Question: I want to offer a 20% discount on parents first month but need advice?

[lovechildcare1]

Apologies if this is confusing I will try and explain it as best as I can. Basically I want to offer a 20% discount to parents for their first month that they use my services. However on chatting to someone I know they said it will have to all legal and correct otherwise I will face problems. She suggested that I write up some terms and conditions to clearly explain exactly what it is parents are getting etc so last night I started to
write the following.


The term ‘Toddle In’ or 'I',‘us’ or ‘we’ 'my' refers to the owner of the business Toddle In. The terms ‘you’ 'client' refers to you as a client or customer of Toddle In


1.1 The offer is open to any parent or client (you) who wish to use Toddle In services for one month or 4 weeks for a minimum of 16 hours a week
1.2 The offer is only valid for the first month (4 weeks) that you use our services. The discount of 20% will be applied to your bill at the end of the first month. After the first month you will be charged the usual hourly rate.
1.3 The discount ends at the end of the month or 4 weeks and does not roll on to the next month. After one month (4 weeks) the usual hourly rate will apply and will be reflected in your bill for any consecutive months thereafter unless otherwise stated.
1.4 This promotional offer ends on 30th March 2013.after the 30th March 2013 you and new customers will be charged the usual hourly rate including fees and charges. Toddle In reserves the right to change, cancel or amend the offer at any time including amendments to these terms and conditions.
1.5 If at any time you decide to withdraw from using our services before the 4 week period is up you will be charged usual hourly rate this will be reflected on your bill.
1.6 Nothing within these terms and conditions changes or amends our contractual agreement and you must continue to abide by the contractual agreement you signed when agreeing to use Toddle In services.

Does this sound ok? Also should I only limit the offer to those parents with children who are full time or also to part-timers?

The 20% discount brings the hourly rate to £3.20 and I obviously dont want to loose money?

Sorry for the long post! I am finding it very difficult having just started out and got no parents yet!

[rickysmiths]

It all sounds very complicated to me and I have never felt the need to discount a place for a new parent to be honest, nor have I ever heard of any cm doing this. It also sounds as if you are charging in arrears? Is this the case? If it is I would seriously consider charging on the first of the month for the month ahead. I would never charge in arrears. I also take a four weeks fee deposit.

If I were to offer a 'Drop In' kind of arrangement I would charge a one off Registration Fee to cover the cost of all the paperwork and my time in setting it up. I would fill in a normal contract and all the other paperwork and permissions so they were in place when the place was used making sure the child info form was checked regularly.

[lovechildcare1]

Thanks for your reply should i abandon the discount all together?

I am going to ask for a months deposit and for parents to pay me on weekly or monthly basis?

[loocyloo]

i like the idea, but would worry about parents using me for just the month and then leaving.

could you maybe offer a discount or ? to apply after 3 months? 6 months? and maybe think about how many a week a parent needs to do to activate the discount?

i would also charge in advance, plus a deposit ( although i know getting a deposit is easier said than done!!! )

good luck x

[Mouse]

I agree with the other posters - always take payment in advance. If you invoice parents at the end of the month you run the risk of them not paying, not paying the full amount, querying why they are having to pay for child's time off etc? It makes it all so much easier to take payment in advance :thumbsup:

I think offering a discount can be a good idea if you are struggling to get work. If you're going to write terms & conditions why not give your insurance company a ring and ask if they'd have a look at them for you?

If you do go down the discount route I would offer it for full time & part time places. In my experience there is a lot more part time work than full time. You're more likely to pick up several part timers than one full timer, so it pays to attract the part timers :thumbsup:

[lovechildcare1]

i like the idea, but would worry about parents using me for just the month and then leaving.

could you maybe offer a discount or ? to apply after 3 months? 6 months? and maybe think about how many a week a parent needs to do to activate the discount?

i would also charge in advance, plus a deposit ( although i know getting a deposit is easier said than done!!! )

good luck x

I think i am just going to abandon the plan altogether as its just too much hassle!

How do i charge in advance? :panic:

[caz3007]

I think i am just going to abandon the plan altogether as its just too much hassle!

How do i charge in advance? :panic:

I charge the standard hours at the beginning of the month and any extras get added onto next months bill

[lovechildcare1]

How do i charge parents in advance? at the moment im planning to ask parents to pay by cash on a weekly or monthly basis??

