You’ve ventured into the world of childcare business ownership, and now you’re looking to to turn it into the success it deserves to be. I’m here to tell you that it’s going to happen. If I have done it, so can you! It takes hard work, resilience and a whole lot of love, but I know you’ve got this. You can build a successful childcare business!
Over the years, I’ve learned how to grow my childcare business, level up and build my own empire. And here I’ve got 3 simple tips to help you on your way to success.
1. Automate what you can
By now you’ll probably have realized that I am a HUGE fan of systemizing and automation (if you’ve read any of my other blogs!). If you can systemize, you will be able to de-stress and grow. Take time to note down all the day-to-day tasks you do and look into how you can get a system in place and potentially automate it, to save you time and energy.
In fact this doesn’t have to cost the world either! There are plenty of lower cost or even free options for automating elements of your childcare business. From ordering food supplies from a well-kept stock inventory, to Hours Tracker for staffing, make the most of the technology at your fingertips!
Additionally, you can read about apps I use in my childcare business that have revolutionized my systems here.
2. Offer what others won’t
Remember when we talked about what makes you special? Well, make sure that you’re offering tons of that! Sing it from the mountain tops, girl. Offering something that others don’t have – your uniqueness – will make you stand out from the crowd and call in the parents and families that you’ve been longing to work with.
After all, what makes our childcare businesses so awesome is that we are NOT the cookie cutter daycare center chains that keep popping up all over the country. We offer something totally different and the feedback we get from families is incredible. Their kids are treated as individuals by our amazing teams and the parents are too.
So if you take a look around at other providers, not to compare as such but to look at what they’re missing. Perhaps they don’t focus on outdoor play or they don’t have language teachers…whatever they’re lacking, think about what you can offer that they are not. I’m not saying go and do something totally different to your current practice, but look at the competition and see where you can shine!
3. Build amazing relationships daily
As you’ll have read briefly above, this is an aspect of your business that is essential. I cannot stress this enough. Nurturing those relationships is absolutely key to the success of your childcare business. Even after a child has moved on to school, I try to keep in touch with families – just the odd “thinking of you” card here and there, or a wave on the street – but this is how community thrives.
Building a sense of community and cherishing the relationships you have with families will make your business successful. Those families will talk about you as if you’re a member of their squad (which you totally are!) and they’ll be telling new parents they meet about how much they love your childcare and how warm and brilliant you are.
But it’s not just the parents and children who you need to nurture! Building amazing relationships with your staff is super important too! Keep communication as a two way street – use apps like Slack to help you do this! – because when staff feel they’re heard and valued, they come into their own and work their socks off for you.
Equally important, is showing good leadership by helping them develop their own skills, using their ideas for activities and on the meal plans. Working on your relationships, talking to your team on a regular basis and keeping them informed of any changes in advance.
All things considered, I hope this has given you some food for thought. Building your successful childcare business is achievable and watching you develop your skills as an owner is inspiring! Let me know how you’re getting on. Leave a comment below, or send me an email. And don’t forget that we’ve got our Facebook community too, so we can all hang out in there together!
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!
Big childcare centers have many resources at their disposal to be able to provide a professional look and feel. You just have to walk into one and you feel small. However, just because you’re small right now, it doesn’t mean you need to operate within that mindset. It’s time to play big!
I’ve learned that thinking big and changing my mindset is at the heart of success, so I’m sharing these here with you. Here’s a few tips to make your childcare business look and run well-groomed.
Put on a big mindset
Stop thinking small and start thinking B. I. G! Making a shift in the way you think is going to help you grow your business. By changing up the way you approach things – even just a little – you’ll feel more confident and be more productive and successful.
Last year I decided to make a change – to stop playing small. I wanted my childcare business to grow and to feel less stressed. I thought long and hard about how I could go about making a change. Reading some inspiring books, watching some motivational speakers and doing some online training was a good start.
In order to get things going, I created a vision board for the future so I can focus on where I wanted to go and I came up with a new mantra for success. My mantra was “Think bigger”. Every time I caught myself playing small, I told myself: Think bigger. Play big. It worked.
