Daycare Startup Not Going Well, Need Help And Advice

[Darling]

I run an in home daycare. We completed our state registration in October of last year (5 months ago). So far all I've managed to bring in is one little girl for two days per week. We had another little one for 2 days before her parents put her into a large center. I advertise multiple times per week on Craigslist, and have adds up at every online classified listing site I can find. We are listed on our states CCRR referral list but have gotten nothing through it. I'm active and advertise on Facebook groups, as many as I can find. We have put up flyers and signs in our area.

Our website seems to land traffic, we are listed with Google and Bing. We offer a sign up promotion. Any ideas or recommendations for improvements? www.DarlingDucklingsPortland.com.

I hope this doesn't come across as advertising or pandering. I'm just getting desperate. My husband has been working 2 jobs to get us through until the daycare takes off. Savings are going to run out. I need kids soon or I will have to start making other plans. And ideas welcome.

[Snowmom]

I run an in home daycare. We completed our state registration in October of last year (5 months ago). So far all I've managed to bring in is one little girl for two days per week. We had another little one for 2 days before her parents put her into a large center. I advertise multiple times per week on Craigslist, and have adds up at every online classified listing site I can find. We are listed on our states CCRR referral list but have gotten nothing through it. I'm active and advertise on Facebook groups, as many as I can find. We have put up flyers and signs in our area.

Our website seems to land traffic, we are listed with Google and Bing. We offer a sign up promotion. Any ideas or recommendations for improvements? www.DarlingDucklingsPortland.com.

I hope this doesn't come across as advertising or pandering. I'm just getting desperate. My husband has been working 2 jobs to get us through until the daycare takes off. Savings are going to run out. I need kids soon or I will have to start making other plans. And ideas welcome.

I briefly looked through the website/pages.

There are a couple things I would change:

1. Your home page: Personally, I wouldn't start off with a picture of your home. Get something to capture interest and represents you or your philosophy. Whether it's PLAY related, curriculum related, outdoor related, family related, etc. You don't even necessarily need a picture, you could do an introduction and describe why your daycare is the best. and invite them to take a look around your website.

2. There are a couple noticeable spacing issues with the text when I viewed it on my laptop (pricing had some major ones).

3. Photos: I would stick to clear, bright photos. Putting interior photos up that look dark can give off a sense of a "dreary home". If you can't lighten them up, then I'd just leave them off entirely. Actually, I'd just stick to a few of your favorite pictures- in my opinion, you don't need to put pictures of your entire home or play space in. Take some pictures of your son playing in the bright outdoor space (if you take photos of other children, make sure you have a photo release!).

4. The "Darling Ducklings Doings": while very cute, definitely take out anything that parents might not be thrilled with... like the being sick part. All I think as a parent is "wow, the entire month of February people were sick...I'm not going there".

Good luck! It takes time to establish yourself. Try putting business cards up in coffee shops, grocery store bulletin boards, libraries. Tell your friends to put out the word- post it on Facebook asking friends to "share" your openings.

[Unregistered]

You might not like my advice. I would invest a bit more. Your daycare area seems very spare. It is solely for daycare or for your use, too? I'd get rid of that couch and it would free up a lot of space. It seems bare and cramped at the same time. I don't know if it's the angle, but your backyard seems huge and also with nothing in it. I just just make it look more inviting and kid friendly. I think the biggest issues are that when people come to you, if the pictures aren't making things look different, is they can see there's not a lot of children there. When I see that, as a parent, I think it looks so sad and lonely. As a teacher and provider, I think "This person has no experience". If you have a basement or attic, I would try and put some stuff there and do like a rotating system.

[Snowmom]

One other thing/idea.
That white brick wall outside with the rust.
That screams outdoor chalkboard to me.
I would paint that with chalkboard paint and if you're good at drawing, I would draw up a cute chalk rendition of your business name, have the kids stand in front making faces and snap a photo- using that as my homepage.

[LysesKids]

I run an in home daycare. We completed our state registration in October of last year (5 months ago). So far all I've managed to bring in is one little girl for two days per week. We had another little one for 2 days before her parents put her into a large center. I advertise multiple times per week on Craigslist, and have adds up at every online classified listing site I can find. We are listed on our states CCRR referral list but have gotten nothing through it. I'm active and advertise on Facebook groups, as many as I can find. We have put up flyers and signs in our area.

Our website seems to land traffic, we are listed with Google and Bing. We offer a sign up promotion. Any ideas or recommendations for improvements? www.DarlingDucklingsPortland.com.

