FREE DAYCARE TIP Make Extra Money – Grants, Date Nights

Are you struggling to make ends meet?

If you are struggling to make ends meet with your daycare, there are a couple of things you can do right away to make extra cash.

Before I dive into this topic, let me just say that owning your own daycare SHOULD be making you lots of money.

If you aren’t seeing profits, let us help you! Our Start your Daycare Program isn’t just for people starting their daycare. It contains money saving tips and recommendatio on how to run your school so that you make the MAXIMUM profits possible. It also comes with 53 forms that will make your life MUCH easier.

I know. You are reading this article beacuse you need money. Not because you want to spend it. I promise that you will learn so much about how to run a successful, profitable daycare, though. It is well worth the $34!

Now back to our topic of making extra cash!

Sell items on craigslist, Ebay or Amazon

You are going to get about half the value of that item, but it can be quite profitable to get rid of old toys or equipment that you don’t need any more.

Don’t limit it to your daycare items. You can sell old books, jewelry, exercise equipment, old work out programs. Do you have the Brazilian butt lift, or 6 minute abs? They are STILL doing infomercials and people are still looking for them.

Be sure to take good photos, price the item at half what you paid for it (unless it is a collectible) and keep reposting when the item expires. Someone will find your ad one day and boom! Extra cash. Some items go very quickly.

Craigslist.org is free to post in, so I recommend starting there.

Offer a Date Night

Make some extra money by offering a date night to the parents at your school, neighbors, friends, etc.

It is best to require a minimum for 5 children so you get a reasonable amount of money for the evening and have them book the date by submitting an email confirmation or a form to you.

This is what I usually do:
5:30 – 9:30 (4 hours) Flat rate $20/child for the evening

If you want to do 5 hours, just raise the price to $25.

Don’t shortchange yourself! Babysitters in your area might be charging $10 – $15 per hour. I recommend going to Care.com’s Babysitting Rate Calculator and seeing what the babysitters in your area are charging and then cut it in half. You will STILL be making great money and parents will be financially able to do a date night regularly.

In that amount I included dinner, games, a project and a movie at the end of the evening. The dinner was typically Pizza, Chicken Nuggets, Grilled Cheese, etc. and I just used the daycare food fo or it so there was no extra cost really for me.

This would give me an extra $100 here or there to spend on the daycare or on myself if I needed some ME time!

If you don’t charge a deposit yet – START DOING IT!

Deposits for childcare protect you and give you some liquid assets to work with when you are getting started. In our Start Your Daycare Program, we explain in great detail why deposits are SO important. We also tell you exactly what to say to parents so that they fully support providing the deposit and first week of care when they start with you.

If you have only 3 children at your daycare and you charge a two week deposit – – you can raise $1000. You have to pay it back if they give termination notice, of course. But the very first family I signed on at my daycare didn’t leave for 6 years. We show you how to create this kind of instant cash flow in our program. Click here to visit our website www.StartYourDaycare.com

If you can’t afford to buy the Start Your Daycare Program ($34) right now, at least sign up for our FREE Email Training program The 5 Secrets to Daycare Success. Visit our website www.StartYourDaycare.com to sign up.

Food Programs

You can get free money from the state to offset your food costs. When I was doing the food program, I would get a $100 or so per month for a small daycare (8 kids) and $275 per month for a large on (16 kids). It depends on your state of course.

When you sign up, they will have a representative come out to you to walk you through the program and inspect your location for food safety requirements. They also do drop-in inspections and make sure that you are following all the guidelines of the program.

Many states allow for electronic reporting which is quick and easy. They provide a lot of support and even sample menus which can make your life a lot easier.

Increase your rates

You don’t have to keep the same rate forever. In fact, you deserve a cost of living increase like many parents get from their corporate jobs. We provide you with recommendations on how to approach parents about an increase, the forms you should send out and strategies on how to increase your rate without losing parents in our Start Your Daycare Program.

If at all possible, increase your rate to new students for 3 months minimum or even up to a year and then present past parents with the increase. This will make your established customers feel good about the great deal they got and make them more likely to willingly except the change.

Charge an activity fee

A great alternative to a rate increase is to just charge an activity fee for each new school year.

If you are providing all of the creative supplies for daycare out of your budget, consider charging an activity fee to cover your costs for paper, crayons, paint, pipe cleaners, etc. When I first introduced this fee to parents, I said that instead of a cost of living increase, we would be charging an activity fee (for arts and craft materials) when class starts in the fall. Most parents realized that a one-time cost wouldn’t affect their budget much. If a parent resisted the fee, and I gave them a list of supplies they could buy on their own and contribute for their student. This still achieved the same goal and made the parent feel better.

Got a website? Put some ads on it.

Cliché, I know.

But my daycare website would earn about $15 a month and I did absolutely nothing but recommend Amazon books that we were reading in class to our parents. I also had some sections with Google Ad Sense ads. The ads supported the cost to host the website each month. One month I made $150 and I did nothing at all but cash the check.

If you want to go this route, please don’t make it look tacky. You will lose potential customers if your website is smothered in ads. Be sure that it is very clean and easy to navigate. White space is refreshing in cyberspace, so don’t cover every corner.

If you want to know more about how to monetize your website, please email us at help@startyourdaycare.com and we can send you more info on how to do this.

Get a Grant

This is much harder than most people think…. I was within inches of getting a grant year after year and it never happened for me – – but I guess that I was doing too good financially (as far as the government was concerned) and didn’t DESERVE the funding. I think of it as a complement, really.

It IS possible to get grants though. My sister helped the YWCA get grants for their daycare program. Many small daycare owners have also received grants of $5000 to $25000 to supplement their income or get their daycare started.

I am continually searching for great resources that give you REAL GRANT HELP and not just ask for your contact info. These are the very best sites for grants that I know of. If you know of more, please email me and I will add them!

Small Changes

• Reduce your garbage can size: Recycling more and help you to move your garbage can size down one notch. Plus it helps the environment more.
• Create a budget and stick to it: Give yourself a small alottment to buy new toys or supplies each week AND STICK TO IT! Decrease that allotment by $5 every 2 weeks and soon you will find yourself rethinking things you REALLY don’t need.
• Buy in Bulk: Costco and Sam’s Club are great ways to save money. Yes, you will buy more at once and your bill will be higher than if you lef tthe super market. But your per item cost will be less and you will not have to shop as often – saving you gas. Be sure to price compare so you know you are getting the very best deal.