How did you decide on a daycare for your small child/children?
Hello, I hope this is the right place for this kind of question. I've thought about posting it for a few weeks now but didn't know whether I should or not.
My wife has recently opened a small home daycare. We tailored everything to what we would look for if we needed daycare for our child, which was a small class size (5 children max), fully licensed and compliant with all local and state laws (which a lot of other places aren't), plenty of safe indoor and outdoor space (including a whole damn playground), and a learning-based curriculum rather than just babysitting. We have gotten a couple of people to sign up, but are having a rough time attracting more. Some people message us to ask questions, but then never reply when we provide answers. We've tried lowering our prices a bit to get started, and we're very flexible when it comes to time and needs.
So I'm just wondering, for any parents out there who have or have had small children and needed daycare, how did you decide on a place? Where/how did you find this place? And what about it stood out to you? Was it the price? Location? Recommendation of a close friend?
Any insight would be appreciated, thanks.
My wife used to work for daycare centers and at one point wanted to open her own spot, so I asked her to weigh in - here's what she sent me:
We did market research by calling around all the places in our local area, plus asking friends and coworkers what they pay for their child care, and priced ourselves accordingly. But after a few weeks we lowered it a bit since a few people ghosted us after we told them the price. It wasn't super high or anything, just a bit higher than the local average, which we figured was warranted given the benefits that we offered. But we have bills to pay, so better to get some families now to get the ball rolling with word-of-mouth recommendations and reviews on things like FB, Google, and Yelp.
That is good advice, thanks! We both had to get CPR certified so there's no reason why we shouldn't advertise that.
Maybe you should price it in line with the local average to begin with, then increase prices for new children once you have an initial group. I imagine that being able to see other kids that are happy and doing well would make prospective families feel more comfortable.
That's definitely the plan! We had priced it slightly higher because frankly I felt that we offered plenty of benefits that warranted it. But I didn't account for the difficulty of actually getting the ball rolling and creating momentum. So we lowered it after a couple of weeks with no takers. Now we are right around market price to get things started. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything else super obvious that I was overlooking, and I find the opinions on Tildes to be pretty helpful usually.
A big part of this equation is likely your location and market saturation. There's also a vibes check component that I'll assume you pass, random stranger on the internet ;)
When my wife and I were looking for daycare options they were few and far between. We basically took the only spot we could find and it was awful. Our infant was locked in a small room (like 20' x 40') with several other kids and a handful of toys for 9 hours a day, and 1 hour outside after lunch. The staff looked absolutely miserable.
I was complaining to my apprentice one day about how shitty it was and he told me his mom ran a daycare out of her basement and gave me her number. We loved it. Besides costing $400 less per month, we just really liked her vibes and her care style. She provided healthy snacks so we only needed to provide lunches, they spent alot of time outdoors, daily hikes etc. We created lasting friendships with some kids and their parents there.
I did some electrical work for a Montessori before our child was born and I loved what I saw there. So much so that once I learned we were expecting I immediately filled out the application forms for their preschool program, and we had to decide on a name before birth to fill out the forms. They had a 3+ year waitlist.
Given all that, it sounds like we would have liked your setup as well, and learning based curriculum would have been a valued bonus. Maybe you need some marketing? Colourful sign on the road? Hopefully you find the kids you need. Good luck.
Thanks! Great insight. I'm obviously super biased but I definitely think we pass the vibe check! My wife is a former elementary school teacher and it really shows both in our daycare and in the way she interacts with the kids (so much patience!). Our problem is getting the parents to our house/daycare in the first place. The ones that have made it that far absolutely loved it, but not many have come by.
When we were remodeling and setting up things for the daycare, we ran into soooo many people who needed child care or knew someone who would soon need it. But now that we've officially opened it seems like that has dried up. I've heard similar stories to yours about the long waitlists and the terrible ones that are just like one room. I know that it'll take some time, but just figured I would post here in case anyone had any experiences that I hadn't thought of or considered before.
The PP have already brought up really good points, but I'd like to emphasize the power of word of mouth! My 2.5 year old is starting daycare this August and it was through a mom page on facebook that we found all our options. We eventually settled on a local daycare that's been in the community over 50 years, so had a ton of reviews/feedback for us to look at.
That's what we're finding as well. It's a very difficult thing to just trust your kid to someone for 8+ hours each day, so we are having a tough time starting out. The parents we currently have absolutely love my wife, and I'm sure that it'll get easier as time goes on and we start getting more word-of-mouth recommendations to keep the momentum going. But currently I'm just trying to expedite that process and get people to reach out to us and come by for a tour.
