We moved to our current area last year about this time and as I was staying home with my kids I decided to "babysit" a couple more. I put up the 'ol "Stay at home looking to provide care for another kid or two" post on CG and facebook. There were very few other people posting and I quickly had 4 kids "enrolled". I even stated in my ad that I was just looking to care for a kid or two and "not open a full fledged daycare". I was not interested in a bigger venture and my house wasn't set up for it.
Fast forward a year and we're moving to a bigger house and I am actually wanting to move to a daycare business. Only now there are suddenly (within the past 3 months) a TON of ads just like the one I posted a year ago. It seems like everyone and their sister are offering care. There are also several options for licensed care in the area, but its military town with lots of young families coming and going.
I've been on the fence about licensing, which would actually only increase my numbers by two kids. So the plan for now is to stay at 4 (the legally unlicensed limit), run the program exactly like I would if I were licensed, and if the demand there start licensing a few months down the road or next year.
My questions are, what are some tips to make me stand out from all the other "stay-at-home mom providers"? I'm looking for advice in all areas: advertising, interviewing, programming, rates. I'm afraid that not being licensed will hurt interest, but also afraid that the demand may be dwindling this year. (There is military turn over quite a bit so it seems to be feast or famine around here).
Fast forward a year and we're moving to a bigger house and I am actually wanting to move to a daycare business. Only now there are suddenly (within the past 3 months) a TON of ads just like the one I posted a year ago. It seems like everyone and their sister are offering care. There are also several options for licensed care in the area, but its military town with lots of young families coming and going.
I've been on the fence about licensing, which would actually only increase my numbers by two kids. So the plan for now is to stay at 4 (the legally unlicensed limit), run the program exactly like I would if I were licensed, and if the demand there start licensing a few months down the road or next year.
My questions are, what are some tips to make me stand out from all the other "stay-at-home mom providers"? I'm looking for advice in all areas: advertising, interviewing, programming, rates. I'm afraid that not being licensed will hurt interest, but also afraid that the demand may be dwindling this year. (There is military turn over quite a bit so it seems to be feast or famine around here).
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