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nannyde 04:57 AM 11-19-2017
Originally Posted by gwpierce:
Any advice would be greatly appreciated and thank you. My wife has run a daycare out of our home for almost 4 years. I recently quit my job due to medical reasons and decided to stay home to help grow the childcare. We've added a few kids to increase our income, but it's been a slow process. We are very flexible and only charge for the days the kids are actually with us. We watch 9 kids total. 6 of the 9 kids are not coming like the parents said they would and this is hurting our income big time. When we meet the parents, one of the things we discuss, of course, is our fees and we budget as such before they start, but it's not working out with kids not coming when the parents said they would. It's everything from grandma wants them today, or a baby's daddy now wants them every other week, or a friend wants to watch them. We understand grandmas have a right to watch their grandchildren, but it's killing us financially and it happens every week. For example, if everyone came as agreed upon, our income would be $600 per week, but we average $200-$300 a week. It's that bad and we can't pay bills. We never know what our income will be from week to week. We had one little girl 4 days a week for 2 years, but we now watch her 1 day a week or not at all since mom has a new friend that watches the little girl, so she uses as whenever she feels like it. If the parent's followed through with what they agreed on we would be able to meet our budget. We want to be nice and flexible with the families, but this is how we make a living and it's very serious. We just can't get ahead and we are broke. We take 1 step forward and 3 steps backward over and over again. We love these children and their families, but we are stressed and frustrated to the max, about to panic because we can't pay the mortgage. We are wondering if we are too nice with how we charge and should charge a flat rate every week whether they use us or not, but we really don't want to do that. Sorry for the rant and thanks for listening.
The definition of "flexible" or "flexibility" in child care is "loose money". Go through your post and substitute "loose money" with each time you say flexible.

Many providers attempt the business model you have but quit or go broke and quit because they can't make a living doing what is REALLY drop in care at a fifth of the weekly rate per day.

If you are going to do drop in care then charge drop in care rates per day. Charge it for every day they use even if they actually do show for a full week.

You need to offer to them that they play a flat weekly rate or they pay a drop in rate. The drop in rate should be between 1.25 to 1.5 x the daily rate (one fifth of the weekly rate). The 1.25 x should be for the three days or more kids. Look at this Center's breakdown of half days all the way to five days per week.

http://generationnextia.com/new-page-1/

Here's mine from 2013 that models a minimum of three days per week and a sliding scale of fees based on a max of nine days and departure time.

http://www.nanshouse.com/fees.htm

When you switch to a flat weekly rate or a daily rate that is higher than what they are paying you will loose clients. There are parents out there who will only go with pay by the day providers that are cheap. As soon as the provider goes broke or changes the fee structure they just leave and find another.

There are parents who have their kids in tons of daycares before kindergarten by doing this. Their kid may have to switch daycares a lot but by Kindergarten they have pulled off cheap child care compared to the ones who pay a flat weekly rate. Over the years, as you can see by your income loss, it's many many thousands of dollars difference. Some providers believe this is bad for the kid but when it comes to the kids parents money it is excellent.

My concern is that you have this great deal and you still aren't at capacity. With nine kids at 600 a week if everyone came.... I'm hoping most of those kids are part timers not full timers. If they are full timers your rates are very low.

I don't know where you live though.

It's just a business model that doesn't work for the provider but it is excellent for the parents. You tried it and it doesn't work for you. Time to switch over. If you charge drop in you do NOT guarantee a slot and you don't allow ANY switching of schedules. They need to give you their schedule for the upcoming week... pay for it in ADVANCE... and no switching days. If they don't come one day you don't credit it towards another.

Good luck. Maybe some providers can come along and help you with whatever is causing you to have to do this system and still not be at the capacity you want. I advise going through the archives here all the way back to the first post available and start READING every thread that has ten or more posts to it. Read it backwards to present day. This will teach you more about how to do daycare than any book on the market. Your situation comes up a lot so you will see many threads with this.
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