Increasing revenue from your childcare, daycare, or aftercare center can give a boost to your ability to offer quality teachers, new equipment, and improvements to your facility. There are several ways to raise revenue from increasing your rates to increasing enrollment. However, in most instances, the integration of childcare software technology can bolster your efforts and provide effectiveness and efficiency.
Revenue building can be like walking a tightrope because the increase in funds comes from your clients. Depending on their financial status, you may not be able to ask for more money per month. Using technology to create efficiencies, in this instance, could be the place to start.
Let’s take a look at what technology can do to enhance your ability to increase revenue from raising rates to increasing enrollment.
Increase Rates
As costs increase, it should be no surprise to parents that you will need to charge more for your services as time goes by. Still, it’s an unwelcome thought, especially if you cater to a lower-income clientele.
Childcare management software can help you keep more of the revenues you already receive by automating much of your documentation, billing, and invoicing.
- Save hours of manual data entry by providing online bill payment through a secure parent portal.
- Save fuel by taking advantage of software for payment processing so you can offer multiple ways to pay without adding time or labor to provide it.
- Save time and paper by using software to store immunization records, meal plans, emergency contacts, and other information from registration and enrollment.
- Save the hassle of drop-off and pick-up by allowing parents to sign in via computer instead of looking for the paper copy of the day’s sign-in sheet.
- Receive automated notifications for immunizations that are coming due for each child.
The more efficiently you can run your business, the more revenue you will have to purchase equipment and supplies as well as make improvements to the facility. Another area that may be taking too much of your time is in tracking attendance, late pick-up, and late payment. Software easily monitors each of these areas and automatically adds fees to the correct parent invoice at the next billing cycle.
If you still need to raise your rates, allow technology to help you. You can place announcements on the parent portal and via email and text about upcoming rate increases. Include the justification for the increase and at least 30 days’ notice.
Most facilities raise rates every 18 months or so and limit the increase to between 2% and 5%. Rate increases are usually easier to request during spring and fall enrollment. Try to avoid the holidays and first of the year when many families are feeling a little light in the wallet.
It could be advantageous to announce a coming rate increase on your website and encouraging potential clients to enroll before the increase takes effect, providing a bit of a break for their first month.
Increase Enrollment with Childcare Software
If your enrollment hasn’t grown as quickly as you would like or if you are not backfilling openings as children age out of your programs, integrate more technology into your marketing and other operations to get the word out about your childcare services.
Every business should have a website. Most people start with Google or Bing when looking for products and services, especially in their geographic area. Many parents of young children are moving to new cities and states where they may not have the advantage of word of mouth from trusted sources.
Use your website to provide all the important information prospective clients need to start making a list of potential childcare centers.
- Determine your unique qualities and emphasize them on your homepage. If you specialize in ABA, Abeka, or Montessori method, use those terms in your web content to enhance your search engine rankings.
- Use the name of the city or neighborhood where you are located. Hyperlocal search is an important marketing tool for service providers.
- Include the address, phone number, and email prominently on your home page. The easier it is to find this type of information, the more likely a prospect will contact you.
Your website is also the place to talk about the various methods of payment you can accept, how you communicate with parents, and other topics such as billing cycles. Refresh the content regularly to add new keywords, notices of new services, and pictures of the fun times children have at your childcare center.
Social media platforms are another form of technology you can integrate into your operations to increase enrollment. Find out from your parent community which social media network they favor and create a business page there.
For example, Facebook is still a popular place for parents to learn about new businesses. Create a Facebook page for your childcare business and post announcements and updates about your programs, any promotions you run, and to provide links to your website or articles of interest for your parents.
If you have a blog, many blogging and website platforms make it easy to schedule social media posts and automatically send notifications of new entries.
Expand Services
Earlier we talked about using technology to automate operations to cut costs. The same logic applies to increasing revenues for offering expanded services.
Using childcare management software for scheduling classrooms, checking in and out, and creating meal menus can provide more time to offer a new activity. Using a classroom enrollment and scheduling application can help you determine whether you have underutilized space.
Special meal service is made easier with technology. If you have children with allergies or are on special diets, the software can create and save menus and each child’s meal history so your kitchen can offer the preferred items by checking meal reports and adding notifications.
You may even save money by tracking what the kids tend to leave on their plates and exchanging that menu item to something that won’t be wasted.
Childcare management software is all about saving time and creating efficient operations. For every minute you save on manual processes, that is another minute you can devote to improving and expanding your programs, creating marketing campaigns, and spending time with the kids.
Software automation also makes it easier to offer more classes and accept more clients since you no longer need to perform manual data entry, billing, or reporting each day.
