Strategies for Advertising Your In-Home Childcare Services

Deciding to offer childcare in your home is the easiest part of the process in making your dream a reality. If you dream it, you can be it, may be true, but dreams do not come to fruition without action on your part. After you have worked out the details of how you will run your in-home childcare and looked into the special rules and considerations set by your local authorities, you are now in the position to start accepting children . But how do you go about finding those families who are willing to trust you with their children and enlist your services?

Home Childcare Can Be Intimidating for Potential Families

While a home environment for childcare makes sense to many families, the truth is a smaller environment can be scary for parents. When someone decides to use a large, well-known childcare center an instant trust is seemingly formed. Why? Checks and balances. These centers have various degrees of management and supervision that automatically ensures accountability; kiddie cams allow parents to always see what is going on in their child’s classroom, daily progress reports are sent home and the overall sense of organization awards these centers their legitimacy. Checks and balances give parents comfort.

I do not say this to discourage anyone who wants to offer childcare out of their home because there is something to be said for childcare services being performed in an individual’s home and there are a lot of parents who are looking for the more personal, one-on-one attention that home childcare providers can offer. But, finding these families can be tasking. I offer to you three easy, affordable suggestions to begin this next journey in your life.

Word-of-Mouth

Make it a priority to let all of your friends and family know about your in-home childcare venture. Friends and family provide networking opportunities that may help find potential families, while their referral is an instant  personal reference. Positive, solid references are crucial to your success in gaining new families.

Social Networking Outlets

When I say social networking outlets, I mean something a bit more than Facebook or Twitter. These two social mediums shouldn’t be ignored, but there are other traditional “social networking” methods that work, too. Church bulletins, restaurant bulletin boards and local mom’s groups are ideal avenues to finding families. Don’t forget alerting the schools in your area. Schools generally keep lists of childcare providers who provide after-care for elementary students or regular full-time care for non school-age children.

Old School Tactics

Computers,innovative software programs and home printers make it cheap and easy to design simple flyers advertising your services. Include pictures of the spaces in your home which will be the primary locations where the children will spend the majority of their day to give potential families a preview. Spend a few evenings distributing these around target neighborhoods that are close to your home to inform families that there is a close and convenient childcare option available for them.

You can also put an ad in your local newspaper. These ads can be pricey, but they attract a large number of potential families.

Final Thoughts

The above tips should help you begin your home childcare business, but there is much more to contemplate once you begin interviewing and accepting families. These include: contracts, policies and procedures, scheduling and dealing with difficult children and parents. The next article in this series will talk about the importance of contracts and clear policy and procedures to make your childcare business thrive.

Do you provide childcare? What advertising techniques did you utilize?