2 Solutions For Childcare Money Problems

Hey, you guys! This is your coach, Andrea Dickerson, here with IOwnADaycare.com, and welcome to today’s blog.

If you are a childcare business owner and you are finding that you have a problem with managing your money, creating a budget, and seeing your increase, then today’s blog post is going to help you a lot.

Have you ever noticed that whenever tax time rolls around and you take in all of your invoices and all of your income statements that your  CPA says, “Wow, you’ve made xxx,xxx.xx,” and you’re like, “We did?!” and you’re trying to figure out to yourself where did all that money go? If you’ve asked yourself that question – where did all the money go? – you’re not by yourself. I myself, personally, have lived in that zone and I have to fight to stay out of that zone consistently. Today, I’m going to talk to you about how to solve your money problem or your budgeting problem.

Many people do not understand the value of having a budget in their childcare business. They make common mistakes, such as asking others to borrow their contract to use in their business, or asking others how much they charge.

I get it, and it makes plenty of sense to find out what others are doing in the industry just to be sure that you’re on track, but I’ve seen this mistake happen all too much. That common question isn’t used as a question to gauge, but it is used as a common business practice to share files and share forms and immediately take that person’s business name out, add your business name in, and begin to use that in your business.

I’m here to tell you to stop that! That is inappropriate business practice, which is causing you to have money and budget problems.

There are a few type budgets that you will need to have in your business.

The purpose behind having a budget is for you to become proficient at managing your resources. When you become proficient at managing your resources, you’ll begin to see the value of having a budget in your childcare business. Your budget will consist of the amount of income that your business has the potential to generate, whether that’s your parent fees, your childcare subsidies, food program, grants, or other outside funding sources. Your budget will consist of your income.

I understand that in order for you to calculate what your CFCFP or food program rate might be, that you would want to call around and do your competitive analysis, but after you call around, the work begins. The work begins with your childcare cost per child formula. If you’ve never created a formula or used this formula in your business and you need help doing it, I advise you to go onto JumpstartBlueprint.com and make that investment to shift your business practices to a whole new level and become proficient in a capacity of a business manager. Here’s the next point.

• When you create the right contract, it will contain the missing components that WILL cause your document to stand in a court of law. I’ve seen the mistake of documents not being able to stand in a court of law because it was missing pertinent information to cause it to be a legal, binding contract. Let’s just keep it honest. If your attorney can look at your contract and explain to you that there are key components missing, in order for them to represent you, then that’s a great sign that your contract is all wrong. I have come to the conclusion that without having the right contract matter, provided in writing, with the correct components, that you’re only operating off of an agreement. Agreements are broken every single day, but contracts are enforced by law.

The next concept is to understand that without a collection policy or a collection system, you leave your business open to money problems and budget problems.

• A collection process, whether it is a time of leniency for parents on how and when to make their payments or a collection policy that states in the even that a space is not paid for, the child can no longer be serviced, whatever that policy is, if it’s going to provide late rates, late fees, or no late payments or late accounts serviced, whatever that may be, your role, your job is to identify it and include it in a policy and procedure. That’s essential to your success. I’ve done it both ways. I’ve been in business where without a written agreement, your child could not come in without payments being made in full and on time, and I’ve been in situations where I’ve had enough wisdom to offer parents the ability to pay at a different date, depending on them agreeing to the late payment that they are requested to make. I’ve had parents walk away without making their payment, only because my collection policy was really loose. 

When I created the Jumpstart Blueprint course, I didn’t create it because I thought it was cute; I created it because it was what I needed in order to ensure that my business would keep operating and keep running no matter what. Go now to www.jumpstartblueprint.com. When you go to this, you will find that there’s a whole program designed around helping you create wealth in your business with the proper rate sheet. The Blueprint program will also help you create your startup budget and your ongoing budget, which is required for any childcare business. It will also help you create the proper contracts, so that you can seal the deal and collect the money as your business policy states.

I hope by now that you are clear that you don’t have a money problem, you have a budgeting problem. I can’t wait to help you eradicate your problems and tap into your level of success. To tap into what lies ahead of you to really run your business as the best manager you can be, get your full kit now: www.jumpstartblueprint.com.