The Child Care Business Owner Institute

Celebrating 16 Years of Inspiring and Empowering Child Care Business Owners

25 Ways to Give Your Child Care Business a Makeover

07 25 12

I don’t know about you, but I get bored very easily when it comes to business. In fact, after only 5 years of operating my home daycare…I was ready to expand. Then after 9 years of owning my childcare center, I found myself getting bored with my business. Moreover, I know that there was one thing that would cure my boredom and that would be the simple fact that I needed to make some changes and refresh my mindset about my business!

When I decided that I needed to make some changes in my business, I had a great idea to give my business a Makeover! During the process of my business makeover, my vision has been renewed, I am more excited about going to my business, the parents love the changes, the staff are being challenged like never before and most importantly..I feel like a new business owner!

Are you happy with your business? Can you relate to my story? Do you desire to make changes in your business? Have you thought about quitting? Maybe it is time for a Makeover!

Before I share with you 25 ways to give your childcare business a makeover, I want you to think about the television show, HGTV. I love watching HGTV, because I get to see the renewed look on a home owners face as they make over their home. In fact, as I watch the show, I am inspired to makeover my home and it gives me insight on the importance of constantly adding something new to your life or your business.

When was the last time that you added something new in your business? If it has been awhile, it’s time for a makeover. Here are 25 ways to make-over your childcare business and give your business a fresh look.

1. Add some fresh flowers at the front door

2. Hang some new posters on the wall

3. Add some new pillows in the reading center (s)

4. Update your signage

5. Decorate your windows

6. Update your website

7. Update your brochures and business cards

8. De-clutter your office

9. Buy your self a new desk

10. Paint the walls

11. Buy some new toys

12. Add new chairs to the parent waiting area

13. Add new food items to your menus

14. Buy new business books and implement some of the business practices in your business

15. Hang some new curtains to soften the look in your home or classrooms

16. Add new area rugs in the learning areas

17. Update your social media page(s) with new photos

18. Add fresh plants throughout your home or center

19. Label toy containers and organize classroom space

20. Add new professional development books to your resource library for fresh ideas

21. Add some new flowers/scrubs to your landscaping

22. Purchase some new playground items

23. Update your logo

24. Change the color of your business t-shirts

25. Revise the template on your parent newsletter

I hope that you are inspired to give your business a Makeover! Whatever you may decide to do, the slightest change makes a difference and it will be quickly noticed by parents.

I promise you that as you begin to make changes in your childcare business, that you will begin to feel like a new business owner and your vision will be renewed!

Much Success To You!

Shiketa

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Category:

Quality Care

Your Staff Members Are Not “Perfect”

07 23 12

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:

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.
I was looking for perfection and not progress.
I was too focused on “me” and not how I can empower my staff to do an excellent job
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: