Starting and growing your business will require advertising and marketing. This will look different for every provider, based on your location, target market, and what you offer to families.
This resource from First Children’s Finance offers family child care providers a full overview of creating a marketing plan customized for your program, including a sample budget.
Developing a Marketing Plan from First Children’s Finance. Before you get started, Town Square Resource Mission and Philosophy Statements might be helpful for their first steps of stating your mission and vision to find your market.
While the informal setting of family child care can feel much warmer than a typical business, at the end of the day it is a source of income and a profession. As the owner of a family child care home, you’ll learn about marketing, advertising, accounting, and so much more.
Family Child Care accountant and attorney Tom Copeland presented this session for family child care providers in April of 2022. He covers the difference between marketing and advertising, how to set and review your rates, what to do if a former client is creating negative publicity, and more!
A successful business requires marketing to help reach and engage families about your program’s services. This brochure from Child Care Aware gives simple tips for marketing your FCC business, including connecting with networks and other providers and ideas about ways to market your business in your community. Getting the word out about your child care services is an important part of maintaining and
sustaining your business.
12 Tips to Market your child care program
Are you interested in learning more about the BAS (Business Administration Scale) for family child care? The BAS is a tool that can be used for program self-improvement and is a required component for ExceleRate Illinois. The McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership offers resources and information to support providers in preparing for an ExceleRate BAS assessment. This checklist gives a list of categories for which providers are asked to collect documentation as part of a BAS visit. This might be a helpful starting point for learning more about what is included in BAS and for self-evaluating your business.