909sitter4u 01:28 PM 03-31-2011
I am a mother of a four year old little man and expecting in October. I was recently laid off. Now all I want to do is watch a couple kids and get paid for it. Now to promote this, in other words sell myself to find these children, What would be the best method of going about this?
Michael 01:32 PM 03-31-2011
909sitter4u 01:41 PM 03-31-2011
Thanks Michael!!
Is it ok to advertise it around town with out getting in trouble?
AnythingsPossible 11:40 AM 04-01-2011
You need to check the regulations of your area and see how many children you can legally watch without having a license. As long as you follow the rules, there shouldn't be any issues with advertising. Does your son go to pre-school? You could spread the word there that you are wanting to watch a few kids, at your doctors office, church if you go, husbands work, places like that.
Meeko 11:57 AM 04-01-2011
Try going to fairly large companies in your area and ask if you can put up a flyer in their personnel/human resources area are if they have a bulletin board. I had a personnel director for Nestle (they have a big factory about a mile from me) tell me she was thrilled to put up my ad. She said they get a lot of workers calling in with lack of child care dilemmas and so can't come to work etc etc. She was eager to give out my number! I ended up with three families within a few weeks of opening up my day care! I now have an ad in the yellow pages which means my phone rings several times a day and I never go more than a few days without filling a spot. But the "big company" thing worked for me when getting started.
cheerfuldom 01:03 PM 04-01-2011
I have excellent luck with craigslist. I have also handed out flyers before (not in mailboxes, in the doors) but you have to make sure that that type of advertising is allowed in your neighborhood. If you have a homeowners association, check the policies regarding child care. I never put the address on the flyers or ads because you don't want to attract any creeps. Only those setting up an interview are told the actual address. The rest are told a general area or neighborhood.
AfterSchoolMom 01:41 PM 04-01-2011
Some HOA's keep lists of child care providers for homeowners in the neighborhood, so you could check on that as well.
Evansmom 01:53 PM 04-01-2011
Spread the word amongst your friends and family. If you have a school or church community spread the word there too. Neighborhoods usually have a community board that you could post advertisements on. Tell your neighbors too.
Oh and make sure you have a maternity leave plan to explain to prospective clients too. You may consider starting care after your infant is born too. That's what I did b/c some people won't want to enroll their child in daycare if they know you will soon be taking 3 or more months off.
And just from someone's who's been there, done that. Have a contract laying out what you will do and provide, hours, rates, any policies etc. BEFORE you start watching kids. My first client I took on before I had my contract finished. When I presented it to her a month later she split b/c she was mad about having to sign it. And prior to that she took all kinds of advantage of me like being 3 hours late to pick up her child, not being able to be reached during the day etc. Not fun at all!
Good luck!
Abigail 11:43 PM 04-01-2011
Look up your state regulations to see how many children you can watch without being over the limit for not being licensed or registered. Do you want to be a nanny for a family or do you want to provide care in your home?
I recommend drawing up a basic contract and writing policies prior to enrolling anyone to make sure you don't get burned. Make sure no matter what you get paid for services ahead of time.
909sitter4u 01:27 PM 04-03-2011
thanks. i will look up that info and also get a contract going!
momatheart 02:43 PM 04-03-2011
I also suggest you read through this site with issues that we all have and how we handle them. There is some great advice on what to include in contracts to avoid issues. Eg. payment, days off, hours of operation etc.
daycare 11:23 AM 04-04-2011
Originally Posted by 909sitter4u:
thanks. i will look up that info and also get a contract going!
In Ca you can watch one family at a time without getting licensed. They can have 1 kid or 5, as long as they are from the same family you can watch them legally.