Sorry parents, I am increasing my fees...

[sassyminder]

Have you childminders ever had to increase your fees? how did you tell the parents about the new price and did you loose clients because of this?

See, I do a lot of ad hoc and the parents can choose the days and hours they want, and if they go on holiday or have family around or just dont need any childcare for any reason I dont earn anything, so I think it is time for me to charge a bit extra for them to have this privilege.

How much would you think that a service like mentioned above should cost in London zone 3?

all the children are extremely happy with my services, so are the parents

Just say becuase of the price rise in the general cost of living, electricity, gas food ect very sadly you are going to have to raise your proces in order for their children to have the same level of care. or wordds to that effect.

How much do you charge now?

I 'review' my fees EVERY Sept/Oct, notify parents of the change by the end of October and the new fees commence on 1st February. They have plenty of notice this way and also just expect an annual review and most likely an increase. If I was offering a service like yours, I'd have an even higher rate for the privilege like you say, but I personally couldn't afford to work that way. I have a standard letter I sent out but I also recently did something slightly different (last Oct I'd told them I wasn't increasing but that I'd review again before June and I ended up having to increase from them). Let me know if you would like me to email my letters for ideas.

I honestly think having something like a review as part of your T & Cs makes it a lot easier to change things than if you haven't changed for years and then decide to.

Anyway, email me if want these letters, my email address is on mywebsite (prefer not to type the actual email address on these sites)

I accept ad hoc children to fill any gaps, but I couldn't afford to have them as my main business. I charge more for ad hoc care (as do most CMs I know), so in your situation I might be tempted to say I was reviewing my terms and conditions and could not afford to hold prices at the current rate for ad hoc arrangements, but would stick with the existing hourly rate if they wanted to change to regular fixed hours contracts, but it would be, say 20%?, extra for extra hours/sessions/days. Just a suggestion though - maybe you prefer to work as you do.

I review my fees every June and increase them with effect from September (though sometimes not for existing customers if I know they are struggling!).

Looneytunes, your website is lovely. Did you take all the photos yourself or did you get a professional photographer in?

Thanks. All photo gallery photos are my own snapshots but if you mean the homepage images, those were part of the design from the web company (I'm very lucky to have a set of parents who run their own company and provided this website for free :))

I want to do a website for my work but am not confident and don't know anyone who works as a web designer.

What sort of things did you put in your handbook looneytune - policies, rules of the house that sort of thing?

I've not had a single call as there are too many childminders and too many nurseries taking our work. Really want to push my business - HELP!

Yeah, I have done. I did it shortly after doing my tax return and sort of used that as the bolster behind it saying, 'having just done my tax return I have realised how much more money I now spend on snack, electricity etc so it is with regret that I will have to increase my fees by X amount. ' Nobody objected because I didnt hoik it up ludicrously, it was by an amount that made sense and was justified.

looneytunes - do your parents have an e-mail to get in contact with? I was really impressed with your website and would like to do one myself!

Sassyminder - on one hand yes you should charge more, but on the other if your parents dont really really need you cos they've got other childcare options then they may think again? How do your rates compare with other minders in your area already?

GGRRR - do you know what- us c minders have such a difficult job! If only we could just do a brilliant job with the children then have the right amount of money paid to us without having to chase it up constantly........ (oh thats my complaint for the night! Just want to relax but a few havent paid AGAIN!)

Hi. My rates are the same as any other childminder in my area a part that they have full time permanent contracts and I do the ad hoc when their childmindersa are on holidays or not available for any reason or when they need emergency care. There are some families who work shifts so they use me regurlarly but hours and days vary according to their shifts. And there are some SAHMs who uses me when they need a break, need go shopping or hae appointments. Anyway, sometimes I am pretty busy and have to turn down customers and sometimes I am free like just now, I hae been able to earn some money but I know I can earn a lot more in the future when I decided to get full time children. I just think that I should be charging more than £6/ hour in London for this kind of service? It is included food and they can even book me for as little as 2 hours...and I even do the odd school run...

Gosh - thats sounds really cheap for london and such flexible hours including food aswell?? I'd double that (and im in manchester!) xx Get ur prices UP!!

AMY - hi, do you mean do I have an email address? If so, yes, it's on the Contact Me page at the top of the navigation bar :) I did my own website prior to this one and had loads of enquiries from it so I'd say even if it's not a proper professional one, it's still worth having one as more and more people search online these days :)

sassyminder - I review my fees every January 1st. In hindsight, that's not the best time of year (after Christmas), but no-one has complained.

I have a website, which clearly shows my fees and hours and nearly everyone who calls me says they have had a look. It is a good way to advertise and it also helps answer some questions before people phone, or visit. I wrote it myself using BT.com, so it's not as good as looneytunes.