As a small home based day care center, you provide child care services during the day time hours for kids of working neighbors, family and friends. You have a great reputation and are passionate about the quality of the environment you offer for the children.

You want to increase your customers but not expand into commercial premises and lose sight of the very special care you provide your children.

This strategy gives you the best of both worlds… Maintain the quality of care for preschoolers and keep you in your own home base!

Identify who is your customer?

As a small home based day care center, you provide child care services during the day time hours for kids of working neighbors, family and friends. While you want to remain a home-based, small service you are able to offer unique ‘extras’ that a more established center doesn’t. For instance you are able to provide an after-hours specialized service for families who are going out for the evening or working late or night shifts.

Hence your ideal customer profile would include families with pre-school aged children who are prepared to pay for a specialized, possibly out of normal ours, child-care services.

What is the best thing you can do for that customer?

Your customers are prepared to pay a premium for the convenience of leaving their child with a professional rather than an unqualified baby sitter. Your facility will be the perfect blend of personalized attention in a professional set up.

How are you going to do it?

Offer to take children at any time of the day or night for a minimum of 4 hours. This caters for couples who want to go out to dinner, to a function, for a weekend away etc. Also research and introduce the latest fun learning/play activities that not only make it enjoyable for the child to spend time with you, but also help prepare that child for future school and socializing.

Create a database (Happy Folks) of all existing customers.

Send a direct mail out to families with young children who fit the target market and are relatively close to your home. Consider professionals around your home. Invite them to register their child on your website as spaces are limited to registered members of the Happy Folks community.

Don’t forget to say Thank You

Every new registrant gets a thank you email on completing the sign up form. Include a link to a survey where you ask for information about their child/children in order to be able to offer your special customized services.

Suggested survey questions to database:

What is your child’s date of birth?

Are you likely to use our ½ day, full day or overnight service, or do you have any other specific requirements?

How often are they likely to use this service?

What does your child most enjoy at the day care center?

Other child relevant information – diet, special toys etc?

What additional facilities would you like provided at the day care center?

When to communicate with your members?

Become the "expert" on child care - Develop a regular newsletter showcasing what’s new in child care and at your centre – food, toys, sleep centre, etc. Also feature children specific columns such as "best drawing of the month" and basic parenting tips written from an expert’s perspective.

Key dates such as Birthday emails to parents for their children on their birthday, Special trips – to the zoo?

How do you measure success?

Six monthly surveys of the Happy Folks community to gauge their level of satisfaction with your day care center and its offerings. Capture data on key criteria like pricing, safety, cleanliness, learning opportunity, etc. Incentivize survey completion with a free overnight stay for their child.

For measuring bottom line performance compare customer pool and profits across like periods over a two to three year period.