I had never thought of posting on Craigslist, but another thread here inspired me to do so. I didn't get any calls for the first 3 days, but did get one today.
It states clearly in my ad (among other things) that my hours are until 5:00, and that I am in X school district (small town, but does have 3 elementary schools, and buses will only transport to the one appropriate to where you live). So.... first of all she asks if she can come for an interview in the evening. Says she gets back into town about 6 or 6:30 pm. All I thought about at first is that I'd really rather interview during my business day, so I'm asking her is there a day at all where she could come during the day? Even during her lunch or something? Then she tells me she works downtown of our large city 30 min north of here, and it dawns on me... she would need care till 6 or 6:30!!! But I don't mention it right away just in case she was going to say Dad or Grandma or someone will pick up dck by 5:00. THEN, she mentions he goes to Z school, and I say I'm in X district. I think she quickly realized that she hadn't read those 2 things clearly in my ad, and she said ok thanks and hung up quicker than I could say ok goodbye. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE READ THE ADS MORE THOROUGHLY THAN THAT??? I mean, come on! It was spelled out clearly. LOL.
Do you get very many calls from your Craigslist ads? Maybe it's the fact that I'm in a small rural town of about 12,000, but there are only 3 ads for my city. Usually between 2 and 5 in our local paper. And still, it's very difficult to fill empty spots. Many of mine come from current customers recommending to friends/relatives. Any other promotion ideas?
momofboys 11:41 AM 09-13-2010
Originally Posted by Joyce:
I had never thought of posting on Craigslist, but another thread here inspired me to do so. I didn't get any calls for the first 3 days, but did get one today.
It states clearly in my ad (among other things) that my hours are until 5:00, and that I am in X school district (small town, but does have 3 elementary schools, and buses will only transport to the one appropriate to where you live). So.... first of all she asks if she can come for an interview in the evening. Says she gets back into town about 6 or 6:30 pm. All I thought about at first is that I'd really rather interview during my business day, so I'm asking her is there a day at all where she could come during the day? Even during her lunch or something? Then she tells me she works downtown of our large city 30 min north of here, and it dawns on me... she would need care till 6 or 6:30!!! But I don't mention it right away just in case she was going to say Dad or Grandma or someone will pick up dck by 5:00. THEN, she mentions he goes to Z school, and I say I'm in X district. I think she quickly realized that she hadn't read those 2 things clearly in my ad, and she said ok thanks and hung up quicker than I could say ok goodbye. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE READ THE ADS MORE THOROUGHLY THAN THAT??? I mean, come on! It was spelled out clearly. LOL.
Do you get very many calls from your Craigslist ads? Maybe it's the fact that I'm in a small rural town of about 12,000, but there are only 3 ads for my city. Usually between 2 and 5 in our local paper. And still, it's very difficult to fill empty spots. Many of mine come from current customers recommending to friends/relatives. Any other promotion ideas?
I have not gotten any clients through CL but I have had a few calls b/c of it. I have picked up 2 clients via Care.com & had a potential 3rd client but I did not want to care for twins at the time so I did not take them.
Michael 12:43 PM 09-13-2010
legomom922 07:46 PM 09-13-2010
I have received all of my clients through CL! I love it!! I renew/repost my ad every other day. I too live in a smaller town, 11,000 and when I used the paper that I had to pay for, I got 0 calls!
Michael, do you only list liscensed providers??
WImom 05:21 AM 09-14-2010
Good to know Michael. I'd also like to know if I have to be licensed. I will be soon but I'm not currently.
Anyone? Anything?
Originally Posted by Joyce:
Any other promotion ideas?
MarinaVanessa 12:14 PM 09-14-2010
Originally Posted by Joyce:
Anyone? Anything?
I've gotten a client from CL but I did get a lot of goofy calls and tons of SPAM. Other suggestions are flyers. Post them on corner posts (if your city doesn't have a ban on them), schools near your daycare, churches that don't have childcare, parks, libraries, laundromats, grocery stores, gas stations etc. all of which of course are near your home.
Once you get licensed call your local child care resource agency and ask about putting your daycare on their refferal list. It's usually free and parents trying to find child care call them and get a list of daycares and providers in their area faxed or mailed to them. If you're in their area, your name will be on the list.
