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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Advertising Your Business
Unregistered 02:24 PM 12-02-2014
We are a Type A in-home daycare in Ohio (we can care for up to 12 children with two adult caregivers). For the past few months, we have had a low-head count; so low in fact, that I have had to send employees home. I have tried advertising with fliers and business cards and local business, laundry mats, carry outs, gas stations, etc. We have also posted on line with several websites. Does anyone have any suggestions for advertising? What has worked/has not worked in the past? Any and all suggestions are helpful! Thanks!
kendallina 06:24 PM 12-02-2014
Hi 
I'm type B from Ohio. Do your current parents know that you have open spots? Have you asked them to spread the word or even given a discount/giftcard for referrals. Word of mouth has been by best means of advertising by far. Also, sometimes I will think that parents realized that I only have 5 kids and so I am actively searching for another child and then I am amazed to find out that parents didn't realize/didn't think about/thought I was full. I would start there.
My second best form of advertisement has been my website. I use weebly and (I think) it looks pretty professional and it comes up as the second place when you search for "(my town), ohio preschool" And the first one that comes up just went out of business.
Hope that helps.
I'm type B from Ohio. Do your current parents know that you have open spots? Have you asked them to spread the word or even given a discount/giftcard for referrals. Word of mouth has been by best means of advertising by far. Also, sometimes I will think that parents realized that I only have 5 kids and so I am actively searching for another child and then I am amazed to find out that parents didn't realize/didn't think about/thought I was full. I would start there. My second best form of advertisement has been my website. I use weebly and (I think) it looks pretty professional and it comes up as the second place when you search for "(my town), ohio preschool" And the first one that comes up just went out of business
. Hope that helps.
therov 08:38 AM 12-03-2014
Are you in an area that has a parent Yahoo! group or neighborhood email list? When I've sought new clients I've asked a current parent to post about my daycare on our local parent group, and I got a lot of responses from those. If your community doesn't have a group, this would be a great reason to start one--small business owners like yourself can advertise, neighbors can post recommendations for services, etc.