Child Care Success Blog
Inspiration! Business Strategies! Ideas From Top Performers!
Empowering Child Care Leaders Worldwide!

Prioritize Your Professional Development This School Year
As you think about your own goals this school year, don’t forget to add professional development to the mix. When you invest in professional development, it ensures you become the best educator you can be by keeping you abreast of the latest trends and skills, which ultimately translates to better performance by you and your students. If you’re not quite

Easy Child Care BusinessVideo Marketing Ideas ThatWill Impress Parents
Did you know that on average Facebook Live videos can get up to six times the engagement of a static post and they can organically reach up to 90% more of your fans? Instagram’s live streaming platform also has consistently shown a monumental increase in engagement and reach, with an average of about a 21% increase compared to static posts. AND,

Why You Need to Implement Enrollment Trackingin Your Child Care Business
Are you truly and accurately tracking the enrollment in your child care business? You might be thinking, “I’m already using a CRM or some kind of childcare management system to track my enrollment.” But enrollment tracking is much more than just tracking the physical enrollments you have. Why Track Enrollment?Of course, the obvious reason to track your enrollment is to

How to Create Better, Badder, Boss-Level Job Ads For Your Preschool
Recruitment marketing doesn’t have to be dry and boring; it can be fun, dynamic, and interesting – actually, today it HAS to be. Staffing was tough in 2019 pre-pandemic, and today it’s even worse. You’re competing for talent not just with other child care centers, but with EVERY business trying to get people to work. You MUST stand out from

How to Outsource for Productivity in Your Child Care Business with a Virtual Assistant
“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” – Henry David Thoreau We are currently living in an understaffed world because of the hiring crisis, and there is just too much for us to do, not enough time to do it, and not enough manpower to get it all done. To

The Health of Your Preschool’s Staff Culture Depends on Employee Reviews
When was the last time your employees were evaluated? And I’m not just talking about your director or leadership team, I mean each and every one of your teachers and staff. Regardless of whether you call it an evaluation, review, or appraisal, they should be conducted on a smaller scale every quarter and a larger scale annually for everyone on

A Quick Guide to Intentionally Planning Successful Events in Your Preschool
Being intentional with your calendar, in both your child care business and personal life, can make all the difference in the world. It will help you go from being unorganized, scrambling, and sometimes even dropping the ball altogether, to a place of being calm, cool, and collected! To help you start planning intentionally, I have compiled a list of tried

Adding Layers to Preschool Marketing with Storytelling: A Hero’s Journey
In 1949 Joseph Campbell published a work comparing mythologies from around the world and across time. Roman, Native American, Greek, Norse, Japanese; regardless of origin, many of the stories followed a similar structure. Campbell book was titled “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” and depicted a framework called a Hero’s Journey. Many famous Hollywood movies (ex. Star Wars, Lord of

Creating & Documenting Systems for Growth in Your Child Care Business
Any business needs systems to grow. To ensure the efficiency, consistency, and quality of your operations documented systems and processes are essential. I’d like to speak to any child care business owner that is are: a. working on opening their first center b. wanting to gain back some of their time by being able to delegate more to their team

5 Pieces of the Parent Experience That You Can’t Afford to Neglect
So far, this school year has probably felt like a breath of fresh air compared to the previous year – enrollments are trending upwards, processes are gradually returning to normal, and slowly but surely people are starting to return to work, and you have a new sea of potential teachers to market to. While this taste of normalcy is allowing

Congratulations to Our Winners: Awards Night Recap from the Child Care Success Summit 2021
Here at The Child Care Success Company, we are honored to have a tribe that is continuously striving to reach for the stars. Our annual Awards Night at the Child Care Success Summit is our way of giving the amazing rockstars in our tribe a chance to be recognized and honored for all that they do to better the lives

How to Take a Vacation from Your Preschool with Confidence
For child care business owners, leaving your center for a few days, whether it’s to go on a vacation, due to a family emergency, or just needing a few days to recharge, can be a scary thing to do. In fact, it can be so scary for some of you to leave your centers that your fears and doubts unravel

Meet Our CCSS 2021 Sponsors: Learn What They Can Do For Your Child Care Business
We are only a month away from The Child Care Success Summit™ 2021: 10th Anniversary event and my excitement continues to grow by the hour! My team and I are pumped to bring you the best virtual conference ever. We have been hard at work over the past few months brainstorming and putting together the pieces to provide you with

How Virtual Collaboration is a Game Changer for Team Building in Your Preschool
In many early learning environments, I have found that there is often resistance and hesitation to incorporating a virtual team collaboration tool into communication processes. However, the truth is that in today’s world, implementing a virtual team collaboration app can be a huge positive game-changer for your center’s culture, especially if you have multiple shifts or locations. It can be

How to Close the Communication Gaps in Your Preschool This School Year
In a busy child care center it is very easy to fall into the “Communication Gap Trap.” A communication gap happens when information that should be passed along to parents or staff is forgotten, partially communicated, or not communicated at all. The reality is that usually the cause of this is that you, as the leader, or your leadership team

