state of Missouri and I must say that our state really supports home daycare and centers that seek to be accredited. In fact, we have our very own Accreditation agency (MO Accreditation of Program for children and youth).

In summary, after going through three Accreditation in my home and center, I recommend accreditation to assure quality practices. If you desire to be accredited, get started on seeking out financial assistance for your accreditation. If you have the funds to buy your self study, go ahead and order your self-study as soon as possible.

As you get started on your self-study, begin  implementing the changes that are recommended in the self study, you will be so glad that you applied for accreditation!

You are a click away from the self-study process

National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC)

National Association for the Education of Young Children  NAEYC

Financial help

For Providers living in New Jersey

http://www.pinj.org/upload/ASAP_2page_flyer_8-09.pdf

For Providers in Illinois

http://www.inccrra.org/financial-assistance

For Providers in Pennsylvania

http://www.pacca.org/quality.aspx

Need my help with Accreditation? Contact me today!

With Quality Care in Mind,

Shiketa Morgan, Owner of Learning Days Child Care Center (A Missouri Accredited Center)

http://www.learningdays.com

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