Using Open Houses To Promote Your Daycare Centre

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Open houses are the best way to convince parents to sign their children up your centre. But for an open house to be an effective marketing tool, there are some pre open-house preparations to be made and a budget allocated. What you want to is create a memorable experience for both the parents and the child.

1. Timing
Open houses should be over the weekends so that the working parents can check out your centre at a leisurely pace. It can be over one weekend or if resources permit, offer it over two or three weekends.

2. Promoting your open house
There are a number of ways to ensure that news of your open house is spread.
- Put up a banner, with the date and time of your open house, about two weeks before your actual open house.
- Take up an advertisement in the local papers announcing your open house.
- Put up notices in as many high traffic areas as possible such as local cafés and eating places. Do not forget to put it up your own centre so that the other parents are informed. Nothing beats word of mouth advertising.
- Print flyers and distribute it at high traffic areas in and around your neighbourhood a week before your open house.

3. Pre event preparations
- Do some spring cleaning. Ensure that the centre is neat and tidy, no wires exposed, the books and notes neatly stacked, dirty stains painted over, etc.
- Frame up all your the licenses and awards and put them up. Pin up nice photographs of children’s activities and their drawings.
- Ensure that all the necessary materials are ready and inserted into nice presentation folders. Items include curriculum, time table, food menu, etc. Prepare a few sets.
- Prepare a nice little album / scrapbook of photographs

4. Open house programme
- Ensure that you have sufficient brochures for the parents to bring home.
- Ensure that you have lots of enrollment forms and writing materials available
- Prepare a programme for the children e.g. face painting, art and craft, story telling, etc.
- Ensure that you have enough helpers on the day of your open house
- Prepare some snacks and light refreshments
- If budget permits, prepare small little door gifts and give it to them as they depart, preferably with the name of your centre printed. Examples of door gift as car decals or balloons.

After the open house is over, the work is not done yet. Remember to follow up on all your leads. Write little notes on the form such as when to follow up with them, etc so that you do not forget. Organise and file them in an orderly manner. One suggestion is to file them according to when they said that they will sign up, so that you know when to follow up.

Happy organising!

For more information or resources on starting a daycare, please visit http://www.setupadaycare.com

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Do you work and have young children?

Does any of this sound familiar at all to you?

You're a working couple or single parent trying to make a decent living for your family by working fulltime. You're away on the job anywhere from 40-60 hours a week. Since most of your time is spent away from home, someone's got to care for your children, so daycare is critical to your family's existence.

You feel terrible when you drop your kids off at daycare every morning and wish there was a way you could change that and be able to spend the days together with them yourself. Then, at the end of the day, you're lucky to spend an hour or two with your kids before it's bath and bedtime and time to get ready to repeat the cycle tomorrow.

But what can you do, right? Someone's got to bring home the money to pay the bills, buy the food, pay the mortgage. Wouldn't everything be so much better if you could be in your home everyday raising your children the very best way you know how?

You may have even brainstormed ways you could change this common situation in your life. Get a night job so you're home during the day? Get some type of work-from-home income going like "typing-from-home", "stuffing envelopes", "home assembly", etc. All those so called "opportunities" that just don't sound legit right from the get go. You may have even had a passing thought of starting your own in-home daycare. But that could never work either, right?

Well, that might not be quite as far fetched as you think. In fact, that same little dream has become a reality for many former out-of-home working parents. They've started their own mommy or daddy daycare and have made life changes for the better because of it. More time with their kids first and foremost, but they're still paying the bills as well. And they're their own boss too by the way! Commonly for most though, this is only a quick passing idea and then the thought of "I could never do that, I wouldn't even know where to start" pops in and snuffs out any chance of progress. You may think too that there just wouldn't be any way of getting anyone else besides your own children to enroll in your daycare.

Certainly, the market is open for excellent, quality childcare at reasonable fees. Daycare centers across the country are at full capacity or are getting close to it. You may have even encountered placing your own children on a waiting list to enroll at a daycare you chose. People rely on childcare these days, and it's hard to foresee that changing anytime soon.

