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

Getting Your ChildCare Business Organized For a Great Year!

01 22 12

Throughout the month of January 2012, I have been preparing my center for Annual licencing Visits and it is time for us to renew Accreditation. I know it may sound like a lot of work, however, I have decided that my staff and I must get organized in order to accomplish successful licensing visits and to become re-accredited.

My first inspection of the year was a fire inspection and all went well. Our second inspection was a Sanitation and Food Service Inspection. I was so excited that the health departed rated my food service department with an “A.” When I looked at the report, I thought about all the organization that it took to assure that we passed the inspection the first time.

My next visit is my license specialist visit in February 2012 and a Missouri Accreditation observation visit in March 2012. With all of these upcoming inspections, I have found my self being more focused and organized like never before and I want to share with you some tips on how to get more organized for a Great year!

  1. Always be prepared for license visits. Take a look at your last inspection and strive to meet all the requirements to prevent re-visits.
  2. If you have employees, train them on the Licensing inspection forms and challenge them to help you to assure that your program is in compliance with your state childcare regulations. Be sure to discuss areas of improvement in the form of a weekly meeting.
  3. Create health/safety checklist to assure that you meet licensing/accreditation guidelines.
  4. Get parents feedback! Your parents will be glad to help you to create a great program. Create and issue a parent survey as soon as possible. It is vital that you know how parents feel about your program. Be sure to upload the feedback to your website or social media pages. Feel free to sample my program survey.
  5. Read a new business book or an entrepreneur magazine every month, to keep your creative juices going.
  6. When everyone leaves for the day, walk your business and look for disorder and get it organized. An organized environment looks good to the eye and kids learn best in an organized environment.
  7. Make a decision that this is going to be a great year for your business.  In fact, you have the power to create a great childcare business with much organization and focus.

This year ,my goal is to get my business more organized, keep my office organized, finish incorporating the Reggio Emilia look, update my foyer area, update the playground, make more money than I’ve ever made in previous years and I’m looking forward to trading in my minivan for my heart’s desire.

I hope you have been inspired to organize your business for success and make this a great year in business. What are your goals for your childcare business? Feel free to share…

Shiketa

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Category:

Accreditation, Administration, Business Management, How To, Licensing, Organization

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A “Marketing” Plan That Builds Enrollment

01 19 12

When I first moved into my childcare center, I discovered that Marketing never stops.  According to Milan Kundera, Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation!

Are you ready to develop a plan to Market your childcare business on a scale that attracts parents to you? I’m sure you do, because Marketing builds enrollment and being filled to capacity assures that there is a strong cash flow in your business.

Are you happy with your enrollment right now? In a recent Guerilla Marketing newsletter, Jay Conrad Levinson wrote: Did you know that 70% of your marketing could be missing the mark?

In Jay’s January 16, 2012 e-newsletter, Jay shares 2 reasons why people purchase products or services and they are as follows:

  1. People buy to increase pleasure and decrease pain. Are you marketing a pleasurable experience for children and parents?
  2. Other reasons people buy are to increase or improve their condition, seize an opportunity, and make life better. They buy to preserve what they’ve got, avoid risk, and keep themselves from becoming worse off. In other words, if they choose you, it’s because your program will make their life better.

Jay also wrote: “The Internet is the best way for advertisers to market to business decision-makers, according to a poll. A survey of nearly 1,000 people by Minnesota Opinion Research found 60% agreeing the Web was persuasive. Fifty percent said it influenced them to make a purchase. “Business decision-makers have told us that the Web is the best place to reach them,” said Chris Schroeder, CEO of Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive. “Most importantly, they’ve made it clear that what they’re seeing on the Web is leading directly to purchases.”

I hope that you have been inspired to find out how you can create a plan to attract parents to you or how you can make your program a pleasurable experience for their child. For example, I recently gave a parent a tour of my center. She was driving too many miles a day to take her son to preschool. Choosing my facility saved her gas and her son would now be in a program that was prepping her son for school success. In fact, her decision to choose my program improved her life.

If you are wondering how you can improve a parents life, ask questions when the parent calls you. Here are two examples of questions that you can ask parents that inquire about enrollment:

  1. Where are your children currently enrolled?
  2. How is that working for you?
  3. What are you looking for in a childcare program? If you can meet that need, invite the parent to stop by!

Finally, as Jay mentioned, the internet is becoming  a more persuasive way to attract customers. I challenge you to review your website and develop a website that inspire parents to choose you. If you do not have a website, set-up a blog. Whatever you do, get a website.

A parent completed a Free Trial day form on my website and I called her back in December 2011. She told me that she loved my website and she just wanted to see the program. In fact, she told me that she had already made her decision to choose my program after looking at the website. Wow!! Just when I thought I needed to update my website.

In summary, take some time today to organize a 3-step marketing plan that includes questions that you will ask parents that contact you and a plan to develop a website that inspires parents to call or contact you.

What do you think about the marketing tips in this post? I look forward to your thoughts.

Shiketa

Category:

Enrollment Building, Marketing

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