Whether you’re looking at opening a daycare center or grow your existing center with additional students and increased income, we’ll offer some tips and tools to help you along the way.
As a center owner, your childcare is your livelihood and your passion. Seeing its success is important to you. To help you get there, here are three steps to continue as a developing childcare center.
Get tips from other developing childcare centers
Discuss your childcare center with other childcare business owners but also other types of businesses. While operating a childcare center is a unique business with nuances, you can still learn from other business owners. These other business owners can share how they manage their business. Learn from other businesses how they do their marketing. Also ask about where they post job openings. Find out more about how they manage their finances.
By learning from other local and successful businesses, you can ensure your childcare center is reaching its full potential. It’s easy to get blindsided to the specific struggles and challenges that childcare centers face and ignore the larger business aspects that need tending to.
Other things you can learn from other business owners is how to balance work and home life. Some business owners put all of their time and energy into work and forget to take time for themselves and their family. Business owners who have successfully started and operated a business without losing their minds can be invaluable.
Set up strong financials
If you’re operating your childcare without a strong budget, it’s time to take another look at your financials. You should have an operating budget that includes staff salaries and wages, supplies and business expenses such as insurance, transportation, and building maintenance.
If you’re still a developing childcare center, you can seek grants to help with startup costs. There are many types of grants available and some might be specific to your region or for early childhood education.
You also might qualify for certain tax credits if you have an in-home daycare. To best understand your tax credits or deductions, you can get more involved in your personal income tax filing. However, you should discuss your qualifications with a tax advisor to ensure you’re on track and documenting things properly.
Have all the right tools
When you have the right tools for the job, you’re much more likely to achieve business success. One tool you should have is a strong contract. This way, your clients can sign off on all your policies. This includes what happens in the case of a sick child, what days your center is closed, late payments and any fees associated with them, who can pick up the child, and the services you approve of.
You also need strong marketing tools to get the word out about your center and what makes it unique. As part of this process, you should figure out what makes your childcare unique from your local competitors. This will help you spread the word and attract new clients so that you keep your preschool program at capacity throughout the year.
Another tool you should have for your childcare center is childcare management software. Childcare software allows you to manage your finances, communicate with parents and seamlessly track developmental milestones all in one place. This way, you can make administration simpler for yourself, impress parents and provide for the best care and education of all our children.
iCare Software is a leading childcare software designed for childcare centers, Montessori, after-school and wraparound care, preschools and more. Feel free to contact us with any questions about your center’s software needs.