Walking the tightrope of tight childcare center finances while putting on a happy face for the children & parents…
Posted by: teriatpersoft on: July 18, 2008
Do you feel like the Ringmaster, Lion Tamer, Ballerina-On-Horseback or a car full of Cartoon Clowns today? Everywhere you turn the costs of doing business go up. Everyone everywhere is raising their prices. And you feel like Snidely Whiplash tying Nell Fenwick to the railroad tracks for even THINKING of raising your tuition rates. Maybe you have raised your rates already this year and are still facing the Incredible Shrinking Bottom Line every month.
I plucked an idea out of a completely unrelated-to-childcare economics article today. A little bell went off in my head.
“In the late 1990s, Israeli researchers Uri Gneezy and Aldo Rustichini performed an experiment that provides a useful model. They chose six random day-care centers in Haifa at which parents sometimes arrived late to pick up their children. Intending to reduce the frequency of tardiness, the two imposed a fine on late parents. Mr. Gneezy and Mr. Rustichini explain that, typically, ‘when negative consequences are imposed on a behavior, they will produce a reduction of that particular response.‘ But the experiment did not produce the anticipated results. Instead, the incidence of late arrivals increased.
In fact, the percentage of parents who were late more than doubled. Behavioral law and economics help explain this counterintuitive result.
Prior to the imposition of the fine, parents – recognizing it is wrong to make a teacher stay past normal hours with their children – experienced feelings of guilt and shame when they were late. In other words, some parents were motivated to arrive on time by the stigma attached to arriving late. Imposing the fine reduced the stigma. The fine created a good, and a market where none previously existed. Parents were no longer “arriving late,” but rather, purchasing extra child-care hours.“
Look within your business for the possibilities of creating new business or increasing the business you already have. Would you like a side order of transportation with that afterschool care?
Here’s another thought. Kicking in for quality child care is one of the most important perks a company can offer. Draw a reasonable radius around your location and list the businesses in that circle–go on, Google will help you. Many business who can’t afford to increase salaries may increase child care benefits. That’s where YOU come in. Expanding hours. Increasing enrollment. And–you were waiting for this–NOT increasing your time spent managing your paperwork because you are going to be using Childcare Manager software to tame the roaring lions of child care management accounting. Take a peek at Childcare Manager the lion tamer: http://www.childcaremanager.com
