Marketing? and Staying Full

[Unregistered]

I have been doing home daycare for 2 yrs. i have my associate degree in child development and have worked in many child care centers.

Recently i have had a family of 3 pull kids from my daycare because the state would no longer pay for their care.

I now only have 1 daycare kid coming and it has been 4 weeks since the 3 dck left. are there kids out there that need care?? or does it some times just take a long time to find kids?
how are you all finding or keeping kids and being full??

[mac60]

Sorry you lost your dc kids. Funny how parents run when they no longer get things for free. This is why I will never take state aid kids. I have been full for 11 years, even though our unemployment rate is very high here, I was able to maintain my business. Most of my clients are from medical center and hospital which helped.

Word of mouth and ads in the paper are what gets clients in my area. Craigslist isn't available here.

[JenNJ]

Sorry to hear that

I do not take state aid. I just advertise on CL, word of mouth, and offer a small bonus to current clients who send people my way (I give them a giftcard out to dinner and babysit their child free so they can have a nice night out )

I hope you find kids soon!

[DCMom]

I'm sorry that you aren't able to find kids.

It's tough starting out; I was lucky the first year I was licensed here a home daycare near me closed and 3 of her 4 families came here. Since then I have stayed full by referrals from my current families for the most part.

The first few years in business I took state pay, but I stopped because those were the families that had the worst kids, I had to beg for the copay and the parents in most cases were disrespectful. I didn't need it or want it.

Do you have a local childcare resource and referral agency? A daycare network that you could join? Pass the word in your neighborhood? A flyer at the community center or y? Your church? Preschools? A sign on your car or in your front yard?

Good luck

[JenNJ]

Local children's clothing/toy stores and pediatricians offices are great places to have flyers/business cards.

[emosks]

Try Craigslist or if we needed to advertise we'd use our local 4C website. Good luck!

We are on a local message board of moms and luckily filled up from taking in friends so that's how we were full right away.

[Unregistered]

How To Keep Your Daycare Full

I've been in the home daycare business for 10yrs now and I agree sometimes the worst children are the ones that receive the state funds. Referrals and word of mouth is the best advertisement. Put flyers in your local grocery stores, laundromat, cleaners.

[boysx5]

took me two years to finally get six kids it is hard in the beginning but I found out that by word of mouth and just having my two infants finally turn two I was able to expand that way.

[juliebug]

thanks everyone. i do use word of mouth i have a daycare down the street the is full and refers all calls to me. I also advertise on cl, and a few local groups.

I think that hardest part is all the sahm who just say hey i will watch your kids for $80 a week when i charge 125 a week it seems like there are so many childcares opening right now. even the big centers can't get full.

[DWTC]

Sorry to hear that

I do not take state aid. I just advertise on CL, word of mouth, and offer a small bonus to current clients who send people my way (I give them a giftcard out to dinner and babysit their child free so they can have a nice night out )

I hope you find kids soon!

This is awesome!!!!

[PAMommy1228]

I am having the same problem right now. And for the past year or so. I have the same kids from when they were babies, but then after that I am down kids. I just advertise through CL, but my area isn't big on it yet. I get calls here and there for them, but that's about it. The newspaper is just too rich for my blood. I put up signs at Grocery stores every once in a while, but I get really no luck from that.


I don't feel as bad knowing that a lot of the daycares in my area are having the same problems though.

[judytrickett]

I have been doing home daycare for 2 yrs. i have my associate degree in child development and have worked in many child care centers.

Recently i have had a family of 3 pull kids from my daycare because the state would no longer pay for their care.

I now only have 1 daycare kid coming and it has been 4 weeks since the 3 dck left. are there kids out there that need care?? or does it some times just take a long time to find kids?
how are you all finding or keeping kids and being full??

I'm always full. I never have spots open. When a child leaves I almost always fill their spot within 3 weeks and that includes the time to interview and get them into care on the first day.

I attract families.