Tom Copeland's Taking Care of Business

Avoiding Mistakes When Hiring Employees - June 18th Webinar

True or False?

1) If you pay someone less than $600 in a year to help you care for children, this person can be treated as an independent contractor.

2) If you hire your spouse to help you care for children you don't have to withhold Social Security/Medicare taxes.

3) If you hire someone to cut your lawn you must treat this person as your employee.

The answers to all three questions is "false."

Paying someone to help you care for children is an area of tax law where family child care providers make many mistakes. 

Join me at my upcoming webinar, "Avoiding Mistakes When Hiring Employees" to learn the facts and avoid making costly mistakes. The webinar begins at 10 pm Eastern Time and lasts for 90 minutes.

I'll be covering:

* Why you probably don't have an independent contractor

* What are your federal and state payroll tax responsibilities?

* When hiring family members does and does not make sense

* How not having workers' compensation insurance can get you into big trouble

* How to save a lot of taxes by setting up a medical reimbursement plan for your spouse

The webinar is sponsored by the National Association for Family Child Care.

Register now!

These monthly webinars are an opportunity to watch a power point presentation on your home computer and listen to me cover these important issues. You'll have the opportunity to ask me questions live and you will receive a copy of the power point, plus handouts. You will also receiving a training certificate of attendance.

Don't miss this fun opportunity!

The cost is $25 (100% tax deductible!) if you are a member of NAFCC. If not it's $60. For questions contact Mandi Hardy businesstraining@nafcc.org; 801-682-3675.

If you are not a current member and would like to take advantage of the many wonderful benefits that NAFCC has to offer, please visit the website http://www.nafcc.org and click on the membership tab.

To see my entire 2013 webinar schedule.

Image credit: ibew164.org

How to Track Hours Using Minute Menu Kids Pro

What's the most important thing you can do between now and the end of the year to reduce your taxes?

Keep at least two months of records showing how many hours you worked in your home when daycare children are not present.

These hours help determine what your Time-Space Percentage will be. Your Time-Space Percentage is used to determine how much of your house expenses (property tax, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, house repairs, house insurance, and house depreciation) you can deduct.

In previous articles I have discussed the importance of tracking the hours you work after children are gone and how to keep records of these hours.

One tool that can make this job easier is Minute Menu Kids Pro.

Minute Menu Kids Pro is an online family child care management software program that can save you time and money on your taxes. It's the most popular family child care record keeping software available.

The program is most commonly used by child care providers to complete their Food Program paperwork and and it can be used to submit claims to their sponsor electronically. It contains built-in CACFP approved meals, ingredients, pre-planned menus, as well as easy-to-track meal counts and attendance records.

Minute Menu Kids Pro also contains a comprehensive record keeping section that tracks parent payments, prints receipts, calculates your Time-Space Percentage, and tracks all business expenses. The program is updated each year with current mileage and meal allowance rates, and it organizes business expenses into categories that match IRS tax forms.

See my previous article about Minute Menu Kids Pro.

To enter your hours in Minute Menu Kids Pro, go to the "Accounting" section and then click on "Time-Space Percentage." You will then see the following two tabs:

Time - Hours Children Present

There are two ways you can track these hours. Enter the hours children are present each day under "Hours from Attendance Records" or use the hours your program is open under "Hours from Operations." It's more work to enter daily attendance records, but these will be more accurate that your hours of operation (that can vary). To see how they differ, select one method and then the other. You can wait until the end of the year to make your final selection.

Time - Other Activities

In this section you can record hours you spend on business activities when children are not present. You can record this information each day, or at the end of each weekly or once a month.

Press "Add Entry" to record your time. You will enter the number of hours you worked and then choose from a pull-down menu a description of the activity: Business Phone Calls, Cleaning, E-mail/Internet Activity, Family Child Care Association Activities, Food Program Paperwork, Meal Preparation, Other, Parent Interviews, Planning/Preparing Activities, Record Keeping.

