Class A Class B Daycare - How To Save Money?

[Angels]

My wife and I own two daycare centers in Louisiana. One licensed for 149 the other for 62. We are always trying to save funds in any sort of way and wanted to share ideas.

Since we bought the first center, March 2008 we have made the following changes:

action (savings)

1. I do the books. ($360/month)
2. She does the payroll every other week. ($250/month)
3. Negotiated on the phone, fax, and internet services-ATT. ($120/month)
4. Changed the dumpster service. ($50/month)
5. Changed milk, food, supplies providers. (varies monthly but $200/month minimum)
6. I do the W2 and 1099. ($300/year)

Annual net savings: $12060 if my math is correct.

We are open to further changes, but the these are great changes that neither the parents or workers noticed! BTW, we have great parents too!

We are class A and run our classrooms to state ratio and NEVER over. We are full in all but one of our PRE K 4 classes (3 short). We have 1 infant class, 2 ones classes, 2 twos classes, 2 threes classes, and 2 fours classes. Our weekly fees are:

infant: 150
ones: 135
twos: 130
threes: 125
fours:125
before after: 65
just before or after: 45
summer camp: 110

We charge a supply fee of 125.00 once a year and provide diapers and wipes to our infants and ones.

I look forward to any information that other centers may have!

[Michael]

Thanks Angel. This is helpful.

[Abigail]

Thanks for sharing. How come you provider diapers and wipes for children under two? Wouldn't you be able to keep your rates the same and have the parents provider the diapers and you could still buy the wipes wholesale?

[Angels]

Thanks for sharing. How come you provider diapers and wipes for children under two? Wouldn't you be able to keep your rates the same and have the parents provider the diapers and you could still buy the wipes wholesale?

Hi, your all welcome for the information. As a matter of fact, in August we are stopping the providing of diapers and I do buy my wipes wholesale off of Amazon.com. This will be a $450-$600 savings per month as we have 24 infants and one year olds that we provide for. I also use Shoplet.com for most of our office supplies:

1. Tax free.
2. Cheaper than local Office Depot.
3. Free shipping after $45.00 spend.

[Angels]

Wanted to bring up another change that we made. When we bought our first center the vacation and sick pay policy was similiar to a larger corporation's policy. Two weeks paid vacation annually, 10 holidays paid off, and five sick days paid. This all rolled over each year and we had some long term employees with 1000's of hours saved up.

We had to make a change as this was, in our view, over the top. We changed to "flex time". Each employee now gets 10 days a year flex to use when he/she desires. No more sick time, vacation time, or holiday pay. Our supervisors/directors get 15 days a year flex.

The employees understood the changes needed, our employees are great! Some have been there 12 years and that, to me, says alot...

What are ya'lls thoughts?

[Angels]

Any thoughts out there?

[Unregistered]

Give back the paid days off

Caring for child is hard work. The last thing an employee in that line of work needs is "no more paid days off." I say invest in your workers and reinstate the paid sick/holiday/vacation time. There's nothing wrong with being frugal but don't cut costs on the backs of your employees.

[Google Apps for Day Care]

Review IT Costs and Paper Needs

Reviewing IT needs and costs could save some money and updated solutions usually increase productivity.

For example if you are paying for Microsoft Office software, like Outlook, Excel, or Word perhaps consider trying OpenOffice.org - free to download and similar to the Office suite. Or perhaps web based versions like Office365 or Google Apps.

Look where you are using paper and consider implementing an electronic alternative where possible. To eliminate the need for printing contracts, we use a a company that provides electronic signatures. All of our contracts are sent, signed and returned all online. We then store the signed (PDF) contracts online...once we implemented this, I bet as an organization we print less than 20 sheets a paper a year.