From Babysitter to Business Owner: Getting the Most Out of Your Home Child Care Business

Introduction

Every child is different and so is every day care. From Babysitter to Business Owner will help you focus on what makes you unique as a teacher, what makes your family day care a unique school, and how to communicate these qualities through professional business practices. Throughout this book, I provide you with the tools to create more for yourself than just a job—to create a lasting, satisfying, and successful career.

There is no question that this industry needs more quality providers—there are countless families and children who need someone like you. But you also have needs. You need appreciation for your dedication; you need to experience rewards, such as respect, for a job well done; and you need to be reenergized and motivated in order to maintain your dedication over the years.

There is a way to get your needs met as well. In a word, it’s professionalism. Presenting yourself as a professional in every aspect of your business is the key to gaining the success and respect you deserve.

From Babysitter to Business Owner begins with you, the foundation on which your business is built, and we want it to be strong! This book will guide you in looking at each part of your business, teaching you how to add a professional touch while pulling from your strengths and building on your weaknesses.

Chapter 1 discusses finding a new attitude, one that will sustain you through the hard work and set the tone for communication with parents and business decisions you will be faced with. You’ll learn techniques to improve your professional image—inside and out.

Chapters 2, 3, and 4 will take a close look at those parts of your business that directly affect the children: your child care space, curriculum, and field trips. High-quality care is the surest sign of a professional, as well as the best marketing tool. These chapters will help you to get organized and make changes that not only benefit the children but also communicate to their parents your commitment to their care.

Chapter 5 takes you page by page through creating a parent handbook. The handbook will become one of the most valuable tools in running your business. It not only includes information about what you and your day care have to offer, but also answers the question of why it’s important. It also includes the policies and procedures that will help build a successful business relationship between you and the parents.

Clear, honest, and open communication is essential in building a working partnership with parents. Chapter 6 addresses communicating with parents, one of the toughest aspects of this career, and offers a variety of communication tools, beginning with that all-important interview.

There are many ways to get your name out into the community as someone who provides high-quality care through professional business practices. Chapter 7 looks at marketing techniques and discusses the important difference between advertising and marketing. When you are marketing your business successfully, getting the phone to ring will be the least of your worries.

Short-term and long-term goals can help keep your business on track and build your level of professionalism. Chapter 8 helps you formulate a plan for your future, giving you the final tools you need in order to create a lasting and satisfying career.

Throughout this book, I will share stories with you of my experiences in growing as a professional. I started my business in 1988, and believe me, I made every possible mistake in my first two years. I was lucky enough to connect with a fantastic support group with some seasoned professionals to help guide me along. I knew immediately that I wanted to be just like them—to have a successful and respected business. It was a long journey. Today, I have a flourishing business with a good income, a two-year waiting list, incredible families that respect and appreciate me, and countless moments of awe as I spend my days with amazing children who delight and inspire me.

I wrote this book to help you avoid some of the mistakes I made and reach your goals sooner than I reached mine. It took me two years to find the right mentors and information to plan my career. My hope is that this book helps you find them now, and shows you the way to get what you want out of this difficult yet amazing business we call family child care.

I still have those moments when someone calls me a babysitter, but I don’t miss a beat as I quickly reply to them, No, I own a family child care business and I can’t imagine a more satisfying and rewarding career. I hope this book gives you the same sense of empowerment, so that together we can let the world know we have made the journey from babysitters to business owners.

1

Creating a Professional Attitude & Image

THINGS KIDS SAY

Taylor to Andy: Ask me where I got such a pretty face. • Andy: Where did you get such a pretty face? • Taylor: It came with the head!

• • •

Getting more out of your family child care business is a result of putting more into it. It’s striving for professionalism in every area and reaping the benefits from each improvement.

To profess a commitment to children, to feel it strongly and passionately, is the basis for professionalism in child care. To extend this passion and commitment to every aspect of being a child care provider, including appearance, environment, program, and business practices, is to become a true child care professional.