Why ECE Leaders and Teachers Should Earn or Renew Their CDA
Whether you’re just starting out in the early childhood field or you’ve been teaching for years, chances are you’ve heard the term “CDA” at least a few times before. The Child Development Associate Credential (CDA) is the most widely accepted and acknowledged credential in the early childhood industry. When an educator earns their CDA, it demonstrates that they have the

4 Actions You Can Take to Start Improving the Culture in Your Preschool Right Away
Creating a positive company culture is a vital must-do for child care business owners if they want to keep their doors open for years ahead. Having a strong company culture within your school will help to reduce employee turnover rates, increase the quality of care the children receive, boost the bottom line, provide you with the revenue to grow and

How to Flip Your Mindset In Your Preschool For the Second Half of 2021
It’s the middle of 2021 and to be completely blunt, people are exhausted. After 15 months of a world-changing pandemic, many child care leaders are burnt out, frustrated, and ready to throw in the towel at this point. It can be easy to fall into a rut right now and convince yourself that thee whole world is against you and

A Roadmap to the American Resource Plan and Proper School Sanitization
As businesses open back up and parents return to work, child care is an essential service that is needed more than ever before. However, many centers that struggled through the pandemic are still finding it difficult to tread water, even with the world slowly returning to something like normal. In the video below, my friend Myron Martin from Zono Technologies,

Back to Basics: The Little Things That Will WOW Parents During a Tour
You have spaces to fill in your center. You’ve marketed like crazy to get your phone to ring and trained your staff to use your phone script when discussing the specific benefits and unique aspects of your school. And it’s worked! You’ve booked a tour with an amazing prospect. Now that you’ve gotten this far, you want to see hopeful

A Beginners Guide to Creating Video Content to Leverage on Your School’s Social Media Sites
If we weren’t already addicted to scrolling social media pre-COVID, we all sure are now from continuously scrolling as a way to pass time, so now more than ever before does your school have to be showing up on parent’s news feeds because that’s where their eyes are and that’s where you can grab their attention. There are so many

The Best Recipe for Creating Winning Marketing Materials
At this stage in the pandemic, even if your school isn’t back to full yet, your enrollment rates are starting to trend positively again and you’re looking to hire great teachers so you can continue to fill your school. But in order to attract families and staff back to your school, you’ve had to tweak your messaging and unique benefits

3 Routes to Starting Your ECE Business During This Golden Time of Opportunity
The time is now – opportunities to open an ECE business or acquire another location are currently everywhere because right now there is a greater demand for quality child care than there is a supply for it. But what is the best route to acquiring a location; should you takeover an existing location, build from the ground up, or renovate

How to Build a Loyalty Fence with Your Team to Transform Your School Culture
To cultivate a positive environment within your school, you must first create a strong loyalty fence with your team. Sometimes it can be tough to create a bond with your staff and get them to buy into your vision and mission, but with a little consistency and implementation, you will have your staff singing your praise & excited to be

Six Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Professional Development This Summer
That’s right, summer is right around the corner. And while it’s a time to unwind and recharge for some, it’s also an excellent opportunity to get in professional development hours to help you learn and grow as an educator. I’m Leslie Coleman, the education director for ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI), the nation’s leading online professional development provider for early childhood

Using Staff Surveys to Improve the Company Culture in Your Center
If you are wondering where you stand currently when it comes to your workplace culture conducting a staff survey is a great way to find out what your team really thinks. I’ve seen what a difference the atmosphere and vibe of your school can have on your staff & student retention rates, which will ultimately impact your overall business success. There

How to Hold Your Teachers Accountable and Lead with Confidence
As child care businesses continue to struggle to find teachers due to the hiring crisis that is happening across America, many ECE leaders are left feeling forced to keep their D-players on their payroll out of fear that they won’t be able to find a replacement for them. Some of these D-players are performing so poorly that they aren’t even

20 Tips to Fill Your Empty Spaces As Your Center Begins Operating at Full Capacity Again
As pandemic restrictions and capacity limits continue to be further lifted across the country, the more child care centers can work on filling their empty spaces and closing their gaps. While many centers experienced their families leaving during the shutdowns and reopened with low enrollment numbers, the number of parents that are returning to working in-person and being comfortable with

74 Fun and Festive Ways to Celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week
We couldn’t do it without them – OUR TEACHERS & CAREGIVERS! Teacher Appreciation Week is right around the corner (the first week of May) and to help you show your staff some extra love and appreciation this week, we have compiled our most extensive list yet of fun and festive ways to celebrate all week long. From sweets and treats to

10 Steps to Excite New Hires At Your Preschool That Decrease Turnover Rates
At this point, our schools have adjusted to operating in a post-lockdown world, and our enrollment rates are finally increasing and getting back to normal. But to accommodate our new enrollments, many of us are now on the hunt for quality new hires as well. In some markets, finding qualified candidates that are a strong culture fit can be challenging,