Well then, what if, just what if you COULD start your own daycare and knew how to make it a success? Wouldn't it really only take having a good, proven plan and sticking to it to get started? Sure. But there are a couple of things you really need to have as your foundation before starting to build on this idea. After all, not everyone who loves their kids, and enjoys spending time with children in general, has the mettle to make a daycare business work long term. Do you have what it takes?

Thoughtfully consider the following first:

1) Do you possess a true desire to succeed in changing your life for the better for you, your children and for other families who would depend on you for their child's care and nurturing during their time at your daycare?

2) Do you know the steps required to make it happen?

It sounds pretty simple I'm sure. But, as with accomplishing anything, you need to first WANT to do it and then you have to DO it! The first part, wanting to do it and having that desire, comes from within your self. You already know if it's something you'd want to do or not. If you don't, there's no magic information out there that will change that.

If you do want to, it's simply a matter of having the right, proven blueprint to follow the steps to making it happen. Maybe you already have a general idea of what it takes from past experiences in childcare, babysitting, youth groups, etc. But where do you get a detailed plan to work from? Where do you find the information that walks you through each step in the process of starting a daycare as your own business? It's difficult. There is a lot of information available out there that can give someone general conceptual ideas to getting started. There are also some resources that include very good details about what needs to be done. Problem is, finding the right information that covers everything necessary all in one resource. Something that covers the "big picture" while still "filling in all the blanks" that might frustrate you otherwise.

The good news is that there is such a complete resource available to anyone who is interested in starting their own daycare center as a business. It's called the Starting a Day Care Center Start-Up Guide Kit™ by Vanessa Rasmussen. You may want to learn more about this guide and how it can help you make your daycare dream come true by visiting freedom4usall.blogspot.com

David has contributed articles and information to multiple websites and forums. If you've found this article useful and informative and would like additional information, please visit http://freedom4usall.blogspot.com/

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Now a days the only way for some families to make it, is for both the mother and father work and the children go to daycare. The daycares are not only expensive but you don't really know what goes on while your children are there.

My daughter and son-in-law were in the group of working parents. My grandson was put in a childcare while they worked. My grandson wasn't the type to cry and act up when he was dropped off. Then he changed. We all thought it was because he was spoiled and didn't want to leave mommy and daddy. It got to the point that my daughter had to get him interested in a toy and sneak out of the place. This went on for months. Then Grandma showed up and was blessed with babysitting for the day. Let me tell you, what a day. From the time my daughter and son-in-law left for work, and until they came home my grandson did nothing but cry. And I mean really cry. How heartbreaking. He kept saying, I want my mommy, I want my daddy, I really love my mommy, I really love my daddy. It made me cry. This went on for 6 hours steady. He would sit there and play but still cry and repeat I really love my mommy, I really love my daddy, I want my mommy, I want my daddy. Finally I got him down for a nap. He wore himself out from all the crying. My daughter had finally arrived home from work. She couldn't believe him acting like that. Tristan never had a problem staying with me. We couldn't figure out why all of a sudden there was a big change in him.

She had called the daycare to see if there was something going on there. She had explained his actions for the day. The lady she had talked to had said that it was probably because he wasn't use to being around Grandma cause she lives in Georgia and doesn't come often. Wrong. Grandma was there every other week. After she went round for round with the lady, she ended up taking my grandson out of the daycare and put him in another one. My grandson was back to his old self. Laughing and playing, having a good time. Even found himself a girlfriend.

A few weeks later, my daughter was talking to a friend who works in the building next to the daycare. Well, she started talking about my grandson and how he was acting, and that she had to put him in another daycare. It turns out that the friend witnessed one of the workers at the daycare outside on the side of the building sitting in a chair with my grandson sitting on her lap with her arms around his chest and her legs wrapped around his legs and him crying his little heart out. This act of discipline nearly ruined my grandson. If they did that to my grandson, what else were they doing there?

My grandson is no longer in daycare, he is in second grade and his mom is a stay at home mom. He is doing great and a happy little fellow.

So if you need to put your child in a daycare, be sure to check it out before you leave your child. And if you see a difference in your child's attitude or behavior, check it out. There is a reason why.

Continue

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