How to prepare your family day care business for success.
Right. It’s time to get organised. You know what they say, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Here is how to prepare your family day care business for success.
As a family day care business, whether you are the service provider, part of the leadership team, or an educator, you need to be always striving to improve. Not just so the children in your care reach their fullest potential, but so you do, too.
Are you ready to roll your sleeves up and get to work? I am going to tell you how to prepare your family day care business for success.
How to prepare your family day care business for success.
1. Update your business plan: Having a business plan helps you develop a long-term vision and strategy. It is where you can set your goals for your marketing and finance, and help give clarity to the structure and operations of your business. Get a free copy of our business plan template here.
2. Create some professional goals: Setting and achieving professional goals leads to higher job satisfaction and a feeling of fulfilment. But how do you know what goals to set? Well, having a mentor can help you map out a career path and identify the milestones you need to. Or maybe you are mentoring someone in your team? Either way, this Mentoring Pack will help.
3. Remember that knowledge is power: Working in the education industry, as we do, I know you understand the importance of learning. We need to ensure we are providing the best education program we can to children, and to do that we need to commit to our own self-education. Have a read of my 5 self-education tips for family day care professionals blog post and check out my YouTube Channel to get yourself inspired and excited about building your knowledge.
4. Review your program: As a family day care business, your program is your product. My YouTube video Assessing The Educational Program walks you through what you need to do to make sure your program is the best it can be.
5. Strengthen your strong foundation: Your policies underpin everything you do in your business. Every member of your team needs to know what their role is, including families enrolled in your service. Having sound policies and procedures means you can incorporate the relevant legislation into all that you do to help you remain compliant. I have a few options available to help you develop your own policies and procedures. You can use a template for providers here and educator policies and procedures template here. Or you can get a full set of done-for-you policies here.
6. Strive to improve your service’s ratings: Whether you are the owner of the service, an employee, or a contracted educator, it is in your best interest to always be striving to improve the ratings of the service. Why? Well, the bottomline is the better the rating, the more families will want to enrol in your program, which results in you making more money.
I have some resources to help. For providers and the leadership team, check this out. For educators, take a look at this.
While we are all here to make an impact on the life of each child in our care, we are still business owners and we need to be making money to remain viable. If you want to improve your ratings or business practices, you can book an online session with me.
7. Simplify the legislation: It is absolutely imperative that you know and understand what is expected of you. However, there is no denying that legislation can be difficult to interpret. I put together The JPS Survival Guide for Australian Family Day Care Educators, a user-friendly book for educators to keep on hand for quick reference, and to take notes and brainstorm in. Take the time to make sure you are prepared for any challenge you are faced with, particularly a compliance or ratings visit from the regulatory authority.
8. Get inspired: We all go through periods of feeling like we’ve lost our mojo. The start of the pandemic was a particular low point for me. But, there are steps we can take to get ourselves fired up. I like to go back to the Top 3 influences as an educational practitioner blog post to help me think about the how the work I do adds value to the world. I seek out people who inspire me, and I am forever brainstorming ideas and goals in my journal. If you like the sound of using a journal as your very own tool for inspiration, then check out the incited media journal process here.
9. Build your brand: Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room. It is your reputation.Whether you are a provider who is building the brand of the service, or you are an educator building your personal brand, it is imperative to have clarity around what you want to become known for (e.g. who are you? what are your values?)
I have put together packs you can download and print to help you build a brand that represents the soul of your business so you attract the right kind of customers to help your business grow. Click here for Service Providers and leadership team. For educators, building a strong personal brand means you can choose the service you register with (they will WANT you) Click here for Educators.
Read more about branding here.
10. Connect with others in our industry: I am always learning from my peers. They inspire me every day. I’d like to invite you to join my Facebook Group – a safe space of like-minded people where you can share your wins, and your struggles, too.
So, hopefully you are feeling pumped for 2021. I hope these tips have given you drive to keep moving forward and shown you how to prepare your family day care business for success. Keep this blog post to refer back to or send it to your team, so you set yourself up for an epic year ahead. I’ll be here cheering you on!
Don’t forget to email me at jodie@jpsadvisers.com.au or book an online consultation to find out how I can guide and support you on your journey as a family day care business.