If you conduct an activity that is not on this list, choose "Other." You can make notes to clarify any of your activities.

I suspect that very few providers track these hours on a daily basis. It's too much work!

My recommendation is that you carefully track these hours for two different months each year. Be sure to indicate the time of day you do these activities in the notes so the IRS can see they are not being done when children are present. 

Here's an example of how one entry might look: 2 hours, Cleaning, Notes: 6:00am - 7:00am and 6:30pm - 7:30pm.

After completing two months, divide the total number of hours by two and use the average for the other ten months. For example, if you worked 40 hours in February and 44 hours in August, the average would be 42 hours (40 + 44 = 84 divided by 2 = 42).

Pick one day in each of the other ten months and enter 42 hours under "Other" as the activity. Yes, you can't work 42 hours in one day, but the software will allow you to enter more than 24 hours in a day for purposes of calculating your Time-Space Percentage. Minute Menu Kids Pro will use the numbers you have entered to calculate your Time-Space percentage for the year.

If you do a careful job of tracking hours for two months each year, your records should be accepted by the IRS.

If your two months of recorded activities are not typical of the rest of the year, track more than two months of activities. Continue to carefully track at least two months of hours each year going forward.

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

Image credit: www.minutemenu.com

For a detailed discussion of how to calculate your Time-Space Percentage, see my book Family Child Care Record Keeping Guide.

Using Celebrations to Promote Your Program

Party! Party! Party!

That's one way to describe what family child providers do.

Practically every day is a party. You celebrate Father's Day, Mother's Day, Big Bird's birthday, July 4th, children's birthdays, and so on.

Parties and celebrations can also be used to promote your program.

Invite the children you care for and their parents to a party at your home at least once a year. It is a good way to interact with clients in an environment that is less stressful than the normal Monday through Friday work-week.

You could use the party to share with parents some of the positive things that their children are learning, have the children sing songs, or just have a good time.

Your party can celebrate a holiday (Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah, July 4th, Memorial Day) or it could be a backyard gathering in the summer. If you celebrate a religious holiday, make sure your clients also celebrate it. You could celebrate grandparent’s day and invite all grandparents to a party.
   
If you have been in business for a number of years, consider having an anniversary party to celebrate the life of your program. Invite past clients as well. Take pictures of the event and put them in your newsletter, website, on the bulletin board, and in your photo album. Send an announcement about your anniversary (and a follow-up photo) for the local media to cover.

If you are celebrating special events or holidays, or are just throwing a party, consider inviting former and prospective clients. You may even want to invite neighbors and friends to help spread the goods news about your program.

One provider in Texas told me she has a summer barbecue every year and invites current, former, and prospective clients. Last year more than 150 people attended! This is a marvelous way to promote your program.

It allows parents and children to connect with and support one another. It tells your current parents that this is a good place to keep their children because you are creating a long-term extended family environment. It’s an opportunity to remind former clients that you are trying to fill openings (offer a finder’s fee!) and it sends out a message to everyone involved that your service to children is valued and important.

Some child care providers offer their parents a “Parent Night Out.” The provider offers a free evening of child care so the parents can go Christmas or other holiday shopping. This is something that single parents especially appreciate.

One provider I know offers a free evening of care in exchange for the parent helping her out when she offers a free evening of care for another parent. The provider says that she does this so the parent can get a better idea of what it's like caring for multiple children. She says that afterwards the parent usually appreciates more the work she does!

Another provider offers parents a “Mom’s Night Out” for the mothers of the children in her program. She invites them to a formal dinner at her home (the dads stay home with the children). Her own teenage children served the food and the day care children prepared the dessert. This activity helps the provider bond with the mothers who look forward to the dinner.

What do your celebrations look like?

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

Image credit: 247moms.com

For a wide variety of ideas about how to promote your program, see my book Family Child Care Marketing Guide.

Don't Count Chores When Hiring Your Own Children

Many family child care providers take advantage of the tax benefits of hiring their own children to work for their business.

