Nowadays there are some things in my business that I couldn’t live without. In fact, when I stop and think about it, I wonder how on earth I managed back in 2006! Technology has helped my business become more efficient and grow my profits. After years of juggling I know how much stress some tech has taken out of the daily rigmarole of running a childcare business.
As well as supporting your childcare business to grow by giving you the confidence to aim high, I want to give you practical tips on the day-to-day organization. So here I’ve written about the 3 apps that have really taken the stress out of the daily running of my business. These apps will truly revolutionize your childcare business.
Revolutionize your communication with Slack
Y’all know I love being super organized, so when I started using Slack, my work life became super efficient! It connects to the tools and services that you already use and brings them under one roof. For example, the notifications, files, and data from all your different apps. This has saved me tons of time searching through my emails for that one client follow-up, and stops me from constantly flicking between different tabs and dashboards, and having to log in and out of them all individually! Slack has helped my teams work smarter! I also appreciate how everything that’s shared in Slack is indexed and archived automatically so you can create a clear knowledge base with minimal effort – which is great for new staff. The search function makes it so easy to find the information you need, whenever you need it.
But one of the best things about Slack is how it’s revolutionized our workplace communication. It connects your staff with you and their colleagues, and the tools they work with everyday. It allows you to group people in “channels” that can be organized by project, age group, curriculum area… or anything you like. Your staff members can then see what other team members are working on, but can focus on what they’re needing to get done. It’s a great way of getting everyone up to speed – especially new team members.
Revolutionize your staffing with HoursTracker
How many hours do you spend inputting your staff information into a spreadsheet? And then you’ve got to take off lunch breaks, add on expenses etc. It’s actually a real drain on your time isn’t it? I’ve not looked back since I’ve been using HoursTracker for my own childcare business as I’m much more efficient and feel more in control of tracking hours completed by my staff.
It’s a great way for you to keep an accurate track of work times. Most of us who own a Childcare business know how hard it can be to keep track of the busy schedules all our different staff are working and we don’t have time to do manual entries, so I urge you to use something like HoursTracker. The app is such a simple tool for keeping on top of the hours your staff have worked. It can track employee hours and earnings, business expenses, payment periods and breaks. Not only that, pay periods are automatically calculated, including overtime and net pay estimates!
My team finds it easy to use, and they like being able to instantly clock in and clock out. It saves us all time and stress, so we can enjoy our work caring for all those gorgeous children!
Revolutionize your employee schedules with OpenSimSim
I like being able to have an overview of my childcare settings’ staff schedule, but so does my team! This app lets your employees set their own availability, so when you assign shifts this gets automatically cross-checked to ensure you never give shifts to staff who aren’t available. It also gives flexibility, allowing team members to swap shifts or cover each other’s shifts. As a business owner, this lightens your workload massively, because it means you’re not wasting time chasing to get shifts covered. Reassuringly, though, you still get the final say.
It’s an app that brings fairness to your business too. By running a tally of how many hours you’ve given each employee, it makes it easier for you to ensure a fair number of hours to each team member in the schedule. My team morale has risen since using OpenSimSim and I’ve had a lower staff turnover!
The instant messaging part of the OpenSimSim app, can encourage communication among your team that draws them closer and that reflects positively in your client service. On top of all that, I’m able to communicate with them more efficiently regarding scheduling, and it’s a way for them to approach me with feedback and concerns. Win-win, right?!
So much has changed in the last 14 years.
From ordering new equipment online to organizing your staffing, you can now do it all on your phone, at a time of day that works for you. Technology has transformed the way we run our businesses!
We, as Childcare Ninjas, need to make the most of the tech at our fingertips, because it’s going to free up time to spend on the parts of your business you love most!
I started Childcare Ninjas because I realized that most business information and ideas aren’t targeted at us. They’re focused on other industries. But we don’t fit that mold! We are an army of childcare professionals who are sharing ninja-sharp skills to transform our businesses into childcare empires! This is Childcare Ownership all Grownup! Interested in becoming a part of the community, click here!