crazyhazy
10-09-2010, 09:16 PM
I currently have two dds myself who take up two of my under 5 places, then I have a 6m old mon and wed all day. My first mindee left when her mum finished college in June but has just come back now she has a job, cos she was my first mindee and gets on well with my girls I'm being far more laid back hours wise than I should be and need to try and decide what to do going forward.
Mum is doing agency work where she gets odd hours, finds out on a fri her shifts for the following week. Last week I had mindee,
tue & thur 830-1230 (drop at preschool, charged 4 hours each day),
fri 830-630 (preschool 1230-3 but charged for full day)
and sat 830-230
this week it has been
tue & thur 830-1230
fri 830-630
sat 830-1130
and next week is all day thur and fri, then 830-1030 on sat, so falling into a pattern days wise but not really hours apart from the friday being all day every week so far.
Currently I am just charging for hours she is using but am starting to find I am getting enquiries so feel in order to turn them down I need to have some sort of basic hours in place for this mindee.
So, do I charge a retainer for the 3 days during the week that I'm available for her, if so how much? Or do I charge a minimum number of hours for the week and then if she uses more charge that accordingly, how many minimum would you charge? I don't want to scare the mum off cos she can be a bit funny but we do seem to get on well mostly, but equally I'm starting to realise it's a business. I've already decided I'm going to tell her it's a minimum charge of 4 hours on a saturday cos otherwise it's not worth losing my lie in!
Thanks xx
Mum is doing agency work where she gets odd hours, finds out on a fri her shifts for the following week. Last week I had mindee,
tue & thur 830-1230 (drop at preschool, charged 4 hours each day),
fri 830-630 (preschool 1230-3 but charged for full day)
and sat 830-230
this week it has been
tue & thur 830-1230
fri 830-630
sat 830-1130
and next week is all day thur and fri, then 830-1030 on sat, so falling into a pattern days wise but not really hours apart from the friday being all day every week so far.
Currently I am just charging for hours she is using but am starting to find I am getting enquiries so feel in order to turn them down I need to have some sort of basic hours in place for this mindee.
So, do I charge a retainer for the 3 days during the week that I'm available for her, if so how much? Or do I charge a minimum number of hours for the week and then if she uses more charge that accordingly, how many minimum would you charge? I don't want to scare the mum off cos she can be a bit funny but we do seem to get on well mostly, but equally I'm starting to realise it's a business. I've already decided I'm going to tell her it's a minimum charge of 4 hours on a saturday cos otherwise it's not worth losing my lie in!
Thanks xx