Originally Posted by amberrose3dg:
Honestly it depends. I always get inquires on a weekly basis for the most part. MY area is in need of daycare though. We have 6 daycares for the entire town of about 6000.We are also in the desired school district so I have lots of outsiders bringing their kids to this area as well. I do see slow times and that is usually right before the holidays. This time of year is busy and I think especially true for daycare hoppers.People do not want to pay for the time off during the holidays so they will give notice stay at the new daycare and repeat that process.( I would avoid these types if you can, you will know because they will have been at x amount of daycares in last amount of time.)My suggestion would be to advertise and if your area is saturated with daycares find a marketable approach.What is something parents are really looking for in your area? That could help you fill it faster.
Unfortunately we have a lot of competition with daycare centers and home daycares in our area. We have a lot of low income families that are looking for cheap daycare, and the first thing they always ask when they contact me is our rates. When we first started I advertised really low rates, but was getting a lot of inquiries from people that I knew wouldn't last. I even accepted a couple of them knowing in my gut that they wouldn't work out, but was desperate to get some children in our care. In the end I was right and they only lasted a couple of months. I no longer have my rates in my ad and have raised them slightly, but still a competitive rate. My ad says "Infant and Toddler Openings in a Small Group" and have gotten a few inquiries over the last month from it, one of which we got one enrolled. We are only looking for 7 to 8 children max at one time between the both of us. I've thought about advertising on Facebook. Has anyone had any luck with Facebook? And thank you for your advise
