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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Referral Bonus
Thriftylady 07:09 PM 09-10-2014
I am trying to get restarted, and am thinking one thing that will help is a referral bonus. So I am debating between giving a discount after the referred family has stayed 4 weeks, or giving the referrer coupons for free days of vacation/holiday whatever they can use when they need a discount for that week that child won't be here. Or just tickets for XX amount off in a given week. What do you do? If you don't do any of the above, what do you think your parents would pick?
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AmyKidsCo 07:13 PM 09-10-2014
I offer $100 cash. It was Tom Copeland's idea.
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Thriftylady 07:25 PM 09-10-2014
OK so could I tax deduct that?
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AmyKidsCo 07:41 PM 09-10-2014
I believe it would be 100% tax deductible.
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daycare 08:10 PM 09-10-2014
My only advise against this is that your creent clients have to understand that you can't guarantee enrollment.

I have had some referrals from parents that I could not stand and no way in heck was I going to enroll. They got mad that I didn't except their referral.

2 years ago I was offering something similar. I actually lost a client when I refused to enroll her best friends child. The family was INSANE. Current daycare that gave me the referral got mad and pulled her two kids.

After that I was very cautious to take any further referrals and made certain to be very clear about only accepting those I felt were a great fit overall.

I stopped doing it.........
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midaycare 03:58 AM 09-11-2014
I just lost one dck due to it not being a good fit. She was too old for the program.

My current families love that I only have 4 kids per day, so they don't want to refer. It would be nice if the money thing worked but my parents wouldn't even care!
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Blackcat31 05:14 AM 09-11-2014
I offer families a 25% discount on any future billing (with notice) for every family they refer.

However, the referred family must enroll and remain enrolled for 90 days before the "referral bonus" is available for the current family.
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taylorw1210 05:42 AM 09-11-2014
I offer a $50 credit for referrals from current families, credited to their account once the family completes their 3 weeks trial period and completely enrolls.
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KIDZRMYBIZ 09:30 AM 09-11-2014
I do one free week when a referral starts, and another free week when they have been here for 6 months. Of course, I really hate giving the free weeks, but word-of-mouth advertising is numero uno in my book.

I had a bunch of (free then) postcards printed up on Vistaprint that I hand out that advertise the free weeks for referral, and cute (free then, too) business-size cards I offer that are essentially "coupons" for the free care to use at another time if they wish (like when they go on vacation). Both are so professional looking, and cute.

Now, though, I'm rethinking. I like just $100 cash flat out one time after enrollment. Or even after 6 months of enrollment...
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TomCopeland 11:49 AM 09-11-2014
Originally Posted by Thriftylady:
OK so could I tax deduct that?
Yes. I've written an article about this: http://www.tomcopelandblog.com/2011/...ng-tactic.html
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Dilley Beans 01:23 PM 09-11-2014
I was just researching this for my handbook. Thanks Tom!
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Thriftylady 01:47 PM 09-11-2014
Thanks for posting Tom!
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