Your Hours- New Provider

[DaveA]

My hours are 6a-5pm M-F. It's all I'm licensed for and I don't watch children outside of daycare hours.

[debbiedoeszip]

I'm curious - when all of you were new providers, would you work any hours/days, 24/7 care, or do only specific hours on M-F, etc?

Have a family wanting to do 11am-8pm for a 4 year old and I am considering it- currently only have drop-in kids and need income. But I also don't want to be working crazy long days.

Would you do this if new?

There is a provider in my area who provides 24/7 care but as a parent I'd be worried about her stress levels and burnout. I'd not want my child with someone who never has scheduled/regular down time.

My hours are 6:30am to 5:30pm, Monday to Friday. I've had no problems filling spaces. I guess it depends on your area and what the workplaces hours are. In my area, there is a large Air Force base and day shift hours are 7:30-4:00. There is also a lot of manufacturing and day shift for most plants (unless they have 12hr shifts) is 7:00-3:30. My opening hours covers both types of work places, and also the 9-5er.

Many of the AF spouses work later shifts and sometimes I'll have mom drop off around 8 or so, and then dad picks up around 4:30. Love that! Not as much full time need, though. I have only one child who is FT, the others are PT.

[momofsix]

I have done extended hours in the past, but won't any longer, just because I don't need to.
I had two separate families that stayed through dinner until about 8pm. One family ft for about a year until moms work hours changed. The other family pt until they aged out of my care. Both families were really good kids, and were kids that my own dd's loved and helped with. I think if my kids were annoyed by the dckids it would have been much different. My kids were all 12+ at that time, I think it would have been too much if they were younger.
I think it depends on what you feel you need to do financially and if you think you will be ok with the hours. We're all wired differently

[Blackcat31]

As a new provider I took kids on odd shifts.

It wasn't a huge deal as I had small kids of my own so I was already always in caretaker mode anyways. Plus my DH worked long hours away from home so it was a good way to get my name out there, gain some experience and earn some income.

After a few months of doing that I shored up my hours to 6PM at night and NO WEEKENDS. I still took kids early in the morning though (had a DCK dropped off at 5 a.m.) and still worked until 6.

By the end of my first year in business I was FULL! Like REALLY FULL! I think in hindsight, it was because I took all the part time, odd hour families but either way it helped alot both financially and business-wise/advertising.

After the 3rd year, I had enough clients that I was able to start weaning out the things I simply could no longer deal with.....first change was changing my closing time to 5:30 vs 6 and changed my opening time to 6:30. Made a HUGE difference.

Then I changed my rate structure and rather than charge hourly, I started charging daily no matter how many hours a child attended. That change decreases ALOT of my stress from having a part time kid in the morning and another part timer in the afternoon.... that over sharing caused overlapping attendance and ratios issues so I just couldn't do it....switching to whole days for rates eliminated the issue all together which in turn eliminated my stress too.

Over the years since then, I've shored up and tightened ALOT of things. Most of them rooted in MY PERSONAL need to be with my own family, have time away from work and simply not be so overworked.

I've also let go of some things too so the changes happen both ways in my opinion. You realize what makes you happy as a person, as a family and you realize what things are worth putting up with for the money and what things are not worth it and you adjust accordingly.

Daycare is an forever evolving business and when you make a change, there is always fall out from that change (both good and bad as well as personal and business changes) but bottom line is I truly believe that you must work FOR your business before your business will ever work FOR you.

So doing things now that you might not be willing to do later is okay. It's okay to change things when they no longer work. If the money is good (and/or needed) then I would do it. I would however agree to things with the mindset that you WILL change it when it no longer works for you/your family. Even if that means you are inconveniencing a client or upsetting them.

THAT is the beauty of self-employment.

[Mike]

As a new provider I took kids on odd shifts.

It wasn't a huge deal as I had small kids of my own so I was already always in caretaker mode anyways. Plus my DH worked long hours away from home so it was a good way to get my name out there, gain some experience and earn some income.

After a few months of doing that I shored up my hours to 6PM at night and NO WEEKENDS. I still took kids early in the morning though (had a DCK dropped off at 5 a.m.) and still worked until 6.

By the end of my first year in business I was FULL! Like REALLY FULL! I think in hindsight, it was because I took all the part time, odd hour families but either way it helped alot both financially and business-wise/advertising.

After the 3rd year, I had enough clients that I was able to start weaning out the things I simply could no longer deal with.....first change was changing my closing time to 5:30 vs 6 and changed my opening time to 6:30. Made a HUGE difference.

Then I changed my rate structure and rather than charge hourly, I started charging daily no matter how many hours a child attended. That change decreases ALOT of my stress from having a part time kid in the morning and another part timer in the afternoon.... that over sharing caused overlapping attendance and ratios issues so I just couldn't do it....switching to whole days for rates eliminated the issue all together which in turn eliminated my stress too.

Over the years since then, I've shored up and tightened ALOT of things. Most of them rooted in MY PERSONAL need to be with my own family, have time away from work and simply not be so overworked.

I've also let go of some things too so the changes happen both ways in my opinion. You realize what makes you happy as a person, as a family and you realize what things are worth putting up with for the money and what things are not worth it and you adjust accordingly.

Daycare is an forever evolving business and when you make a change, there is always fall out from that change (both good and bad as well as personal and business changes) but bottom line is I truly believe that you must work FOR your business before your business will ever work FOR you.

