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How many of you have a sign in your yard advertising your In Home Child Care? Do you get a lot of clients from your sign? I am not currently licensed. I am thinking about doing this but I have been told that it just puts me out there for someone from the county to pop their head in knowing I run an In Home Child Care. What do you think?
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I use yard signs. I bought one from VistaPrint a while back ago and since I live in a neighborhood that has an HOA I can't put it directly in the housing area so I put it out on the side of the road by the city street in front of the drive that leads into my townhouse condo. Mine is really simple too and it gets a lot of attention from people that live in my area or that drive by my street on their way to work etc. All it says is
Space Available
[Daycare Name]
Family Childcare Home
[phone number]
[web address]
Licence #
That's it. I only use it when I actually have an opening and even though I don't put it out near my home it still gives people a general idea of where I am. If I lived in a real house (I live in a condo where the street and driveway are in the back and the front is community yard area and no street) I'd put one in my front yard too.
As far as the whole "it just puts me out there for someone from the county to pop their head in knowing I run an In Home Child Care" I suppose it just depends on where you live and how your licensing office handles unannounced visits. In my area it's an automated program that shuffles our names around. Your name comes up when it comes up and that's when they visit you (other than if someone files a complaint against you). Here they don't just randomly drive around and stop wherever they want. I havn't had a visit in over 2 years. A DC friend of mine had one a year and a half ago, then had one again in November and again in December. No one complained about her, her name just came up that much randomly.
And anyway, if you're doing things right then there's nothing for you to hide right? I think that the benefits outweigh the negatives.
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My HOA does not allow yard signs, but I know they are effective. I have had friends find their providers by drive by yard signs.
If you are allowed to do it in your neighborhood I would definitely go for it! Good luck!Comment
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How does the vistaprint sign hold up? is it corrigated, paper, durable?
We had a kick a$$ sign all wooden and cute, but when we refinanced the mortgage co said it made us look commercial and wouldnt give us the loan (although they were the same co we already had!) now the calls have stopped so I need something!Comment
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The one I got is pretty sturdy. It's made of like a plasticy material (but it could be dipped cardboard I suppose). Between the front and back panels it's corrugated. Mine's a couple of years old but it's withstood sun, wind and rain pretty well but I'd given it a lot of love. I only kept it out when I needed to advertise and on weekends I took it down to clean it. I wasn't too happy about the wire stand that it came with. I mean it did the job, don't get me wrong, I just replaced it with a sturdier and nicer stand that I got from a yard sale sign pack at Lowe's that I had laying around. When I'm not using it (like now) it's in a bag in my attic crawl space for storage so that it'll keep longer.Comment
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I have one, its made out of wood (it needs to be redone and I'm hoping to do it this weekend) it works great. Thats how I get almost all my clients. I would take a picture, but then people will know who I am, because I live in a small town and everyone knows me as the daycare lady. My new sign will be done like this.
I have my daycare name on it, full and part time available and my phone number. I painted my sign in fun colors and outlined in black (I used the letters that you can buy and trace I think they are called poster letters, you can buy them at michaels) and I sprayed sealer over it. My sign has held up for 8 yrs, but I'm fixing the yard and the wood is chipping so I need a new one.Comment
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