Please Give Advice on This E-mail

[momofboys]

I am supposed to begin a nanny job this fall. I am excited about it as it will give me almost 1 1/2 days off a week (they need me 3 1/2 days/week). I feel as if I have underpriced my services. I composed the e-mail below. I have not sent it but would like some advice as to the content. Thank you!!!

One side note: I have only talked to the parents a few times & met with them once but the mom & I have e-mailed about a lot of details, etc over the past month or so. It would seem weird to call her since I have only talked to them a couple of times.

Dear Prospective Employer:

I hope your move went smoothly & wasn't too hard in spite of all the rainy weather. We are all looking forward to a fun-filled & mostly-relaxing summer. I bet your husband & ***X can't wait for summer break!

I wanted to discuss with you the weekly pay amount we had talked about. I know we had discussed a pay amount of $******/week. At the time we had discussed this I had not taken into account that I was going to have to pay a friend a small amount to get my older kids off to school at least 3 days a week. It's not a lot of $$ but it is more than I had anticipated (welcome to the world of paying for childcare!). Because of this I was wondering (& I really hate to ask because I don't want to come off as going back on what we agreed on!) if it was possible to discuss a slightly higher wage? Possibly $xxmore per day (or maybe $***/more week?. Again, I hate asking but that small amount would make a big difference to me. If you would please discuss this between the two of you & get back to me & let me know your thoughts. If you want that could be the extra amount for any extra chores we had talked about previously that go above the normal. I would be willing to do 1 "bigger" more time-consuming household chore a week & that could be the extra pay for doing that.

I am excited to begin helping your family & am looking forward to putting together some fun & educational pre-school activities for *** & *** to enjoy this fall/winter. As we had discussed previously, I would be happy to come help a few days this summer to get acquainted with the kids & make the fall transition a little easier. Let me know what dates would be good for you.

Thank you,

momofboys

[Sunshine44]

I think it you don't like the agreed amount of money, you should state that...but I think you have too many personal details in there. I'm not sure you need to explain in great detail about what you are using the extra money for. It also seems a tad too personal of a letter for someone you have only talked with a few times.

[Cat Herder]

Don't take this wrong, this is just my opinion.

It reads very, very, very submissive and that is just not my personality (bet you would have never known that : so take my advice as just something to consider.

I would definitely take out the part of paying a "friend", I would use "another provider" or something that does not sound like a false premise to bump up your income.

Personally I would not ask, I would just tell her what I need. I am older than my clients and can get away with it, though.

Only you know your relationship with her. I have not had a "boss" for such a long time I would not remember how to be the employee anymore.

[MarinaVanessa]

I have to agree with sunshine. Too much personal info in there. Just a generic "I'd like to discuss an higher pay rate of $XX.xx per week/day. Please let me know". I was just thinking about how if it were a client asking me to lower my rate because she needed to pay a little more than she thought to have a friend pick her SA from school and such I would be thinking "sorry, not my problem". Same thing if I were going to pay someone for child care. My thoughts would be "paying you for care of my kids, not for mine and yours also". Think about just editing it and leaving that part out.

[wdmmom]

If you agreed to work for a specified amount of money and are now changing it, you are forfeiting the job. JMO

You can't ask for a "raise" before starting. If you set a rate, that's the rate you work for...unless they are adding to your job responsibilities, hours, etc.

[MamaBear]

take out...

Take out all the personal stuff - reasonings for needing more $$. Be prepared though that they might pass you up since your asking for an increase in pay after it was already agreed upon. Is it a lot more $? If its just a dollar than maybe they'd agree? I dunno. But definitely take out the personal mumbo jumbo and make it straight to the point of what you want. They can take it or leave it really.

[momofboys]

If you agreed to work for a specified amount of money and are now changing it, you are forfeiting the job. JMO

You can't ask for a "raise" before starting. If you set a rate, that's the rate you work for...unless they are adding to your job responsibilities, hours, etc.

We don't have a contract yet. . . we are still putting it together so no one has signed anything to agree to anything yet. However, we have discussed the pay but I figured since it was not in writing yet it was up for discussion.

Thanks gals for your advice. . . I agree it probably is too lengthy/wordy/too much information. I will revise. And I would not be paying a friend, it would be a provider, I don't know why I put the word friend.

[sharlan]

Too much personal info.

Turn it around this way - you interview with a prospective parent. You tell them that you charge $ per hour/$ per day. They agree to your fees. BUT, before the start day, the parent sends you an email and says that due to the economy/gas prices/etc, she can't pay your fee and needs you to drop your rates. What would you do?

