In-home and family daycare businesses must do more than provide quality childcare. Once your facility is set up and ready to accept children, the next step is to market your business in order to attract clients. Below are key strategies for promoting your in-home or family childcare business:
Visibility:
Advertising is the best way to promote your family daycare business. Advertising options can range from very inexpensive (such as distributing fliers) to very expensive (buying advertising space in a newspaper).
Flyers are a simple and easy way to create visibility for your in-home daycare. The best places to leave flyers and brochures are where children and parents assemble. Think toy stores, Laundromats, pediatric hospitals, Lamaze classes, churches, shopping centers.
Business cards are an important marketing tool that adds to and conveys your professional image. Always have them handy. You never know when an opportunity to market yourself will present itself. In addition, handing them out to your current clients makes it easy for them to refer potential clients to you. Vista Print provides free simple personalized business cards. All you must pay for is shipping costs.
Websites or web pages are inexpensive ways to reach potential clients. Today, you can buy web space very cheaply and insert your information into a simple template. GoDaddy.com is a perfect example, offering inexpensive web space and an easy to use web builder. If you are not handy with a computer or web design is not your forte, consider hiring a college student to create a simple website for you to cut costs.
Also consider adding your business to an online directory. Daycare Match is an excellent website which helps parents and child care providers find each other. By signing up and creating a child care provider profile, you can increase the visibility of your business.
Hold an open house to get potential clients into your in-home family daycare. Make sure the event is properly organized and your home is neat and clean. Have plenty of copies of important information regarding curriculum, tuition rates, hours of operation, insurance, and special services that you offer.
Be seen! Have colorful t-shirts, hats, and/or totes made with your logo, the name of your daycare, and contact information. Wear these items when you are out in public and have the children wear them when on field trips. Use your car as a billboard. Place plates, stickers, or other signage on the car you drive to advertise and promote your family daycare effortlessly.
Networking:
Networking is critical to in-home and family daycare businesses. The best way to network is through your current clients: the parents that are already using your services. Set up a referral program that will provide a reasonable child care discount to a current client if they refer a new client to you and that client enrolls in your daycare program.
Marketing strategy possibilities are endless and are only limited by your creativity. Be patient and don’t give up. In time you will have loads of potential clients and a waiting list as your in-home or family daycare grows.
For more information on family daycare, see my article In-Home and Family Daycare.
