Google+?

[daycarediva]

I am losing a client that is aging out in September, and am going to discontinue school aged care, so I 'need' to replace 3 out of my 8 kids. I had three people waiting for me to have openings. I called them all. One is now PT, one has moved and one phone number is no longer in service. 'Tis the 'biz! I have never had to advertise before, but my word of mouth and CCR&R is no longer enough. I have a website, and put up an ad on CL several weeks ago, but and I think I need to start expanding my advertisements.

I also offered my current families 50% off a week of care if they referred anyone who signed with me.

Does anyone use Google+? One of my daycare Moms suggested it!

[Blackcat31]

I don't use Google+ and honestly have no idea what it evenis but I do have an idea or suggestion for getting your name out there.

Why not hold an Open House? My friend who does daycare too has a party at the end of the summer and rents a bouncy house, a cotton candy machine and does this carnival like thing. She has her teen/young adult children set up games and fun activities and her DH does some BBQ'ing and they have a huge picnic type party...

Well, why not do something like that but make it an Open House for your child care and invite the neighborhood and maybe even spread the word through friends/family and make flyers or whatever to spread the word to your community.

You could make business cards and hand them out during the party, put together a photo board of fun things you do with your program and set it up so that interested families can do a tour or walk through and get to know what you offer.

I would think that it could all maybe be a tax write off too since it is an advertsing expense.

[DayCareDynasty]

Hi Daycarediva! Google+Local is a great way to get more exposure for your business. It is especially effective for potential clients who are searching for your services using mobile devices and almost everyone is doing that these days. Here is a Quick Set-Up for You

1.Log into your Google account, on the right side you will see you name and pic (if you have a pic uploaded)
2.Click the arrow where the image should be, in the drop down window you will see a big blue tab that says "View Profile' Click that
3.You will see a profile page come up, on your left hand side go all the way to the bottom and hover your mouse over "more" off to the side, you will see pages click on pages.
4.Since you have never had a page, at the top of the page you will see ("You have No Page)
5. On Your Top Left you will see Create a Page click on that tab.
6. On the left hand side click "Local Business" because that's what you are
7. To Your Immediate right you will see, locate Your Business. They have already entered your country, you will need to enter your phone# than click locate.
8. Your business will not be located so you will click on create a business page. From there you enter your business information.
9. Select A Main Category/ Select who can see Your Page
10. Agree to Page Terms!

It will be self-explanatory from there. However please pm me if you have questions. Hope this helps
Tip
Before you create a page, create a google email that reflects your business location such as daycarechicagoil@gmail.com or childcarememphistn than from there take steps 1-10. Having an email address that reflects you locale can give you a higher ranking on the G+Listing

For those of you who had Google places before it became Google+Local, you can connect them.