[daycare]

my advice is never start a business relationship giving your personal hardships or brudens....Sorry not saying that your cihldren are either, but they are expenses. I think that if you were to start off this way that they may think oh no, this woman is goign to be the kind that will ask for pay in advance or give us sob stories from time to time involving money. SOrry if I sound rude, I am not being rude at all, I am just telling you what I would think if someone I was to hire would tell me this.

I think that you can ask for a higher rate and need to state that you misundserstood all the details and after much thought and consideration, you would be willing to do the job for X amount of dollars.

I hired a graphic artistist for my husbands company one time who did this to me, He gave me oh can you pay me more than half up front, i have bills to pay. His contract asked for only half. I gave in and did it. Two weeks later, job still not done and he comes to me and says oh well I really need gas money so I can drop off the other half of the art work to your office. Ugh really, so again I give him a little more. After 3 times of doing this I finally said NO MORE. I don't care if you are the greatest artisit in my area, I am not dealing with your personal life anymore.....over it. I never hired him again and he was quickly the joke of the town. Not saying that this will be you, but never start off a business relationship giving too much personal information, especially when it is in regards to money. JMO

[momma2girls]

We don't have a contract yet. . . we are still putting it together so no one has signed anything to agree to anything yet. However, we have discussed the pay but I figured since it was not in writing yet it was up for discussion.

Thanks gals for your advice. . . I agree it probably is too lengthy/wordy/too much information. I will revise. And I would not be paying a friend, it would be a provider, I don't know why I put the word friend.

I don't think there is anything wrong with this. There isn't any signed contract, or anything. I wouldn't put in your letter, of your personal items as well. Keep all that out.
GOod luck!!

[momofboys]

How about this????:


Dear Prospective Employer:

I hope your move went smoothly & wasn't too hard in spite of all the rainy weather. We are all looking forward to a fun-filled & mostly-relaxing summer. I bet your husband & ***X can't wait for summer break!

I wanted to discuss with you the weekly pay amount we had talked about. I know we had discussed a pay amount of $******/week. After much thought & consideration I wanted to let you know I am still enthusiastic & excited about the prospect of assisting your family with your childcare needs. However, I would need to ask for a daily rate of $_____/day or $____/week in order to come help your family. If you want that could be the extra amount for any extra chores we had talked about previously that go above the normal. I would be willing to do some extra time-consuming household chores each week as we discussed & that could be the extra pay for doing those. Please discuss this with Matt & let me know your thoughts.

[Live and Learn]

How about this????:


Dear Prospective Employer:

I hope your move went smoothly & wasn't too hard in spite of all the rainy weather. We are all looking forward to a fun-filled & mostly-relaxing summer. I bet your husband & ***X can't wait for summer break!

I wanted to discuss with you the weekly pay amount we had talked about. I know we had discussed a pay amount of $******/week. After much thought & consideration I wanted to let you know I am still enthusiastic & excited about the prospect of assisting your family with your childcare needs. However, I would need to ask for a daily rate of $_____/day or $____/week in order to come help your family. If you want that could be the extra amount for any
extra chores we had talked about previously that go above the normal. I would be willing to do some extra time-consuming household chores each week as we discussed & that could be the extra pay for doing those. Please discuss this with Matt & let me know your thoughts.

This is better. In the first sentence I would substitute the word "hard" with difficult or challenging.

[momofboys]

OR THIS:

Dear PArent:

I know we had discussed me doing extra household chores for extra pay. I was wondering if we could discuss the possiblity of picking a set amount of compensation each week & adding it to my pay. Then you could feel free to pick 1-2 more time-consuming chores each week for me to do.



I can write it better than that (I don't like the way the words flow, ). But part of me thinks this is better since we already discussed doing extra work for more $$$ but we never talked about the amount, etc.

[momofboys]

This is better. In the first sentence I would substitute the word "hard" with difficult or challenging.

Tks. . . that does sound better

[JenNJ]

Dear Employer,

I hope your move went smoothly & wasn't too hard in spite of all the rainy weather. We are all looking forward to a fun-filled & mostly-relaxing summer. I bet your husband & ***X can't wait for summer break!

I wanted to discuss my weekly payment. I know we had discussed a pay amount of approximately $******/week. After much thought and consideration I wanted to let you know that while I am still enthusiastic & excited about the prospect of assisting your family with your childcare needs, I would need to ask for a rate of $_____/day or $____/week in order to come help your family. I feel that with the extra household chores we discussed not related to the children this is a fair wage for my services. I also feel that I could take on ______ (task) and _______ (task) at this wage.

Please discuss this with *** and let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,


******