Celebrating 16 Years of Inspiring and Empowering Child Care Business Owners

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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Getting Organized To Issue Tax Information To Parents

01 15 12

I’ve been preparing and issuing yearly Child Care Payment totals for parents since 1999 and I have found that it is vital that I keep track of parent payments to assure that parents are issued accurate totals for their tax return.

In 2011, two parents questioned the payment totals that I issued to them (for 2010 childcare payments) and I thought that was impossible, because I was using Quickbooks to keep track of my weekly parent payments.

Moreover, I discovered, that I failed to record several payments in my payment receipt book, which resulted in two payments not being entered into the computer. I  praised those parents for doing such a great job on keeping track of their childcare payments and thanked them for bringing the tax error to my attention.

In fact, I was so grateful for the error, because it inspired me to be more diligent about recording payments that I receive from parents.

Tom Copeland writes a great blog for Child Care Providers and I strongly suggest that you check out his blog post titled: A Family Child Care provider asks:Is it income if I don’t report it?

As I was preparing to issue Child Care Payment totals for 2011, I was reminded again of the importance of keeping track of parent payments and how time-consuming the process is.

According to Tom Copeland, “In any situation, however, money you receive from parents for child care is taxable income and must be reported on IRS Form 1040 Schedule C. If you fail to report all of your income there are several ways you can get caught:

* A parent who previously agreed not to claim the child care tax credit may decide later to go ahead and claim the credit when she realizes how much it can be (the maximum is $1,050 for one child).”

Furthermore, be sure to give parents a notice that indicates the following information:

  • Your Tax Id number
  • The Name and address of your business
  • The amount that the parent paid you for childcare services
  • The name of the child or children that you cared for
  • Your phone number
  • It’s also a good idea to add the following words on the Tax Letter Please keep with your “Tax Year” Records

The IRS does not look for any form in particular from you to issue to parents, however, the parent will need the information above to claim a child and dependent tax credit.

My final tip to you is to have a back-up system for keeping track of childcare payments and this includes:

  • Creating a back-up file on a flash drive
  • Keep a copy of the written payment receipts issued to parents
  • Have payments stored in your computerized financial software for easy access

Have you prepared your tax statements or letters to issue to parents for 2011 yet? If so, how was the process for you? I look forward to your comments and tax payment ideas.

With your Child Care Business in Mind,

Shiketa

Are You ready to expand your business? Frustrated with the level that you are on?  Check out the Going to Another Level, 21-Day Mastermind e-Club.

Category:

Business Management, Family Child Care, Record Keeping, Taxes

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