Also Holloween is coming up. Instead of giving out candy I give out my business card with a couple of crayons and a sucker taped to the back. I got a client like this last year.
juliebug 12:19 PM 09-14-2010
yes i have gotten some familys from my ads. i think on cl you really need to make them short and sweet or they don't get read well! good luck getting full!
MarinaVanessa is correct about the goofy calls. I just got one a minute ago where she doesn't even live in my city and would be back-tracking to come here. The area code does not exist in my state, and she needs care till 6:30 pm. I said "My ad states I work until 5:00 pm". She says "well, it says flexible". I laughed and said, "NOT AN HOUR AND A HALF!!" I wouldn't have been so rude except I already had a suspicion there was something fishy with that area code and the geography not adding up.
The "flexible" part is this -- I currently have kids till about 5:20 or 5:30, which has stretched from the original 5:15. But this is a boy I've had since birth and he's now 7, and I have his 2 yr old sister also. I love them and love the family, so I deal with 5:30. So I put 5:00 in the ad hoping to try and eventually have my day end earlier, but I didn't want to NOT get calls because of saying 5:00, so I put "could be a little flexible" because I thought if someone says they can be here at 5:10, that would be fine. But please -- expecting "flexible" to mean 90 minutes????? I literally laughed.
Not too sure about this Craigslist idea. At least for me so far. Only 2 calls and both crazy goofy weird. We'll see....
Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa:
I've gotten a client from CL but I did get a lot of goofy calls and tons of SPAM. Other suggestions are flyers. Post them on corner posts (if your city doesn't have a ban on them), schools near your daycare, churches that don't have childcare, parks, libraries, laundromats, grocery stores, gas stations etc. all of which of course are near your home.
Once you get licensed call your local child care resource agency and ask about putting your daycare on their refferal list. It's usually free and parents trying to find child care call them and get a list of daycares and providers in their area faxed or mailed to them. If you're in their area, your name will be on the list.
Also Holloween is coming up. Instead of giving out candy I give out my business card with a couple of crayons and a sucker taped to the back. I got a client like this last year.
Some great ideas. Thanks. I think I'll try the Halloween idea!! How great is that -- your target audience comes right to your door!!!
MarinaVanessa 12:49 PM 09-14-2010
Originally Posted by Joyce:
Some great ideas. Thanks. I think I'll try the Halloween idea!! How great is that -- your target audience comes right to your door!!!
Exactly that's the beauty of it ... I buy the sugar-free suckers. I've heard of someone making postcards from VistaPrint instead of using business cards but business cards are less expensive and the kids will usually give it to their parents.
When I did flyers I also added a library book pockets (in colors) to them (the paper was multi-colored and bright) and added business cards to the pocket. I got that idea from the forum also but added my own twists. I'll see if I can take a picture later and post it.
Cool, thanks. Btw, I'm originally from Van Nuys.
PAMommy1228 09:10 AM 09-15-2010
I've got calls from Craigslist, but I felt like it was much more work than I could do all the time for just a phone call. I've got clients from them too, but 2 of the 3 took off with a bill.
Recently I made a blog site with all of my information and registered with Google Ads, Yahoo Pages, and a few others. And in the past month I have received more calls than I have since I was opened. When I look on Google ads it shows that I have at least one person a day looking at my page.
legomom922 12:55 PM 09-15-2010
Do you have to be licensed to use these other services?
MarinaVanessa 03:20 PM 09-15-2010
Originally Posted by legomom922:
Do you have to be licensed to use these other services?
I think that you only need a license if you want to use the Child Refferal Agency since they promote licensed care providers but you may only need to be registered depending on your state. Check your regulations to be sure. On that note be careful if in your state you are required to be licensed (or registered) and you promote. Some states can come down pretty hard if your running an illegal daycare. Again check your regs first, you may not need to get licensed or registered at all in your state.
legomom922 05:43 PM 09-15-2010
I am not licensed or registred, or even illegal for what its worth. In my state you can have up to 2 kids without being regsitered and that is all I have, so I am perfectly legal. I just wondered on these other resources if you had to be liscensed or not to be listed.
Michael, I am still waiting to hear back from you if on this site we need to be licsensed to be listed?
AfterSchoolMom 05:55 PM 09-15-2010
I've gotten every single family via Craigslist. I LOVE it. I get very little spam, and don't post my phone number on the CL ad (I screen people via email), so I never get weird calls.