I hope this doesn't come across as advertising or pandering. I'm just getting desperate. My husband has been working 2 jobs to get us through until the daycare takes off. Savings are going to run out. I need kids soon or I will have to start making other plans. And ideas welcome.

Honey, it can take months to fill spots, we have all been there. Are your rates competitive with others around you for what you offer? What makes you different - parents will want to know.

I looked thru the site too... I don't like that first page - there is nothing on it that says to me Hey, this is an overview of what we offer ( inc ages, perks etc); it's Boring and doesn't entice me to go further into the site. Question? Are you on the food program AND why are you offering snack just an hour before lunch? Make Breakfast start at 8:30 & drop the morning snack otherwise you will be wasting food come 11:30a. Most FP allow for a certain # of hours between meals & snacks.

Another question - why take the Pics with the drapes closed - open those puppies up & let the natural light do it's thing. I also agree that the duckling doings page needs re-work... just my opinion.

[LysesKids]

One other thing/idea.
That white brick wall outside with the rust.
That screams outdoor chalkboard to me.
I would paint that with chalkboard paint and if you're good at drawing, I would draw up a cute chalk rendition of your business name, have the kids stand in front making faces and snap a photo- using that as my homepage.

I agree with this... I was going to suggest painting that wall somehow because it looks unkept, but your idea is brilliant

[Lovisa]

Aside from what others have mentioned about your website, I can tell you that it can take a while to get clients. I honestly never got any from Craigslist. Mine have almost all been from either word of mouth or our licensing resource and referral office. I had one client before I was officially licensed last April. Didn't get my second until August. Third was in November. 4th and 5th just last month. Now, several days a week I am full with 5 kids (because one of my own kids counts towards my capacity). So it literally took me 11 months to get here.

I also felt like there were times where I was like dang, no one is calling, did I make the wrong decision? But then I would all of the sudden get an influx of calls. Kinda happens in spurts sometimes

[daycare]

One thing I noticed was lots of cords that are shown in the pictures. I would do everything you can to hide those and not have them exposed.

Also the curtains are very dark and make the room very dim.

The pic of the kids hugging is cute but the huge mess they made would make me think maybe the kids are allowed to just destroy the place.

Lots of cute stuff on for site!!

[Unregistered]

One thing I noticed was lots of cords that are shown in the pictures. I would do everything you can to hide those and not have them exposed.

Also the curtains are very dark and make the room very dim.

The pic of the kids hugging is cute but the huge mess they made would make me think maybe the kids are allowed to just destroy the place.

Lots of cute stuff on for site!!

I also think there's too many pictures of your son. I would be thinking it's all about him. Like he's the boss of the children or something. Yes, there are a lot of children of providers in my area who are like that. I also don't like he looks a lot older than the little girl. If you don't want to include pics of the kids, or the parents don't agree, I would show their art work.

[LysesKids]

You might not like my advice. I would invest a bit more. Your daycare area seems very spare. It is solely for daycare or for your use, too? I'd get rid of that couch and it would free up a lot of space. It seems bare and cramped at the same time. I don't know if it's the angle, but your backyard seems huge and also with nothing in it. I just just make it look more inviting and kid friendly. I think the biggest issues are that when people come to you, if the pictures aren't making things look different, is they can see there's not a lot of children there. When I see that, as a parent, I think it looks so sad and lonely. As a teacher and provider, I think "This person has no experience". If you have a basement or attic, I would try and put some stuff there and do like a rotating system.

I agree Just being honest - Something else I noticed when I went back to the OP's website is that the link bar ( about us, Rates, Contact etc) seems to jump from bottom to top every few pages. It needs to stay in one spot for continuity. That drives me batty when I have to keep looking up & down to switch pages.

[Unregistered]

I'd get rid of the duckling doings. It seems more like your personal blog
You could post menu's, meals, pictures of artwork, pictures of games they created, stuff like that. Only daycare related.
I'd also change the front pic. I'd either post a pic of a logo, an about page, or your tabs

[Darling]

We are in the process of getting new pictures for the site. More open window pics, hopefully a new design for the front page of the website that looks less like a real estate add. There will probably be less pics overall on the site. And cords will be better hidden.

The idea about moving the couches out won't go. That is our family living room as well as the main daycare area. The family room with the big couch on it is 500 square feet so there is a lot of play room in it. It's just impossible to get a full picture of all the room with the size of it.

Sick blog post was a bad idea. It was just an attempt to explain the lack of postings on the blog. Blog will be cleaned up and more frequently added to. I think it's a good attention getter for the site. It automatically posts to Facebook and draws looks if not business. More clicks moves us up google rankings.

