Advertising Your Day Care On A Budget

You don’t want to spend a fortune, you just want to market your day care effectively in your locality but the burning question remains; ‘How do I do it?’. Believe it or not, it is not impossible and simply requires a little work and ingenuity. Your first port of call should be the printers with your stationary order which should comprise the following;

- Business cards - Your letterheads - A5 sized brochures/flyers to be distributed locally. These should spell out the key selling points of your day care and why parents would be foolish to go elsewhere;

- Your contact details - What your day care offers in terms of curriculum, additional services e.g. afterschool, drama classes etc. - Let the flyer be a vouchere e.g. present the flyer and get one week free. - Anything extraordinarily special about your day care that makes it stand out from the competition.

Consider hiring some people or a reputable company to put flyers on cars for you (particulary ones with car seats). Don’t break the law so double check the appropriate city ordinances before you go plastering your town with advertising paraphenalia.

Check with your post office about doing a mass mailing and ensure you target housing developments with a young family population (although I have many Gran’ma’s receive my flyer and recommend my service to their kids!).

Next it’s time for you to do a little leg work and local networking. You need to get your flyers installed anywhere that people congregate;

- Doctor and dentist waiting rooms - bored people, often with kids just hanging around. - Ante-natal clinics!for obvious reasons. - Be creative and think of places where you have a captive audience, where people are waiting around.

Trawl around for;

- Check out public buildings for community notice boards - Stores that post advertisements (or just ask nicely!). - Local financial institutions - banks and credit unions often have bulletin boards.

Pay a visit to your local schools because they often have notice boards and you might be able to post your flyer there. Sweet talk the prinicial or careers officer and try to arrange doing a talk on child care or the day care business for the P.T.A. or a careers class (it’s all exposure and building trust locally).

These are just a few easier ways of marketing your day care locally. So, what are you waiting for? Get yourself out there.

As a daycare owner and parent Fiona Lohrenz has extensive knowledge of childminding which she writes about on her child care website. She has also used this knowledge to produce a ‘Start a Daycare Business’ DVD guide: Start A Day Care Business DVD You can find her at her website: ChildCareOnly.com

- Rene Sandan