Hi everyone,

I've been thinking long and hard about my pricing structure, and I was wondering if some of you would weigh in and let me know if this will work.

I would like to be open 4 days per week, Monday-Thursday.

My plan is to offer a daily rate for parents who enroll 1 or 2 days per week. I would like to offer a weekly rate for 3 days/week and a weekly rate for 4 days/week... but I want to give parents incentive to enroll 4 days/week because it would be hard to find someone to fill the 1 open day that a 3-day enrollment creates.

How can I create a pricing structure that encourages 4-day enrollment? Or should the cost per week be the same for 3-day AND 4-day enrollment? Would 3-day parents find that annoying that they are paying the same as someone who is sending their kid one additional day?

Thanks in advance!

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Personally, I charge $30 a day with a 2 day minimum and a 10 hour a day max. unless they want to pay extra (I'm open Mon-Fri) and that's for 1-4 days and if they come all five days I charge $130 (for up to 50 hours and additional fee if over the 50 hours) which averages to $26 a day so they get a little bit of a discount for coming all week. Those are my only rates, I don't do part part time-if that makes sense. It works well for me!

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I'm wondering if you charge the same for 3 or 4 days, if parents would send them for 4 days anyways, even if they only need 3, because it is the same fee.?

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What I would do is take your three day rate and divide it by three and see how much those parents are paying each day. Then make the daily rate a bit cheaper for the four days. Does that make sense? For example you charge 100 for 3 days which is about 33 dollars a day. So if you multiply that by four days you get about 133. So then I would reduce that rate that way those parents are essentially paying less overall. You could charge maybe $110 or $120, which would still be more overall, but a better deal for them in the end.

Or you could just offer a discount for those that enroll four days a week (10% or 15%). Most times when people hear "discount" they will take that option.

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I have heard some providers on here who say they charge higher day rates for children who are part-time because it is harder to fill those spots.

One thing you could try is maybe offering a small sibling discount for 4 dayers only (such as 5-10%).

You could also charge the same rate for 3 and 4 dayers but kids who fill the drop in spot pay an hourly drop-in rate ($3-$5 an hour).

You can make it seem like a "premium/deluxe package" or a "bronze/silver/gold/platinum/diamond package". You can offer special deals to 4 dayers like if you have a field trip they don't have to pay for the extras (admission fees) or that if a field trip falls on a certain day only kids who are normally in daycare that day will be allowed to attend (could work if never make field trips on the same day of the week). You can offer other free specials for only 4 dayers like yearbooks/ scrapbooks, a T-shirt with your DC logo for the child with their picture, or a free coffee mug for the parent that has the child's picture and says "My child's a full-time/Deluxe/Platinum student at ***** daycare/preschool" but part-time parents would have to pay for those extras (like $5-$10- and of course their mugs will say "part time" or just "premium/bronze/silver/gold student at **** daycare/ preschool")

If you have full time infants you can offer to provide diapers/wipes of choice at no extra charge (so the parents don't have to bring them) but that could get costly unless you do charge a slightly higher rate.

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This is what I do.

Up to 2 Diapers Preschool
3 days 135 130 115
4 days 155 145 135
Drop-in 50 45 40

They pay the drop in rate for 1 or 2 days. 3 days becomes a bit cheaper per day, and 4 days is less per day than 3. Right now my group is all 4 days. I have had instances where I have allowed 1 day and 2 days, because I wanted lighter days some of the time. If you offer less than FT care, I would let them know up front that if a FT client comes along they will have to decide whether they would like to pay for FT or lose their PT spot.

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I think this is the best way. Sort out what you want the daily rate to be for all schedules. But make them pay weekly, just show what the daily rate breaks down to be so they can compare and see that the 4 day is cheaper per day. For example display your rates like this:

Full Time, 4 days: $140/week ($35/day)
Part-Time, 3 days: $114/week ($38/day)
Part-Time, 2 days: $82/week ($41/day)

(I just arbitrarily decided $3 more a day for each one)

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