What will your mantra be? Have you tried creating a vision board for your childcare business? Read more about how important mindset is to your business here.
Plan big
You don’t have to spend big to plan big! You can do this on a budget, trust me. For every paid idea, app, or software you need to buy to help you run your business, there is usually a free or low cost alternative. Do your research and make sure you find the best deals before throwing your hard-earned money away.
Use your vision board! Get those bigger plans on it. If you want to expand your services, how? Want to employ a bigger, better team? Want to rebrand and refocus? We are Childcare Ninjas! We were born to do this. Plan it out and create the successful business you have been working so hard for. C’mon! Let’s play big!
Here’s a fabulous video from Carrie Green from the Female Entrepreneur Association that shows how to create a vision “dream” board.
Build relationships
It’s all about building genuine relationships. I cannot stress this one enough, fellow ninjas! You’ve got to nurture the relationships with everyone that you meet. Starting with your family – make time for them so they don’t think that your business comes first. Carve time out each week for slowing down and reconnecting with your loved ones.
Then look at your relationships with your team members. How can you strengthen your communication and build on what’s already there? Could you increase the time your door is open for them to come and share problems? Maybe set up an app like Slack that allows your team to converse outside of work and gives you all an opportunity to socialize but also connect professionally. Sometimes we send each other silly memes to break tensions or brighten each others’ days, but we also help each other out with situations and it just means we’re all on the same page.
And, of course, you need to be cultivating the relationships you have with the families that are using your childcare but also the potential future customers too. You can do this in a number of ways, but the key to this is communication (again!). Sending out regular updates, sharing the wonderful things you and your team are doing, asking for continual feedback through questionnaires and quizzes…
Being an approachable and friendly face, and showing empathy is essential in all the relationships you need to foster to build a successful childcare business. People buy from people!
I hope these tips are helpful and you can see the huge impact small changes can make in your business. We can indeed play big with the big dogs!
If you’d like to know more, I’ve filmed some videos and resources that’ll help you in my Childcare Ninja Dojo Club. Joining will make your life a little easier, and enable you to grow your childcare business into your own little empire.
Before you go, have you found the Childcare Ninja Facebook group yet? 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? Join us for more tips on how to make your childcare business the success it deserves to be!
Once in a while, I’ll watch a show on T.V that stands out. And it is rare that I sit down and choose something to watch. I mean, seriously…who has time for that?! But occasionally, I’ll come across something that has a dramatic impact on my life or my business. And this was one of those moments. I hadn’t taken on board the importance of storytelling!
I had my feet up and my phone to hand (in case my day care staff needed me) and I was multi-tasking on my laptop as usual. However this episode caught me by surprise. I was totally drawn in.
This particular episode made me stop and think about how I was running my business. It gave me the impetus, the drive and reignited my passion for my childcare business. Strangely, it wasn’t about a woman running a daycare center. It focused on helping a New Jersey pizza shop. The Profit‘s presenter (Marcus Lemonis) needs to help the owner who is struggling with aesthetic issues and stagnant sales.
While watching their journey, I learned 3 things. I thought I’d share them with you!
Tell your story
The importance of telling your story became abundantly clear from watching this episode of The Profit. Marcus finds out that the owner, Alario, opened his restaurant with money his father received from the federal government after Alario’s mom was killed in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. After listening, Marcus explains that this is a great backstory, and asks how Alario is sharing this with his customers…
But Alario hasn’t been sharing his backstory with anyone — not even his employees know what he’s been through! And Lemonis points out that this is where his business is going wrong. He explains that it’s actually completely natural to bring certain aspects of your personal life into your business.
“I’m a big believer that in business, consumers will rally around a cause or a story or some personal connection that they have,” Lemonis says on the show. “People like to do business with people. It’s OK that you amplify who you are, that’s how I make a connection with you”.
We know deep down that people buy from people. When you share your story, people buy into that. They want to support you and they become your mini-fans, your champions. They want you to succeed.
So, since watching this – and realizing the importance of storytelling – I’ve been shouting my story from the rooftops!