Because each provider is so unique, understanding what it takes to be a child care professional can be difficult. The specifics will change. For example, while a theme-based curriculum may work great for one provider, another provider may flourish with a more flexible approach. This is why the final product will be different for everyone—as it should be! The uniting goals in this journey to professionalism include showing off your strengths, continuing to improve on your weaknesses, and portraying 110 percent confidence at all times. Throughout this book, suggestions will be offered in many categories as a tool to help you consider all the possibilities. Use what works for you, pass over what doesn’t, and in the end, you’ll have created your own unique professional identity.

Qualities of a Professional Provider

Even though each provider is unique, there are common qualities that professional providers share. It is the combination of unique personal differences and these shared qualities of professionalism that makes some providers the best in the field. By striving to obtain these qualities, you will soon be among them.

Conveys a confident attitude

Maintains a polished personal appearance

Runs a high-quality program for children (chapters 2, 3, and 4), including an educational environment, a developmentally based curriculum, and field trips to enhance the curriculum with hands-on experiences

Uses professional business practices (chapters 5, 6, and 7), such as productive communication techniques, a parent handbook of information and policies, and marketing strategies

Sets goals for improvement (chapter 8)

This chapter will have you take your first steps toward a professional image: building a confident attitude and a polished personal appearance. To be sure you reach your goals we will first discuss just why this journey is so important by covering the benefits of becoming a professional. We will also address how to break through the obstacles that may be in your way. At the end of this chapter you should have the tools you need to get started and the motivation you need to keep going!

The Benefits of Professionalism

As providers we have the honor of knowing we are making a difference in the lives of children. But as business owners, many days we feel unrewarded. Be aware of these benefits to professionalism, and you will stay motivated to meet your goals.

Respect and appreciation that will motivate you to continue to improve

Higher-quality care for the children

Successful partnerships with parents with fewer (if any!) conflicts

Financial success, as openings will be filled quickly and rates can be raised to reflect the higher level of quality

Increased organization, making your job easier and more enjoyable, so you can avoid burnout

Most providers have a wish list in their mind that includes some, if not all, of these benefits. As someone who has experienced them all, I want to assure you that your dreams can come true! Working toward professionalism is a worthy goal, and the benefits it brings can become the power that sustains it. What I mean is that after reaching your goals and gaining the benefits, the receipt of these benefits actually produces even more benefits. What could be better? When you reach a higher level of quality care, for example, you will gain more respect from both parents and colleagues. When you are financially successful, you will have the income to gain further education that in turn will improve your business. When you are successful with parent partnerships, openings will be a thing of the past, because families will not only stay longer but will become the best marketing tool you have.

You can see the snowball effect here. Professionalism can bring countless and lasting benefits to you as a provider, and these benefits will sustain your continued success and improvement for years to come. As mentioned earlier, however, there are potential barriers on this road to success. Facing them head-on, planning for them, and working past them will help to keep you moving forward.

Barriers Providers Face

It is very frustrating when you have the desire to improve but there are obstacles in your way. By identifying these troublemakers before you begin, you can make overcoming them a planned part of the process.

Our nurturing personalities conflict with the strong business skills we need

Lack of space, or a less than ideal space

Lack of support from family, friends, or colleagues

Lack of investment income to make changes

Lack of time

Probably the most common barrier for providers is the contradiction of having to be a nurturing, caring, and loving provider of care for children, and at the same time be a strong businessperson who can negotiate contracts and resolve conflict with parents. The nurturing, caring, and loving come easy—it’s this part of providers that usually leads them into this profession in the first place! However, in choosing to open a family child care program, rather than work for someone else at a center, providers are also choosing to become businesspeople. A business owner has tough decisions to make, and tough issues with parents to face.

The most daunting tends to be negotiating—and enforcing—policies and contracts. Providers may see becoming professional as turning into a cold-hearted, ruthless businessperson. Nothing could be further from the truth. Professionalism involves passion and commitment—there is nothing cold about it. The passion to be your best includes establishing the parameters in which you can be the best. Your commitment to the long-term success of your business includes maintaining these parameters. Chapter 6, Communicating with Parents, offers more specific advice on how to accomplish these tasks, but for now, understand that all you need to be a great businessperson is a passion for what you are doing and the commitment to keep doing it.

Space is always a limited commodity when you have a house full of children and all the supplies and equipment to aid in their learning. If you are feeling particularly crunched, there are many great resources to help you get creative, such as Room for Loving, Room for Learning (1994). Chapter 2 of this book, Planning Your Child Care Space, also addresses this issue.

