Pricing System
How to set prices and receive payments for a child care business?
The fees you charge will provide the financial base for your company and your income. They need to be competitive in your market, reasonable and affordable for the parents, and also fair to you.
You need to consider a variety of issues, including your costs, the profit you want to make, the going rates in your area and what the families you’re targeting can afford. Setting your rates, explaining–and often justifying–them to parents and then collecting the money are all part of being in the child-care business.
Since you’ll be offering a carefully planned curriculum that is far more than a mere baby-sitting service, you are justified in establishing a fee structure similar in design to a private school.
A one-time enrolment charge of half a week’s tuition will hardly raise an eyebrow, but it will compensate you for the cost in time, paperwork and special attention each entrant needs.
Calculating how much to charge for space in your centre will be based primarily on three variables:
- Labour and materials (or supplies)
- Overhead
- Profit
Limited intake
A fourth factor uncommon to most businesses but significant for a child-care centre the limit to the number of children you can accommodate. In most fields, if your business grows, you just keep hiring employees to serve the increasing number of customers.
But in child care, municipal by-laws and practicality limit the number of children you can accept, putting a lid on the income potential of your business. To overcome this, successful child-care centre operators often open more locations in nearby areas to increase their client base and income.
Forms of Payment
You’ll receive payments by check and cash, and you may also want to set up a merchant account so you can accept credit cards or electronic transfers. Check with your bank or the different credit card companies for information on accepting credit cards. Many child-care and transportation service providers find that automatically debiting parents’ credit cards is the easiest way to obtain payment.
“A debt order every month is the easiest way to get your money,” says Yvette B. “There are discount fees involved, but its well worth it.”
In most parts of South Africa, the demand for quality child care is so high that marketing your business will be relatively easy.
In fact, many of the providers we talked to for this story − especially the home-based centres − do little or no marketing because they’re established, with strong reputations and waiting lists.
But every business needs a marketing plan, and yours is no exception. All your marketing materials should be professional and letter-perfect.
Consider hiring a graphic designer and/or professional writer to help you with your marketing package. If they have children, you may be able to negotiate their fees in barter.
Keep these questions in mind as you form your marketing plan:
- Who are your potential customers?
- How many of them are there?
- Where are they located?
- What are they currently doing for child care?
- Can you offer them anything they’re not getting now?
- How can you persuade them to bring their children to you?
- Exactly what services do you offer?
- How do you compare with your competitors?
- What kind of image do you want to project?
The goal of your marketing plan should be to convey your existence and the quality of your service to prospective customers, ideally using a multifaceted approach. The child-care center operators we talked with used a variety of marketing methods, from simple word-of-mouth to more sophisticated techniques.
Smart Tip
Ask new clients how they found out about you. Make a note of their answers and what kinds of businesses they represent (how many children they could potentially refer to your business).
This will let you know how well your various marketing efforts are working. You can then decide to increase certain programs and eliminate those that aren’t working.