Be known for something
This episode of The Profit, with Alario’s pizza joint, made me think about what my childcare will be known for. I want my business to be memorable for all the right reasons. I’d love for all my clients to rave about how awesome my childcare is and how they recommend me to everyone they know when they find out they’re expecting!
How do you want people to talk about your childcare business? Is there something specific you want to be known for? Make a list and see if you can weave these into your newsletters, your social media posts, your conversations and your practice.
Storytelling to help someone else
Marcus Lemonis makes a great case for why your business needs storytelling and the importance of bringing the personal to your professional! Your story will resonate with people and they’ll find that they want to support you by buying into your business. But it’s about more than just that.
By telling your story, you will no doubt be helping someone else. Your overcoming adversity to build your business is going to give someone else the strength to keep on pushing forward. It’s going to motivate other childcare owners to persevere despite their circumstances. Because they’ll hear that YOU are building a successful childcare business even though you were in a difficult situation once.
You are inspiring!
These connections, these HUMAN connections are vital for our businesses.
What does your story look like for your childcare business?
Find it, share it, and watch your business stand out!
Are you in the Childcare Ninja Facebook group yet? 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? Join us for more tips on how to make your childcare business the success it deserves to be!
One of the key parts of your childcare business is the people who work for you. The quality of your staff is essential to maintaining a professional and well-run establishment, and most importantly they are taking care of those precious children in your setting.
They’re your representatives and your eyes on the ground, and they’re part of a team, so hiring the right people is a huge decision for your business. You can’t just hire someone based on their résumé, because there’s no guarantee they’ll gel with your other staff members; but nor can you employ a person for their personality and not look at their experience and qualifications. It’s a monumental task! Streamlining this process is going to help you grow your business.
And sometimes it can take up so much of your time, it could almost be a full time job in itself!
But there’s no need for it to be so time consuming. I’ve been in this game for a long time now, so I have learned a few things on the way to becoming a Childcare Ninja, and I want to help you streamline the hiring process.
Here are my ninja tips for a more efficient process for hiring staff for your childcare business.
Automate as much paperwork as possible
Getting your potential employees to fill out an online form will save you time and definitely streamline your hiring process. No more loose bits of paper to peruse, or lose! By having an automated system, you can make the process faster and fairer for everyone.
There are various apps/softwares you can get for each stage of the process. For example, candidate pre-screening tools can rank and grade candidates to pre-qualify those who are a fit to move forward in the hiring process. Or you can just have a simple form, akin to a questionnaire that they can input all their information into.
When the form is filled out online, it means you’ve got a digital version. You can then search the documents for key words much faster, enabling you to rule out people who don’t have the qualifications or strengths you’re looking for, and find the ones who cut the mustard!
Once you’ve shortlisted, it’s time to get them booked in for interview. However, manually scheduling interviews can be exhausting! It might not sound like a time-consuming task, but when you’re going back and forth to check availability for all the different applicants you’d like to meet with you suddenly realize what a drain on your time it is!
I’d highly recommend that you try interview scheduling automation. It’ll save you time and streamlines the interview process, which creates a better experience for candidates and you alike. You might have heard of Calendly, which is an easy to use system for booking in interviews.
Have a central place for your hiring documentation
It’s important that you keep all your paperwork and vital documents for new and potential employees in one place. This is key because if you were to fall ill, then your cover person will know exactly where to find everything they need when it comes to your team. Not only is it for unfortunate scenarios, it’s also fundamental that you’re seen by outside agencies and inspectors to be organized and keeping on top of standards.
Another reason you ought to keep staff documentation all in one central place is it’ll help you find things quickly if there’s any accidents or medical emergencies. Your team members might have an allergy or a disability, and as their employer you have responsibilities for their welfare.
Video training on the go
Create your own training videos for newly hired team members so they can get up to speed quickly. Everyone’s got a smart phone nowadays, and it’s so helpful for building relationships with new staff. Having apps like Slack to connect team members, gives them an opportunity to communicate outside of work and also access information as and when they require it, or when you need them to.
