CM's: How do I get business?!

[crace]

I live in a very small rural village in Kent, and the only C/M in the village (insert Little Britain joke here).. I did have two boys start p/t but they have appeared to go as mum is ignoring my calls.

I am having a little one starting in Feb but she is semi-p/t at 6 hrs perday.

How do I get business?? I did advertise in our local circular which is how I found the boys but repeated advertising has gotten nothing. Netmums is what got me the little one..

I have called my HV and the CIS website has FINALLY posted my details after months of harrassment.

What else can I do? I've put my card up everywhere I can think of (PO, GP etc), and posted my details on free info search engines. What am I missing?

If I can't make a real go at this, I am going to have to go out and get a job (horror!).

Message withdrawn

I sympathise Carace, it has taken me nearly two years to become, what I call, established and most of my work comes through word of mouth now.

There is a list on here somewhere showing many websites to advertise on. If I get time later, I will have a look.

You could try contacting your local police, fire station and ask if you could leave your card! your local hospital, doctors surgery, schools, nurseries.

Good luck

If you are after very local customers, you could try leafleting your village. This can be done on a low-cost basis, by printing a small flyer yourself, and popping it through the letter boxes of houses in your village, where there is obvious sign that they have children.

Are you prepared to tell us the name of the village, so that we can get a better feel for how rural your location is.

Does your village have a school? If not, where do village children go to school?

Are there any businesses in the village, which have employees travelling to them from outside of the village?

I am trying to establish who your target market is... I suspect it is parents living in the village, or working in the village. Parents in a nearby town I expect are not your target market, as they would have no need to visit your village, though perhaps they may pass through it on route to work - is there much commuter traffic through the village?

I don't mind saying at all - in Marden Kent. It's very small, but does boast a very small industrial estate. I suppose I could do a mailshot to them all, or is that cheeky? I actually not sure how I would compile a mailing list anyway (feeling quite useless).

The village is big enough that a leaflet to every house would be quite time consuming.

I think I should make sure the GP knows, and the headteacher of the school and preschool know and just hope word of mouth spreads. Have to say am a bit nervous that communication breakdown (though not sure?!) between me and the p/t mindees mum will damage me as she is in same village.

Thanks for the advice and letting me vent. Just nervous I suppose

put advertisments in:
supermarket staff canteens
any work canteens
butty shops
post offices
toddler groups
baby shops (ELC etc)

do you have a job centre inform them that you have vacanys

log onto vistaprint add your details but do not buy anything they will then e-mail you with some great offers todat i got 250 business cards, 250 postcards, notepad, return lables, thank you cards for £9 p&p
all you do is design your own logo it looks very proffesional

Hi.

I've just bumped my advertising tips thread for you

Looking at a map, your village has a Station. Could this mean that people commute by train to work? Is anywhere at the station, or very close to the station which accepts classified ads, such as a newsagent?

Given the location, I think your target market is really those people living in the village. Therefore while it is time consuming to drop a leaflet through doors, it may be the most effective way of getting yourself known.

Also a leaflet could work for the industrial estate as well. I'd avoid doing a mailing list, as that gets tricky legally, but leafleting is fine, to business and residential, as long as there is not a sign on the letter box stating that they do not want unsolicited mail. You do not need to leaflet every house - only those with signs of having children in your target age range. Walk around the village at the weekend and get a feel for how many houses there could be with young children... by spotting car seats in cars.

Vistaprint will print postcards at very reasonable prices, though of course it is often cheaper to do things yourself. When I started out, I just printed A4 sheets, with advert repeated 4 or more times on the sheet, then cut them up - it's not very professional, but it is very low cost.

HousePrices Map - With postcode for search based on the High Street, house prices in your village seem to vary from £80k to over £500k. Depending on how much you charge, you may want to target houses based on their typical sell value. This may help to limit the number of flyers you drop round, so you could for example do flyers for streets with housing over say £200k, and see what response you get, before doing flyers for housing under £200k. It will of course depend on who your target market is.

Just my thoughts, hope it helps.

Are you sure you are the only Childminder in the village? An initial search on Ofsted's site leads me to suspect that there may be a few others. Worth entering your postcode and seeing what results you get.

nannynick your good

Inspection report for: 126418
Is worth a read. At the time of their last inspection (May 2006) they only minded for 1 family (who had 3 children).

Report mentions school age child going to gym sessions at local school. May be worth finding out about that, as if it's a private club they may accept advertising.

As this particular minder only cared for children from the 1 family (at time of last inspection), it could be an indicator that there is little trade for childminders in the village, and this minder may not still be providing care.

Do you have a friend who can approach CIS for a list of childminders? The CIS list may give more information regarding other minders in your village.

Wow NN - thanks! I have no idea who she might be - is there anyway to find out?

PS - our local CIS doesnt have anyone listed but me in the village..?

No way of matching name/address details with a URN.
When checking Ofsted's website, there were two EY's also listed, within a mile of the High Street. One I expect could be you. Within 5 miles there is a longer list, mostly of EY's.

When talking of listing with CIS, do you mean on ChildcareLink, or on the physical list they send out to parents who enquire about childminders? ChildcareLink certainly may not list people, but the paper based list I would have thought would list people, though maybe CIS only send out list of childminders with current vacancies - so if they didn't have vacancies they would not appear. Aim to get the paper based list, it can sometimes give you more information than what appears on ChildcareLink.

This is competitor analysis, so does not help your situation that much, directly in itself.
It does however tell you that there are other childminders in the area (who may, or may not have any children attending) and if you can get to know these other childminders, then you can with luck find out their experiences of filling vacancies and thus find good places to advertise. Also could start your own village drop-in group.

There is a Scout Hut in your village at which a Playscheme is run. Perhaps you could try advertising with your local Scout Group, and any other groups that meet at that venue. The playscheme would be a compeditor, but it implies that there are parents around with children who need childcare... you just have to find them somehow!

Nannynick - this is invaluable information. I was thinking of starting my own drop in group and you've sold me on the leaflets - am going to order some from Vistaprint me thinks..

Thanks again, there actually was lots of things I haven't done and can. Many thanks.

I'm just popping in to say my uncle lives in Marden - I've never met anyone else from there. (Not that I've actually met you, but ykwim)

Small world!