I'm not sure about the formatting problems. I've opened the site on multiple devices. What are you seeing that looks wrong?

I'd love to get the wall cleaned up in the back yard. It's actually the side of our neighbors garage. Now that it's spring I'm hoping my husband can find the time around his work to prep and paint it with chalk board paint. But there's nothing we can do to stop their rusty flashing from continuing to rust. We can't exactly fix their roof for them.

The backyard is huge. Fully enclosed. All safety checked and kid friendly. So how do I take a picture that looks like it's fun to play on without it looking cluttered?

We have a catch 22. We need to look like we have a bunch of kids in our care, but without caring for kids we can't get that experience of pictures.

Our rates are on the low end for our area. We thought it best to start low as a new care provider. And honestly, we only are aiming for 3 kids full time at the max. We really want to keep the kids in personal care.

The snack timing is just because we wanted to list it. 2 meals and 2 snacks available daily. We qualify for the food program but have yet to use it due to lack of kiddos.

[Unregistered]

We are in the process of getting new pictures for the site. More open window pics, hopefully a new design for the front page of the website that looks less like a real estate add. There will probably be less pics overall on the site. And cords will be better hidden.

The idea about moving the couches out won't go. That is our family living room as well as the main daycare area. The family room with the big couch on it is 500 square feet so there is a lot of play room in it. It's just impossible to get a full picture of all the room with the size of it.

Sick blog post was a bad idea. It was just an attempt to explain the lack of postings on the blog. Blog will be cleaned up and more frequently added to. I think it's a good attention getter for the site. It automatically posts to Facebook and draws looks if not business. More clicks moves us up google rankings.

I'm not sure about the formatting problems. I've opened the site on multiple devices. What are you seeing that looks wrong?

I'd love to get the wall cleaned up in the back yard. It's actually the side of our neighbors garage. Now that it's spring I'm hoping my husband can find the time around his work to prep and paint it with chalk board paint. But there's nothing we can do to stop their rusty flashing from continuing to rust. We can't exactly fix their roof for them.

The backyard is huge. Fully enclosed. All safety checked and kid friendly. So how do I take a picture that looks like it's fun to play on without it looking cluttered?

We have a catch 22. We need to look like we have a bunch of kids in our care, but without caring for kids we can't get that experience of pictures.

Our rates are on the low end for our area. We thought it best to start low as a new care provider. And honestly, we only are aiming for 3 kids full time at the max. We really want to keep the kids in personal care.

The snack timing is just because we wanted to list it. 2 meals and 2 snacks available daily. We qualify for the food program but have yet to use it due to lack of kiddos.

I still think you should add more things to the back yard. Things like pails, shovels, hula hoops, ect. From what I'm seeing you have two slides, a basketball hoop, and some type of children furniture on your patio. It seems very uninviting. It looks more like a playdate than a home daycare to me. Like "We have this stuff out here, but it's not too in the way". I'm very surprised with the house size. Not from the outside, but how the room is arranged. Is there anywhere you can you put your daycare that the family doesn't go?

[Darling]

I still think you should add more things to the back yard. Things like pails, shovels, hula hoops, ect. From what I'm seeing you have two slides, a basketball hoop, and some type of children furniture on your patio. It seems very uninviting. It looks more like a playdate than a home daycare to me. Like "We have this stuff out here, but it's not too in the way". I'm very surprised with the house size. Not from the outside, but how the room is arranged. Is there anywhere you can you put your daycare that the family doesn't go?

We have all of that yard stuff, it was just put away in the toy box when we took pictures. Lots of balls, hoops, cars, sand box, water table, etc. It will get drug out before we take pics again.

The daycare is setup to use our large family room, dining room, and a dedicated daycare only nursery/quiet room. We would prefer to care for young kids, under 4 so that's the way we set it up. The home is only 1400 square feet and the kids are allowed into about 1000 of it of you include the kitchen, 750 without kitchen. To maintain livability we kinda have to keep furniture in the family room.

[Unregistered]

We have all of that yard stuff, it was just put away in the toy box when we took pictures. Lots of balls, hoops, cars, sand box, water table, etc. It will get drug out before we take pics again.

The daycare is setup to use our large family room, dining room, and a dedicated daycare only nursery/quiet room. We would prefer to care for young kids, under 4 so that's the way we set it up. The home is only 1400 square feet and the kids are allowed into about 1000 of it of you include the kitchen, 750 without kitchen. To maintain livability we kinda have to keep furniture in the family room.

Ok, that explains a lot. I think as you get more kids you'll see you should have picked a home with a different layout.