WHAT SYSTEMS DO YOU NEED IN YOUR CHILDCARE?

Key Systems That You Need To Have In Place In Order To Develop Your Business Model

Hey there, childcare boss!

This is your Coach, Dr. Andrea Dickerson and welcome to today’s blog post!

Today I want to talk to you about key systems that you need to have in place in order to develop your business model. 

My client by the name of Christina started engaging in the IOwnADaycare brand from a tour stop where I met her in Los Angeles, California. And she explained to me that her mom passed away. Her mom left behind four child care programs. They were  all operating. However, she did not know the business model and her years of experience in childcare was not as strong as her mom’s.

I felt the concern of wanting to reach out and help her. When she purchased our programs, she did not make herself available to learn as much and our connection did dwindle. There were times when she would come back in the IOwnADaycare circle and I would do as much as I can at the best rate to help her because of my compassion about her situation. My last time working with her, she was down to only operating one location. She lost funding and particulars for the other locations due to a lack of understanding the business model. 

Your business model is created to help you run successful programs and it involves several steps. The first step she had to tackle was understanding her target audience for both her staff and her parents. 

There’s a particular avatar that you must become in order to serve particular markets. So you must begin by identifying the audience of people that you are the right avatar for and then you move forward with creating your childcare services around that person, that target audience to meet their needs. So if you serve working parents, then you target working parents. If you service the 1%, which are entrepreneurs, then you target entrepreneurs. If you service parents that receive funding, then you service that target audience. But you must know your audience and become who your audience needs. 

Secondly, you must understand your position in the market. You want to understand what’s unique about your program and what it provides to your customers that sets you apart from others. Why? Because you’re going to build a model around your unique value proposition.

For instance, my program which was called Akeba Academy, was known for its education, what I used to develop the children and provide a quality so my business model was built around providing educational material tools, resources, workbooks, children’s books, coloring books, activities, homework, the best teachers to provide education and experiences like our field trips were top notch. 

We went on field trips every week, we had learning experiences brought into the classroom and our children once they went into the public school. They were the best in the classroom because we did report cards, we did assessments and parent conferences. Why did we implement all of those indicators? Because we want it for our parents to live the brand – that we were an educational-focused facility. 

Development. We worked really hard with our children to develop character, hands and eye coordination. We used real kitchen utensils such as spoons, we introduced how to hold a spoon, how to use your fine motor skills, and large motor skills. And we showed what the children knew two times a year with our children’s performance night.

And Quality. There were known times in our business where our parents were made aware of our adding on new furniture, upgrading our centers, keeping our building clean, keeping our staff well dressed, keeping the environment pristine in excellence and following our policies and procedures was our standard. That way, what we stood for our value proposition is what parents received in the market. Some parents are just looking for an excellent, organized facility for their children that will meet early childhood school needs.

Next, you want to be clear about your streams of revenue. As I spoke about earlier, my client had no clear understanding of what revenues are, and what the requirements were to keep those revenues in her business. So she went from owning four centers down to one. And that was because there were some state funded programs that she did not have the manpower or the wisdom on how to manage. 

So you must learn how your business generates revenue and what works for your business. Whether that’s through your advertisement. Does your marketing work for your organization or is it through word of mouth? Are you a program that has great grassroot marketing techniques? What causes revenue to source your business?

Next, you must understand how money works in your organization. And I’m guilty of this but far too many times we try to make an all in one process for money work in all childcare programs and it doesn’t. You must understand how money is generated in your business and what does it cost you to generate that money? So you have to develop an understanding of the cost associated with running your business. This includes fixed and variable costs. 

So in our Jumpstart School Of Systems, we give the formula for owners to use this formula to determine those numbers.

Next, you want to have a referral source. In any other business, we call it a distribution channel. So you want to determine how you will get your service to the customers. Are you going to sell directly from you to moms interested in childcare? Or are you going to find partnerships that house the number of parents you’d like to speak to and go out and speak to them? 

I remember years ago, we visited the nursing home and held a presentation so that the nurses could choose our childcare program and have the peace of mind of knowing that they know a provider because that provider took time to come to their site. 

Next, you want to also develop an acquisition strategy or enrollment strategy. 

You want to identify what you will do to attract clients and retain customers. This is really big. 

For me retaining my clients that were part of IOwnADaycare was a step that I needed to walk into, and I lost a lot of great people along the way. So having that clear idea of what you’re going to do to retain clients is so important. So this will include your marketing, advertising, social media and other means.

Then, like I say, in our map process, we provide maps for our clients because of this next step. Test and reiterate. In order for you to know what works and what does not work, you must be able to monitor metrics, and make changes when necessary. And this all comes along with you learning about your marketing strategies and how they will work in your organization. 

But these are just a few key points that’s the business side of developing a business model. But then you also have the sight onsite side of developing a business model. 

To learn more about what you have to do onsite, I want to encourage you to come to our learnnewsystems.com FREE webinar. 

With this webinar, you’ll discover how to focus on taking your business to the next level. 

Well all right you guys, let me know if there’s something from our blog that really inspired and motivated you. 

I look forward to hearing from you soon. 

And as always, if you manage the childcare business that you love, you will love the childcare business that you manage.