One of the strategies that I’ve found that works for my teams is when I do training on Zoom about specific areas and then I upload the videos and place them in Slack. My staff can then view them when they’re able to – on breaks or during their spare time – and once they’ve watched the training they can sign off that particular task. I can then see exactly who has done which video session, and can remind people gently on the app.
This saves us tons of time trying to coordinate a training meeting that everyone can attend! We’re all busy people, right?!
Streamlining the hiring process is going to save you time and energy, leaving you to focus on getting the right team player for your Childcare Ninja squad!
If you haven’t already, join my free Childcare Ninja Facebook group! We’re 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? Join us for more tips on how to make your childcare business the success it deserves to be!
Childcare Ninjas is all about supporting you to grow your business to be sustainable and successful, and as someone who’s been in the game for a long time now, I know the importance of systematizing. And I understand how this looks very different in child care to how it might look in other industries like retail or coaching.
Planning is the absolute key to growing your childcare business. So how do I do it? Well, I plan everything! From finance to food, and clients to cleaning, I’ve got some strategies that will help you plan and I’ve got some tips for how to stay on top of everything.
You can learn how to implement systems into your childcare business and plan for a successful year ahead!
2020 is going to be brilliant for your childcare business, can you feel it too?
Let’s start with assessing where your business is at…
First thing I recommend that you do is take some time out to look at your business and figure out what you’re already doing. I want you to write down all the jobs you do daily that keep your business ticking. Get every little thing you do, and what your employees do, written down so that you can look at ways of organizing and being more efficient. Note down all those little tasks – cleaning toys, writing a menu, invoicing clients…everything! What’s working? What’s not?
You’ll be surprised at all the jobs you do each day, week in, week out, just to keep your business going! You’re a super hero! It might seem silly and time consuming writing all of them down, but you should be so proud of these, and quantifying them will make it much easier to systematize your business. So, if you wanna be a Childcare Ninja, you gotta get organized!
Looking at the bigger picture
Now you’ve got all the jobs you do down in one place, it’s time to set out on paper the things you’d like to do in your business; I call this envisioning. I want you to envision where you see your business going and what you’ve got to do to get there. Write it down. By doing this alongside what you’re already doing, you’re able to see the bigger picture and the journey you need to take to reach your goals for your childcare business.
Getting systems in place to grow your business
Once you’ve got this all noted down in one place, you need to look at the things that are working for you and then weed out which tasks are not. Those that can be removed, replaced or streamlined. Then you can sort each task and the steps you take (for things you’re keeping) into categories, for example “Food”. Under each topic, you can list all the jobs you do for that specific area. It might be easier to cut your list up and arrange into new lists under the headlines. So under “Hygiene” you’ll have all the tasks relating to that: cleaning, buying products, water bills, staff training, policy…and so on.
Break down all the steps and processes that you have in place, adding in the things you’d like to improve. Now you’ve got a plan and a sort of flow chart to guide you through each area of your business. If you need a guide to help you with this process, download your free childcare business map here and get started building your systems.
Why is systematizing so important?
By getting systems in place, you are getting processes in place that will help you get organized and help your staff become more independent. Once you’ve nailed the systems, you will be able to take time off and not worry about things falling apart while you’re not there. You’ll de-stress, your staff will feel more in control and confident and your business will grow!
Implementing your systems to grow your business
Subsequently, now you’ve got the systems all laid out, it’s time to call a staff meeting. Here you are giving your team a road map of how they can be more effective at their jobs. It’s always a good idea to get all your team together and work through things so that the new changes don’t feel like they’re being “done to” them. Instead your employees will feel like they are a part of the change because they’ve been given an opportunity to bring ideas and suggestions to the table. Use this meeting as an opportunity to empower your team, and an opportunity for you to take a well-earned break once they get the hang of things!
If you’d like to know more, I have created some helpful videos and resources for you in my Childcare Ninja membership, to make your life a little easier, and to enable you to grow your childcare business into your own little empire.
Are you in the Childcare Ninja Facebook groupyet? 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? Join us for more tips on how to make your childcare business the success it deserves to be!