This is all very confusing! :blush:

[The Juggler]

if you are discounting to attract people, I see no reason not too but I would make it clear it's for long term contracts so no-one is taking advantage of the 20% to get a cheap short term childcare solution.

I did this to encourage my mat leave mum to leave older child with me when she returned from mat leave with baby. If she hadn't sent both children back I'd not have been able to make back my losses from when she went p=time on mat leave.

I just put an extra clause in my contract amendment letter saying "if both x and the baby come back full time I will offer a £100/month discount for x months or until x is no longer full time whichever is the sooner".

I would advertise your service maybe saying "20% discount for first month on long term contracts" then complete a contract as normal with normal hours and rates and issue an additional letter outside of the contract saying

"as discussed I will offer a 20% discount for the first calendar month/4 weeks". This means that for the first month of your contract the fee will be £xxx. Thereafter it will return to full contracted rate. If notice is given after the first calendar month, the fee for the notice period will be at the normal contracted rate not the discounted rate.

Read and agreed Read and agreed

______ ______ _______

Minder Parent Parent


hope that helps.:thumbsup:

Dated: Dated:

[lovechildcare1]

[QUOTE=The Juggler;1176272]if you are discounting to attract people, I see no reason not too but I would make it clear it's for long term contracts so no-one is taking advantage of the 20% to get a cheap short term childcare solution.

I did this to encourage my mat leave mum to leave older child with me when she returned from mat leave with baby. If she hadn't sent both children back I'd not have been able to make back my losses from when she went p=time on mat leave.

I just put an extra clause in my contract amendment letter saying "if both x and the baby come back full time I will offer a £100/month discount for x months or until x is no longer full time whichever is the sooner".

I would advertise your service maybe saying "20% discount for first month on long term contracts" then complete a contract as normal with normal hours and rates and issue an additional letter outside of the contract saying

"as discussed I will offer a 20% discount for the first calendar month/4 weeks". This means that for the first month of your contract the fee will be £xxx. Thereafter it will return to full contracted rate. If notice is given after the first calendar month, the fee for the notice period will be at the normal contracted rate not the discounted rate.


Thanks for your reply. Should i put it in the terms and cons then above that the discount only applies to long term contracts? Then write up the contract with the normal hours the parent needs and rates and then just send out an additional letter saying that the discount of 20% will be applied this means that for the first month of the contract the will be 'X' amount? etc

If notice is given after the first calendar month, the fee for the notice period will be at the normal contracted rate not the discounted rate. in my terms it says this already

[The Juggler]

i wouldn't even mention the discount in your terms and conditions. That way you have no problems if you withdraw the offer. It's an added benefit if you like. This means you can take it away when business is good without saying, well someone said they saw it in your t&c's.

So you can advertise now saying for a limited period I'm offering 20% off the first months fees for those signing a contract.

The reason I said I would only offer for long term contracts is to avoid people using the discount to get cheap, short term childcare. Yes I would offer this to both full and part-time contracts if you are going to offer it. It's a great selling point on netmums.

Also by making it clear that if they do try this and give notice during the first month, then they need to know they will not get the discount during the notice period.

Hope that helps?

[mum24]

Thanks for your reply should i abandon the discount all together?

I am going to ask for a months deposit and for parents to pay me on weekly or monthly basis?

Unless you have promised already a discount for the first month I would forget about it.
If you have already discussed the discount, I would suggest the following.
Write up your usual contract and in the notes quite simply put discount agreed for first month, so x amount due before first day mindee starts, and then x amount due first of every following month. But, ask for a months deposit at full rate, so that if they then leave in the future you are covered for the proper amount. Hopefully that won't happen but just in case. I don't think there is any need to be too long winded. Sometimes simpler is better and as long as you have it written up in your contract and signed that should be fine.
Whether parents pay weekly etc is between you and them, but always in advance. :)

[lovechildcare1]

Thank you everyone for your replies. To make it all legal and clear i have written up some terms for the offer and showed it to a childminder who says it all looks good and i should continue to offer the discount.

Fees a payable in advance anyways as well as a 4 week non-refundable deposit. Retainers are also charged.