Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Good evening to all the FDCarers who might read this post.

We are on our way to get the business ready to start in two weeks time.
According to your experience is there any way on how you set up and arrange the costs on a daily or weekly basis to run your business?

how do you set up your fees?
I have been thinking in costs of the insurance, educator levy, parents levy and I have an idea on how much this costs are on a daily basis, however
I have no idea on how much would you invest on a weekly basis on art, crafts, paper, toys, educational resources.

Is there any advisable idea/percentage for expenses to consider, when planning the cost of the fees to charge? roughly and idea.

In other words if it is ok (Dont tell me how much you earn per day) but in percentage how much would you spend/invest on a weekly basis?

Perhaps the cost of the expenses is very different from one location to another. I am located in the Camden area of NSW.

Regards.

Natura.

Hi Natura,

Everything depends on the age of the children and their interests at the time. My theme for this year is Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.
During my holidays I spent quite a bit on new home corner and play dough toys [17 years I should have known better] but the empty pump hand soap bottles, empty squirt dishwashing bottles, pump shampoo bottles that we have been collecting is all they have wanted to play with in the past 4 weeks. We have added water and colours and other things to that play but that all cost nothing. Because there are so many mandatory costs when setting up try not to go too crazy because even though you can claim everything [that's all we ever hear from our coordinators] you are doing this to make an income. Make use of your toy library at the public library, your scheme might have one as well. Get to know the children and make decisions as you go otherwise you might buy a whole lot of stuff and the children you get might not be interested. Make use of Nature, the outdoors, going to the park and letting them run and climb and get dirty [they appreciate that more than a toy] Library has storytime, the Art Gallery next to our Library also has free art every Wednesday after storytime, it all costs nothing. Get to know your area and what available you would be surprised. As far as fees go. There are childcare websites which are free to advertise your business [I don't know if I can mention names here] but you can actually see what fees others are charging in your area. That is what I do each year to make sure I am competitive. No point pricing yourself out because you won't get any children and don't be too cheap because you may as well work in a center for an hourly rate which is all yours.
Hope this helps a bit
linsaa fdc