So,you want to start a day care. I’m a huge advocate of having a website and blog to support your day care business. I have connected with a lot of clients that otherwise might not have found me or might have overlooked my service in favor of one of the above. They might have overlooked my service in favor of a bigger, better, faster, shinier, more centrally located day care.
People were impressed with my website; with the pictures, information and ‘glimpse inside’ that it offered. They liked the beautiful setting, the family run element and our montessori program. They felt like they knew us already thanks to the ‘personal touch’ effect of the website.
Communication with potential and existing clients is so much easier, as is marketing your day care when you have an online presence. It is not difficult to maintain or create a website and a professional look can be easily achieved. Your business can be marketed better by a regularly updated, vibrant website and blog than by other methods at less cost. Include lots of information about you and your day care ensure your site is easily navigated.
Granted it took a few months of work submitting my site to online business directories and ensuring I had all my meta tags and keywords up to speed but ultimately it was worth it. Most google and other search engine queries for day care in my area will have my business listed in the first few results.
Pictures of your day care should abound, both interior and exterior - nice bright shots of your playrooms and playgrounds. Help parents understand what your day care offers by incorporating details of important policies, your educational curriculum and what you charge. You can include downloads of your day care contract and parent handbook - the more information you provide the less questions they’re going to have.
Keep your existing and future clients up to speed and interested in your day care by adding a blog to your website. I am getting lots of positive comments and responses having recently begun my own blog - Wordpress makes it easy for even the most technically challenged to to this. Put pictures of you and your employees on a staff page and include a few details about each person. This way, when you start a day care you won’t be such a stranger to your potential clients and they’ll be much more inclined to consider your service.
As a day care owner Fiona Lohrenz has extensive experience of childcare which she writes about on her website. She has also used this knowledge to produce a ‘Start a Daycare Business’ DVD guide: Starting A Daycare You can find her at her Day Care focused website.
- Fiona Lohrenz
Highlights 
August 15th, 2008 