This is a tough job, and providers need all the support they can get. Getting support from family and friends is usually a reflection of the provider’s own attitude: if you value yourself and your business—so will they. We’ll work on pumping up your attitude later in this chapter.

It takes money to make money, and the business of family child care is no exception. In times of budget cuts and dwindling grants it is getting increasingly difficult for providers. While I don’t have a magic money tree to mail to you, I can offer this financial advice: slow and steady will get you there. Chapter 8, Continuing to Grow as a Professional, helps you set realistic goals that will get you on your way, and provides helpful resources.

While you may not feel like you have time as you simultaneously serve lunch, clean up an art project, and get cots ready for nap, when you set goals for your business and make it a priority to accomplish them, your commitment will help guide you to find the time necessary to get things done. Chapter 8 also addresses time management and helps you to categorize your goals into short- and long-term, giving you realistic time frames for your accomplishments.

Now, let’s get you started toward achieving your goals by creating the professional attitude and image of a provider who has made the commitment and is ready to turn the job she loves into the career she’ll keep.

Professional Attitude

The first step in finding your way toward passion and commitment in all areas of your business is developing an attitude. Developing a professional attitude is the resounding advice from successful, experienced providers. Insist on being respected for the important work you do (Steelsmith, Shari. 2001. How to start a home-based daycare business. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press.)

Recognize your commitment to children as valuable and make efforts to reflect this commitment in all areas of your business. Take stock of what you are currently doing; be proud of yourself for each accomplishment. Your self-confidence will affect parents, and they will begin to recognize and respect all that you do. It has to start with you. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, No one can make you feel unworthy without your consent. When parents witness your pride and passion in your work, they see you as a professional. When you show that pride and passion in every part of your business, they will know it without a doubt.

IMPACT OF ATTITUDE

Parents will trust in you and your experience when they perceive the confidence you have in what you do. According to an article published by the Families and Work Institute (1994), Mothers frequently mentioned trust in providers or their personality and experience as a reason for selecting them (The Study of Children in Family Child Care and Relative Care). Your professional attitude needs to come across to parents as much as being kind, patient, and loving does.

A strong attitude also shows parents that you’re a take-charge kind of person and that you’re going to be able to handle not only their child, but the group. Many parents wonder, How in the world can you do this with so many children? Lots of parents have trouble controlling their one or two children and just can’t imagine having four or eight kids in one room and being able to control them all. If you come across as a strong, confident person who can handle anything (from kids to business policies), then the parents will gain some trust in you to handle the job. If you reflect a low sense of self-confidence, they may think you will be too weak to handle the busy group, and wonder what you will do when everything goes wrong. Show them you can handle any situation with confidence.

An outgoing personality is another important characteristic of the professional attitude. Parents need you to be willing to take charge—they often don’t know a lot about the child care field. They are not usually attending workshops on child development and curriculum—you are! Be confident to share your knowledge with the parents. They often look to you as their personal professional, as the person they can go to with questions. Many times they trust in your opinions with as much respect as they have for the family doctor. This is where your training and experience will raise the level of respect the parents have for you.

Using professional language and professional tools when communicating with parents will help to show them your commitment to professionalism. The word policy reflects a sense of professionalism. Changing words (such as using teacher or business owner instead of babysitter when speaking about yourself) sets the standard for the parents to work from. Referring to your child care home as your business or school will also convey your level of professionalism. Think of the vocabulary you are currently using to describe yourself and your business. Then think again, with a new attitude, and see how a simple change of words not only changes how people see you—but how you see yourself.

Can you see how your professional attitude becomes a never-ending circle? When you respect yourself and your business, parents respect you; when parents respect you, it gives you the ambition to do more; when you do more, you become more professional; when you become more professional, the parents appreciate what you are doing, and so on.

Professional Image

Making changes in your image can help to raise your sense of professional attitude. When you begin to recognize yourself as a professional on the outside, you will begin to feel it on the inside.

The simplest place to start with your new image is with your personal appearance. Looking like a professional starts with maintaining a clean and well-groomed appearance. When you do this, the first impression of all those you meet will be that you deserve respect. When you are treated as a professional, you will begin to feel more