So doing things now that you might not be willing to do later is okay. It's okay to change things when they no longer work. If the money is good (and/or needed) then I would do it. I would however agree to things with the mindset that you WILL change it when it no longer works for you/your family. Even if that means you are inconveniencing a client or upsetting them.

THAT is the beauty of self-employment.

That's why I've been self-employed most of my life. Always equals longer hours because actual work time isn't all there is to self-employment, but the hours are pretty much under my control.

[childcaremom]

As a new provider I took kids on odd shifts.

It wasn't a huge deal as I had small kids of my own so I was already always in caretaker mode anyways. Plus my DH worked long hours away from home so it was a good way to get my name out there, gain some experience and earn some income.

After a few months of doing that I shored up my hours to 6PM at night and NO WEEKENDS. I still took kids early in the morning though (had a DCK dropped off at 5 a.m.) and still worked until 6.

By the end of my first year in business I was FULL! Like REALLY FULL! I think in hindsight, it was because I took all the part time, odd hour families but either way it helped alot both financially and business-wise/advertising.

After the 3rd year, I had enough clients that I was able to start weaning out the things I simply could no longer deal with.....first change was changing my closing time to 5:30 vs 6 and changed my opening time to 6:30. Made a HUGE difference.

Then I changed my rate structure and rather than charge hourly, I started charging daily no matter how many hours a child attended. That change decreases ALOT of my stress from having a part time kid in the morning and another part timer in the afternoon.... that over sharing caused overlapping attendance and ratios issues so I just couldn't do it....switching to whole days for rates eliminated the issue all together which in turn eliminated my stress too.

Over the years since then, I've shored up and tightened ALOT of things. Most of them rooted in MY PERSONAL need to be with my own family, have time away from work and simply not be so overworked.

I've also let go of some things too so the changes happen both ways in my opinion. You realize what makes you happy as a person, as a family and you realize what things are worth putting up with for the money and what things are not worth it and you adjust accordingly.

Daycare is an forever evolving business and when you make a change, there is always fall out from that change (both good and bad as well as personal and business changes) but bottom line is I truly believe that you must work FOR your business before your business will ever work FOR you.

So doing things now that you might not be willing to do later is okay. It's okay to change things when they no longer work. If the money is good (and/or needed) then I would do it. I would however agree to things with the mindset that you WILL change it when it no longer works for you/your family. Even if that means you are inconveniencing a client or upsetting them.

THAT is the beauty of self-employment.

This is good advice. I worked odd hours when I first opened. Then once I was full, advertised to replace with clients who fit in the hours that I wanted to be open.

I continuously adapt my business to my personal life now. I chose daycare so that I was here for my family and my own children. Those needs have changed over the years and my business has changed along with those needs.

In other words, just because you have x hours right now, doesn't mean you have to keep them forever. Changes are allowed.

[Laurie]

I was going to post pretty much the same thing Blackcat posted. All of us who have had our daycare for years have changed and evolved over time. Start out with what you're comfortable taking on. If you need the money and don't mind the hours, then go for it. It's not set in stone and you can change once that child's gone. I personally would never do 24/7 since I do have a life outside of my daycare!

When I started 24yrs ago, my hours were 7am-7pm! I kept those hours for a while and then changed them once I figured what hours most were coming and going. I currently have my hours set at 7:30am-5:30pm.

[daycarediva]

As a new provider I took kids on odd shifts.

It wasn't a huge deal as I had small kids of my own so I was already always in caretaker mode anyways. Plus my DH worked long hours away from home so it was a good way to get my name out there, gain some experience and earn some income.

After a few months of doing that I shored up my hours to 6PM at night and NO WEEKENDS. I still took kids early in the morning though (had a DCK dropped off at 5 a.m.) and still worked until 6.

By the end of my first year in business I was FULL! Like REALLY FULL! I think in hindsight, it was because I took all the part time, odd hour families but either way it helped alot both financially and business-wise/advertising.

After the 3rd year, I had enough clients that I was able to start weaning out the things I simply could no longer deal with.....first change was changing my closing time to 5:30 vs 6 and changed my opening time to 6:30. Made a HUGE difference.

Then I changed my rate structure and rather than charge hourly, I started charging daily no matter how many hours a child attended. That change decreases ALOT of my stress from having a part time kid in the morning and another part timer in the afternoon.... that over sharing caused overlapping attendance and ratios issues so I just couldn't do it....switching to whole days for rates eliminated the issue all together which in turn eliminated my stress too.

Over the years since then, I've shored up and tightened ALOT of things. Most of them rooted in MY PERSONAL need to be with my own family, have time away from work and simply not be so overworked.

I've also let go of some things too so the changes happen both ways in my opinion. You realize what makes you happy as a person, as a family and you realize what things are worth putting up with for the money and what things are not worth it and you adjust accordingly.

Daycare is an forever evolving business and when you make a change, there is always fall out from that change (both good and bad as well as personal and business changes) but bottom line is I truly believe that you must work FOR your business before your business will ever work FOR you.

So doing things now that you might not be willing to do later is okay. It's okay to change things when they no longer work. If the money is good (and/or needed) then I would do it. I would however agree to things with the mindset that you WILL change it when it no longer works for you/your family. Even if that means you are inconveniencing a client or upsetting them.

THAT is the beauty of self-employment.

this, exactly. It took me a couple of years at our current location to even bother with licensing. I was full after those 2 years and rarely advertising. I started changing policies, tightening up hours, raised rates, etc. Now I work 7:45-5.