Charge Question

[bg18539]

Ok, I have my first interview on Saturday happyface My main concern is how much to charge. She has two children an 8 week old, and a 23 months old. What do you suggest? I'm watching an infant currently, and she pays $5/ hour or so.

Any suggestions on what not to do? This will be a learning experience, but I want to try my best.

thanks in advance

[daycare]

Ok, I have my first interview on Saturday happyface My main concern is how much to charge. She has two children an 8 week old, and a 23 months old. What do you suggest? I'm watching an infant currently, and she pays $5/ hour or so.

Any suggestions on what not to do? This will be a learning experience, but I want to try my best.

thanks in advance

I am not sure if you have searched the tags on here about how or what to charge.

It is also very hard to know what your area charges and how you charge your fees.

YOu charge by the hour?


Here is what I do. Also do you have a PHB?

I charge by the week. I only allow each child to attend 9.5 hours each day. I don't care to offer more hours than that per family, as the kids that are in care for longer hours are the ones that are typically very difficult with behavior.

All payments are paid in ADVANCE always. No pay NO stay...

I don't give sibling discounts, if they want one, I will consider it if they pay one month in advance (monthly payments)

I would find out all of the details on the 8 week old. Can they drink from a bottle, can they sleep without the aide of a rocker or swing..???

I dont do infant care, but I can share my PHB with you if you would like.....

[bg18539]

I did try to search, but I couldn't find what I was looking for. As you will notice from this response, I am still a novice at all the terminology So what does PHB stand for?

I never thought of charging per week, how would you decide on what to charge? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

thanks

[daycare]

sorry,

PHB stands for parent hand book

DO you have a contract?

[daycare]

Did you say that you charge $5.00 an hour for your other child? HOw many hours and days is that child there?

I charge by the day (which becomes weekly rate) because I am capped at only taking 6 kids with my LIC. SO I make sure that I make the most of the spaces that I have.

go to the chat room on here and I can help you more

[cheeseheadmama]

First of all, welcome to the forum!

PHB = Provider Hand Book

This is a place to hold all your rules, policies, thoughts and let parents know ahead of time what you will do in each situation. It is INVALUABLE! It is separate from you contract, but just as important. If a parent asks for something extra special, this gives you something you can point to that says "this is how I said I would handle that". There are many examples of these hand books on here and I keep updating mine with the great info I have been finding since joining.

I used to charge by the hour and then went to by the day and now I have moved to by the week. I was constantly getting walked all over by the parents and pre-paying by the week has put a stop to that. When I give the parent the contract during the interview, there is a place for them to put their schedule for care. Once the schedule is determined, the weekly rate is calculated and then that becomes the rate they pay on Monday of EVERY week. If they decide to keep the kid home one day, they do not get a refund. If they need additional care during a week, I have an overtime rate listed in the contract.

My basic rate is $5/hour. Breaks down to $45/day or $25/half day (minimum). So if a family needs 5 half days, their rate is $125. I don't have any full time kids right now, but I have given a discount rate for full time of $200/week. Part time care is hard to find around here so I can charge a bit of a premium and get away with it.

Good luck! Make sure you ask MANY questions at the interview about how they expect you to care for the baby. What you assume and what they assume are probably WAY different things and the baby is too young to ask.

[bg18539]

k i'm logged on, bg18539 thanks

[bg18539]

First of all, welcome to the forum!

PHB = Provider Hand Book

This is a place to hold all your rules, policies, thoughts and let parents know ahead of time what you will do in each situation. It is INVALUABLE! It is separate from you contract, but just as important. If a parent asks for something extra special, this gives you something you can point to that says "this is how I said I would handle that". There are many examples of these hand books on here and I keep updating mine with the great info I have been finding since joining.

I used to charge by the hour and then went to by the day and now I have moved to by the week. I was constantly getting walked all over by the parents and pre-paying by the week has put a stop to that. When I give the parent the contract during the interview, there is a place for them to put their schedule for care. Once the schedule is determined, the weekly rate is calculated and then that becomes the rate they pay on Monday of EVERY week. If they decide to keep the kid home one day, they do not get a refund. If they need additional care during a week, I have an overtime rate listed in the contract.

My basic rate is $5/hour. Breaks down to $45/day or $25/half day (minimum). So if a family needs 5 half days, their rate is $125. I don't have any full time kids right now, but I have given a discount rate for full time of $200/week. Part time care is hard to find around here so I can charge a bit of a premium and get away with it.

Good luck! Make sure you ask MANY questions at the interview about how they expect you to care for the baby. What you assume and what they assume are probably WAY different things and the baby is too young to ask.

Thanks for the welcome I am actually working on my handbook now. I have a very rough contract at this time. So charging $400/week for both kids seems good? I think I should of had a longer conversation with her over the phone, I didn't even ask if she was looking for full or PT I just found a list of questions to ask over the phone first, I've printed it out and will use it during the interview.

[daycare]

im also on

[bg18539]

im also on

don't know what happened, but I just kicked off of chat.

[daycare]

yeah me too

[daycare]

here is that letter I was sending

Dear DCP,

Prior to your child’s admission to our day care, we entered into an agreement that daycare fees are due and payable PRIOR to your child's attendance. All day care fees must be paid on the last day of the week that your child attends care, one week in advance wither they are present or not. You further agreed that if payment was not made in advance, your child would not be admitted to the daycare until all past fees were brought up to date.


This is just a reminder of that agreement, and request for payments are made on time. Please understand that if fees are not paid in a timely manner, we are unable to pay our obligations, or meet the daily monetary requirements of running this family daycare. We only wish to provide the best care possible for your child, and, unfortunately, money is required to do so. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Currently your child’s daycare account has a past due balance of $131.00 that needs to be paid in order for your child to return to care.

[bg18539]

that's too bad I think I'm a little worried now about how my handbook looks, and I know my contract is not that great. I'll have to do some serious work before saturday.

[daycare]

I am going to send you mine and you can dissect it however you need it to work for you
YOu have something and that is better than nothing

[bg18539]

Thank you so much for your help!