We'll keep trying the FB mom groups in the meantime, while trying to build up those reviews and feedback that you mentioned to entice new parents.
Have you thought about hosting some kind of open house event, maybe with some kind of activity to draw people in? That might give you something to announce on the Facebook page, and you could encourage your existing families to invite their friends.
We hadn't considered that but it sounds like a great idea, thanks!
Best of Luck! From my understanding, the start of a business is usually the harder part. I think someone else mentioned this - but have you also tried making sure to take pictures that highlight what your daycare offers?
Thanks! I took some higher-quality shots of the indoor and outdoor daycare spaces and put those up on our website, google page, yelp page, and facebook page. And my wife has taken pictures when they do certain crafts like Pi Day or Easter and then posted those on the facebook page for people to see when they find us. I do like the idea of taking more photos/videos of the types of playing and learning they do, could help convince someone but also is just another thing to post to make the facebook page not feel too barebones.
Several disconnected thoughts. Happy to answer questions about any of this if it sparks interest.
Have you considered marketing it as a preschool rather than a daycare? Maybe this is a distinction without a difference, but when my daughter was 3, we looked at several preschools, but nothing that called itself day care. We ended up putting her into Montessori preschool.
Montessori works in the three year cycle. At that age, they call it "Children's House" and it's a mixed class of 3-4 year olds up to kindergarten. I know that to do this they were licensed under two different entities because the kindergarteners were in "school" (regulated by the Department of Education) but the younger kids were regulated by the Department of Human Services, which regulates daycares in our state. My point is that maybe you can call yourself a preschool with your existing licensing.
Word of mouth was the primary way we found out about most things that were available to our daughter. One way this spreads is Mom's groups on Facebook. Sometimes I call it the "Mom's Mafia". The ones in our area are pretty cohesive because they are closed groups rooted in a pregnancy/birth/post birth education center that we used.
Another way you might connect with moms is a program called MOPS - Mothers of Preschoolers. It is a religious organization, but doesn't limit membership to Christians. In my observation of my wife's experience being in it, they are pretty accepting.
Aside: There might be value to looking at the Montessori methods, even if you don't market that way or try to become certified. When my daughter was in the Montessori program at 3, we had a part-time nanny that kept her and another child who was little older and in a more traditional daycare, and her comment was that she could see a big difference in their education and development. In particular, a big chunk of Children's House is the so-called "practical life" skills -- pouring, cutting, cleaning, etc. These (and other parts) are there to develop fine motor skills that prepare them physically for writing. I could go on at length about how great it is. It's served our daughter very well.
There is also Reggio Emilia. I don't know as much about it, but my general understanding is that there is some overlap in methodology, but the RE is more collaborative and open ended in the work and more nature focused, where Montessori tends to make the work more individual and structured. My daughter was in an RE summer camp a few times at a Jewish temple near our house, and we were very happy with it. It was just a much smaller program and RE is less common in our area. From my little experience with it, I think you could easily run a 5 child daycare as an RE program. That might attract more interest from people looking for the kinds of things you described -- a higher standard of care, education focus, smaller group, etc.
Great input, thanks! My wife is very familiar with the Montessori methods, loves it, and does a lot of similar things in our daycare. I'll talk to her about maybe marketing it more in that way in the future.
She has also joined a few mom groups on FB, which is were we are getting the bulk of our messages/calls, but not many have led to them actually visiting the house, which seems to be the biggest hurdle that we need to overcome.
As for the preschool thing, I believe our state has some additional regulations regarding what a preschool is. My wife plans on offering preschool services in the near future, but I think it's an additional license that is required for that. I'll ask her.
Thanks again for the ideas!
I recently had to find childcare for my now 2 year old, and here's what I was looking for:
One or two days a week
State licensed/accredited
Competitive rates (obviously will fluctuate based on region, for us it was around $70-80 for an 8 hour day)
Nice playground/outdoor space
Within a 25 minute drive of home
Here is how I looked:
Map based searches using Google Maps and DDG, and checking results for "childcare", "daycare", "preschool", "montessori" and "nursery".
I checked each listing in my 25 minute range for reviews and a website. I guess I'm old school but having a website was a major green flag for me. I looked for pictures of the location (indoor and outdoors) and the teachers, and having contact info and policies listed (hours, accepted ages etc) was immensely helpful.
I also looked on my town's unofficial community Facebook page and searched for those same keywords. I found other people posting asking about or offering childcare services and then checked if the posters had a page that seemed focused on child care. If all I found was a personal FB page I ruled them out.
