sarah707
26-02-2008, 04:37 PM
Some top tips for getting minded children onto your books. :D
- Your local CIS advert is a biggie – it is your shop window for everyone who comes to look for childcare and you should spend time getting your advert right. Look at others and make sure yours looks the best, your prices are competitive and the spellings etc are right. Get back on the phone and ask for it to be changed if it’s not 100%. Ring CIS weekly if you have a vacancy and ask them to move you back to the top of the list;
- Get some business cards – print your own or get some prices from local companies. You could use part of your start-up grant, if you are lucky enough to get one. Vista print have a reputation for charging customers money for a ‘club’ which they don’t remember joining, so please be very careful which buttons you press if you take up their free offers;
- Make a little leaflet about your services to give to people who are interested. Nothing too fancy and go easy on the coloured ink, but it can really help to sell you to yourself;
- Make up some postcards – make sure they are eye catching and ask, ‘Would I answer this if I saw it on a notice board?’ If your spelling isn’t great, type it in Word first and run a spell check … it’s about potential customers seeing it and it being readable and looking the part, so take some time and do it well;
- Tell everyone you know what you do. Tell people when you are out shopping in your town - you never know who they know! Tell parents in the playground if you pick up at school, playgroup or nursery – now is not the time to be shy!
- Ask at your local health centre / dentists / doctors surgery if you can put up a leaflet. If not, make an appointment to speak to the health visitors and leave them some of your cards;
- Local schools are great and usually have a couple of notice boards – again a little card would do the trick – make sure you include the ages of children you are looking for, a general idea of where you live in relation to the school and a mobile number. Your school may also let you include an advert in their newsletter for a small donation to school funds (or even for free);
- Visit your local toddler groups / singing sessions and leave your leaflet on their noticeboard – check again a week later and see if it needs replacing;
- Do you have a local Sure Start Centre? If so, there may be mother and toddler groups or crèches where you could go and leave a leaflet;
- Consider making yourself a website - Pauline does some lovely websites and they are not expensive or www.freewebs.com is easy if you are fairly computer literate;
- Enrol at your local library and tell the Librarian you are a Childminder. See if they will let you put a leaflet on their notice board. Many libraries run reading or singing sessions for under 3s – you could get involved with one of these and hand out your cards at the end;
- Do you know any local clowns or people who do children’s birthday parties? They could put a card in their party bags for you and you would be targeting parents with small children;
- Talk to other childminders and spread the word that you are looking. Yes I know they are competition, but if they are full, they might well pass enquiries on to you;
- Does your local church do a newsletter? Are there any other free magazines available in your town? Have a look around when you are out and if you find any, put an advert in yourself;
- Put your advert on this forum under your local area… you never know who is looking! Don't add a phone number though... you have to protect yourself! I would make a new, free hotmail or yahoo email address and use it just for things like adverts... that way, if it does get spammed, it's not your primary email;
- Do you have a car? If so, put an ad or little banner in the back window;
- List of ideas for places to advertise on the internet here, thank you Straws -
http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3554&highlight=advertising
- Do you or does anyone you know belong to a gym or club where they could put up a card?
- Do you offer a babysitting service? This might get you daytime business;
- Big companies local to you may well have notice boards or newsletters. Worth a drive round the industrial park and asking at a few reception areas!
BEWARE paying to advertise - you need to reach a relatively small target audience and you could be wasting your money! DO NOT pay money to online companies who promise you business - they are most probably lying!
Some of the ideas for this list came from an article on Silkysteps - www.silkysteps.com
- Your local CIS advert is a biggie – it is your shop window for everyone who comes to look for childcare and you should spend time getting your advert right. Look at others and make sure yours looks the best, your prices are competitive and the spellings etc are right. Get back on the phone and ask for it to be changed if it’s not 100%. Ring CIS weekly if you have a vacancy and ask them to move you back to the top of the list;
- Get some business cards – print your own or get some prices from local companies. You could use part of your start-up grant, if you are lucky enough to get one. Vista print have a reputation for charging customers money for a ‘club’ which they don’t remember joining, so please be very careful which buttons you press if you take up their free offers;
- Make a little leaflet about your services to give to people who are interested. Nothing too fancy and go easy on the coloured ink, but it can really help to sell you to yourself;
- Make up some postcards – make sure they are eye catching and ask, ‘Would I answer this if I saw it on a notice board?’ If your spelling isn’t great, type it in Word first and run a spell check … it’s about potential customers seeing it and it being readable and looking the part, so take some time and do it well;
- Tell everyone you know what you do. Tell people when you are out shopping in your town - you never know who they know! Tell parents in the playground if you pick up at school, playgroup or nursery – now is not the time to be shy!
- Ask at your local health centre / dentists / doctors surgery if you can put up a leaflet. If not, make an appointment to speak to the health visitors and leave them some of your cards;
- Local schools are great and usually have a couple of notice boards – again a little card would do the trick – make sure you include the ages of children you are looking for, a general idea of where you live in relation to the school and a mobile number. Your school may also let you include an advert in their newsletter for a small donation to school funds (or even for free);
- Visit your local toddler groups / singing sessions and leave your leaflet on their noticeboard – check again a week later and see if it needs replacing;
- Do you have a local Sure Start Centre? If so, there may be mother and toddler groups or crèches where you could go and leave a leaflet;
- Consider making yourself a website - Pauline does some lovely websites and they are not expensive or www.freewebs.com is easy if you are fairly computer literate;
- Enrol at your local library and tell the Librarian you are a Childminder. See if they will let you put a leaflet on their notice board. Many libraries run reading or singing sessions for under 3s – you could get involved with one of these and hand out your cards at the end;
- Do you know any local clowns or people who do children’s birthday parties? They could put a card in their party bags for you and you would be targeting parents with small children;
- Talk to other childminders and spread the word that you are looking. Yes I know they are competition, but if they are full, they might well pass enquiries on to you;
- Does your local church do a newsletter? Are there any other free magazines available in your town? Have a look around when you are out and if you find any, put an advert in yourself;
- Put your advert on this forum under your local area… you never know who is looking! Don't add a phone number though... you have to protect yourself! I would make a new, free hotmail or yahoo email address and use it just for things like adverts... that way, if it does get spammed, it's not your primary email;
- Do you have a car? If so, put an ad or little banner in the back window;
- List of ideas for places to advertise on the internet here, thank you Straws -
http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3554&highlight=advertising
- Do you or does anyone you know belong to a gym or club where they could put up a card?
- Do you offer a babysitting service? This might get you daytime business;
- Big companies local to you may well have notice boards or newsletters. Worth a drive round the industrial park and asking at a few reception areas!
BEWARE paying to advertise - you need to reach a relatively small target audience and you could be wasting your money! DO NOT pay money to online companies who promise you business - they are most probably lying!
Some of the ideas for this list came from an article on Silkysteps - www.silkysteps.com