Question for Small Town Parents?
April 21, 2010 by
Filed under business group activities
How much would you be willing to pay for someone for Daycare who is doing it out of their home and has the following credentials?
-CPR certified
-3.5 years experience both family and group center
-certified daycare
-healthy meals and snacks included
-all required classes finished (except for the business class that allows to run a group daycare)
-educational activities included
-mom experience also
I keep getting told I am charging too much but it is almost double in the next town over I live in a small historical town and receive no calls from parents looking for childcare. Getting a little frusterated so I was wondering about rates.
I am a Daycare not a Babysitter.
Thanks!
I cant take the business class until enough people are gathered again and last time I was working at the group center it was not requried for my situation now however I have 2 kids and work for $8 per hour raising other peoples kids while overpaid people raise mine. I work for gas to get to work. I am waiting to get calls from parents before I put in my 2 weeks though. And you’d be willing to pay???
I can’t get a higher paying job right now so my options are either just stay home or do in home childcare. Thanks for the price range though I am currently trying to charge $3 per hour or $20 per day.
You should go back and take that business class perhaps they will teach you about the laws of supply and demand
Do your market research and find out if there is a demand for that kind of service in the area. Then look at what others are charging. Estimate your expenses. If you can’t compete successfully, you may want to rethink the daycare business.
I live in a relatively small community, and the prices range from about $3 an hour to $7, depending on the type of daycare and the qualifications of its staff. But only a small percent of parents can afford the more expensive places.
How much depends on the demand in your town. If you are getting as many bookings as you want, you aren’t charging too much.
In a small town there usually isn’t a big demand for these kinds of services. Parents will usually stay home or take them to family close by instead where they feel safer and comfortable with the situation for their child. Daycares usually do better in bigger suburban areas where more parents work or there are more clients in need of the service. Chances are if there are daycares close to where you are anyone that requires it is probably all ready established there and hesitant to change to an unfamiliar setting.
I live in a town of about 6,000. There is only one in home daycare that I’m aware of, most parents stay at home while their kids are too young to be in school here. The neighboring city has about 20,000 (a nice historic family-based town) and the home daycares there range generally from $150-$250 a week for full-time care. In my town I would pay someone $125-$150 for at home daycare.
If you are not receiving calls from parents you need to advertise more. Do the parents work in the town with the higher daycares? It might be easier to have their kids closer to their work. And they may just feel more comfortable taking them to a center rather than a home. How have you been advertising? I would put an ad in the paper, flyers in the churches and by the playgrounds, and spread the news by word of mouth.
If anything, you can always lower your rate more since you aren’t getting any money as it is.
I think 3 dollars an hour is great. I used to pay 65 dollars for 45 hours and then a 1.50 for every hour over. This was back in the 90’s and in Atlanta Ga. I see people charging 20 dollars a day for the first child and 10-15 dollars for each additional child. Now when I lived in Ten Mile Tn and let me tell you it is as small as it sounds and this was just last year people were charging 40-50 dollars a week. But if I was having to find child care now a days I would not pay over 70-80 a week for one child. If I was you though and you just want to start getting kids I would start out at 50-60 a week and they have to bring their food or charge separately for their meals. Once the parents see the benefits of you day care then you can raise your prices a little at a time.