So my advice would be to build a web presence! Take nice pictures of your playground and if you have permission, kids playing in your play space or take some short videos of your wife reading a book to them. Add your location as a pin on Google Maps. Make a Facebook page and a webpage specifically devoted to your business. Post about it on your town's community hubs. Hell even go oldschool and maybe put a flyer up at your local library. I had trouble finding a spot and had to wait three months on a waitlist so I doubt there's a lack of demand. I am no fan of Facebook but for a business it can be a lifeline.
Are you me? Lol I pretty much followed this paragraph to a T. My wife created a website with all the relevant info on it. I took some high-res images of our indoor and outdoor spaces and put them on there. We added ourselves onto Google Maps and Yelp. Created a FB page and joined as many local parenting groups as we could find. And I've dropped off flyers at a local grocery store, library, hospital maternity ward, and nearby townhomes and apartments (all with permission).
Thank you for your response, seriously. It helps to know exactly how you searched for a daycare, like what terms you used, where you searched, etc. A lot of it jives with what we have already done, so it's reassuring to know that we're not overlooking things that are super obvious. We have also heard plenty of stories about 3-6 month waitlists which gave us a lot of optimism when we first started this whole project, now I'm just trying to find those same people that are waiting for childcare! Hopefully with a bit more patience we'll start getting some more interested parents. Thanks again for the detailed response!
That's great! Then the next thing I would try is seeing if your region has a "kid's calendar" of activities, and throw a weekend activity of some kind. Do an Earth Day garden event, Easter egg hunt, that kind of thing, and add yourself to any relevant event calendars. If you host an event that gets some traffic you could probably convert some of them into regulars.
My wife should be answering this because she actually teaches Early Learning and Child Care at the college level, but she's not here right now.
The one thing I've noticed, visiting her classroom and seeing what she teaches, is that she puts a great deal of effort into promoting creative space and imaginative play, and almost none of it is done with commercial toys or equipment. eg. She has cozy nook spaces in a corner with pillows and books and the space is often decorated to look inviting with hanging sheer material and little Christmas lights overhead and a comfortable rug on the floor. There are so many creative centers - arts and crafts, building blocks, a water and sand table, little animals, toy trucks/cars, but everything has a component that the children can build themselves, using their imagination.
This might be basic stuff, Im not the expert, but I know she actively promotes the students getting on the floor level with the children and interacting with them directly. If they're not interacting they're not doing well in her course. And then she posts those videos (with permission) to the college website and when the students have an 8 week practicum where they set up and run the day care themselves, they have no problem getting parents to sign up.
My wife has trained in Reggio, and is certified for Forest School (which she runs outdoors in summer) and is a big believer in imaginative play as opposed to a curriculum based program or structured learning so that comes through in her day care classes.
Maybe you can make some videos of your wife interacting with the children to post on facebook, with parental permission of course. Sorry if all that is pretty basic, Im not the pro.
Those are great ideas, thanks! My wife has indeed posted on FB a few crafts and activities that they have done (with permission of the parents). I'll show her your response, maybe it will give her some more ideas about what to post or highlight.
I did ask my wife about this when she got home. She had two other points. One was that location is really important for a lot of people. The second was that sometimes parents are reluctant to use a dayhome because there is only one service provider. Which means only one set of eyes on the kids and no second person to keep the provider accountable or to assist if there's an emergency.
Very fair points. The location is one thing that I did consider, so we've been careful with our wording Basically instead of saying that we are located in xxx city by yyy street, we've been saying that we're in xxx city just off of zzz highway (which is a major highway that connects to multiple nearby towns). That way if someone lives in a town next to us, saying that we're by zzz highway sounds a bit closer to them than some random street they've never heard of. I'd like to think that it helps, but who knows lol.
lol in the market I’m in, the way you choose is you take literally anything available. Wait lists are years long. I got a notification when my kid turned 6 that a spot opened up in a place I applied to before they were born.
Word of mouth.
I didn't want to leave my kid with someone I had zero background info about. I chose someone my coworker has used for years.
There are drawbacks, such as it being further out of the way from my job, but I have more faith that nobody is touching/neglecting/abusing my child since I know other kids who have gone through without issues. Plus, my coworkers older daughters still go there, so I kind of have little helpers who will keep an extra eye on my kid.
Really, it boils down to vibe and trust. Takes time to build that.
Thanks for the insight! That seems to be what we are finding as well. Hopefully we can build that vibe and trust little by little.
Brief comment to just say that word of mouth is best done at the playground. It’d be weird if you yourselves were hanging out at a playground talking about your business, but all my school/daycare recommendations come from parents at the playground. It is face to face, with people who actually live in your area, while your kids play together.
Maybe encourage any parents you already have enrolled to talk at the playground.
I had not considered that, thanks for the suggestion!