Starting new in home daycare...lots of questions

[cadaycare]

Hi everyone -
I plan to start my in home daycare come summer. I have a 14 mo. old and I want to provide care for no more than 3 others. I've been reading a lot of the threads on this site (which is so helpful), and I was wondering what has been the most successful way used to ensure on time payment.
I have read a few here and there about people having trouble getting paid. This is something I do not want to experience, so what do people do?
Are there contracts people have written up that parents sign? I want to be prepared with anything and everything I may need as far as documentation. Anyone have any advice? Thanks, cadaycare

[lilbiddapopcorn]

Hello,
Congrats on starting your own daycare! The best I could do with payments was have parents prepay the week or month in advance, whichever they could do. I only had one parent who was able to pay a month in advance but everyone else had to do at least a week. Even then you sometimes get stiffed if you're not careful. I also had them fill out a contract and I made sure they knew at the first interview, payment for the week ahead was due on Friday. Come Monday, no payment, i'm sorry but they can't stay. Period. It might upset a few if they try to skip out on paying on time but in the long run, it's easier if you start out tough than being uneasy or shy about it at first and then try to get firm on it later. I used http://www.supportingproviders.com/ for a lot of my forms because there's many different ones to choose from and they're free. There's plenty of websites though if you google free daycare forms that'll help a lot on things like contracts, field trip forms, etc. I wish you the best of luck in your new daycare!

I hate having to ask for my pay check, it's very hard to do, but some parents will force the issue. Some honestly forget (I have, ack) and others will just be trying to see how long they can push it. Right now I'm very fortunate that I don't have to ask, but I'm sure I will again in the future. I found it helpful to have a separate payment policy that went beyond the policy handbook. It explains everything including that I don't want to have to ask for payment, payment is expected in advance, payment is expected even if the child misses days... all that good stuff on it's very own sheet of paper with the parent's signatures. Even with all that I still get weak in the knees if I have to ask.
I've heard of providers putting a friendly sign up on the door Thursday afternoon reminding parents that the payment is due the next day.
As long as you stay on top of it and don't let it slide, ever, you shouldn't have to worry about getting hung out to dry ( I have... all talk, no backbone).

[tymaboy]

The prepay like lilbiddapopcorn said works well unless you decide to charge by the hour. If you do this then you will also need to have a cut off date also. Monday is always a good day if Friday is usually pay day. If you charge by the hour then you take the chance of loosing aweeks pay. This is the way I have done it for the last 2 yrs & have not had a problem with my parents not paying on time. I did have a problem with a state aide family that did not want to pay the fees they accumulated & never got paid for the fees. It is a good idea to have a contract & a policy written up with all your rules. I used http://www.thedaycarelady.com/form.htm to get a start on mine then just changed them a bit to meet my needs.