The wages paid to your own children can be deducted as a business expense. If your child is under age 18, these wages are not subject to Social Security/Medicare taxes, and your child doesn't have to report earnings on their tax return unless they make more than $5,950 (2012).

Wages paid to spouses or children, age 18 or older, are subject to Social Security taxes and must be reported as income on the person's tax return. 

When hiring your own children, you can pay them to do work for your business, but you cannot pay them to do personal household chores.

What is the difference? 
A U.S. Tax Court case (T.C. Summary Opinion 2006-127) has shed light on this question.


The Alexanders ran several businesses out of their home (not family child care) and hired several of their children to help them out. The IRS concluded that most of the tasks the children preformed were in the nature of routine family chores, such as cleaning, vacuuming, taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn, and helping with their parents' shopping trips.

"Such chores are part of parental training and discipline rather than the services rendered by an employee for an employer," the Court said.



For wages to a child to be deductible the employer must meet certain requirements:
* Specific employment tax forms must be filed (Form 941, W-2, W-3)

* The work performed should be related to the business, not personal activities

* Wages paid should be based on the actual work performed, not a pre-determined amount paid on a monthly or weekly basis

* The employer must keep accurate records of the actual hours worked

* Personal household chores are not considered wages

The IRS will closely scrutinize family child care providers who hire their own children or spouse. This is because some providers are tempted to gain a tax benefit without following the proper rules.

Providers can learn from the Alexander case while distinguishing it from their own situation.

Unlike other home-based businesses, family child care providers must clean and maintain their home to run a successful business. Some household chores could be considered "ordinary and necessary" for a family child care business and not other businesses.

For providers to be able to deduct wages paid to their own children (or spouse), they need to identify each activity spent by their employee as a business, not personal activity. For example: Cleaning the kitchen and bathroom could be a business or personal activity. To count these as business hours, providers need to show that their child cleaned these areas more often than they would have been cleaned if there was no business. This means providers should keep track of the times spent cleaning these areas for personal reasons.

Let's say a child spent a half hour cleaning the kitchen and bathroom in the morning before the children arrived or in the evening after the children left. A provider could count this half hour as business work if she also kept records showing that someone cleaned these areas during some other time during the week.

It's not enough for a provider to try to deduct the wages paid to their own child who mows the lawn by saying that she must maintain an outside play area for the children in her care.

Unless you can show that you are mowing the lawn more times because you are in business, it is not a good practice to count these hours as a business activity. The same reasoning should be applied to washing windows, taking out the garbage, etc. Such activities are primarily personal, even though a provider can argue that she must maintain a clean home for her business.

It's only the extra time above what would normally be done as a homeowner that can count as a business activity. If you aren't keeping careful track of how often you are cleaning areas for both personal and business reasons, it is a good idea not try to deduct the wages paid to your own children when they do the cleaning.

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

Image credit: davids-class.blogspot.com 

For more information about hiring your own children, see my 2012 Family Child Care Tax Workbook.

 

Closing for the Summer

Summer is a time for vacations, family outings, gardening, reading, and just plain rest.

For many family child care providers, summer is a time to reduce their hours of operation.

Taking some time off in the summer may be based on personal choice, or it may be a necessity because of a reduced demand for services. Some child care parents may withdraw their children for summer camps or family vacations. Other parents, such as teachers, work fewer hours in the summer and plan to spend more time with their children.



What are the tax consequences of reducing your summer hours?



When you work fewer hours your income will go down. In addition, serving fewer meals and snacks means you will receive less reimbursement from the Food Program. One of the financial challenges of being a family child care provider is managing the ups and downs of your income as parents come and go.

Plan ahead when you know that your income will be less in the summer. Try to keep your expenses down during this time. Put aside some of the money you are earning the rest of the year to help you get through the slower summer months.



One of the biggest tax benefits of being a family child care provider is the ability to deduct a portion of your house expenses, including property tax, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, house insurance, house repairs, and house depreciation.

Time- Space Percentage

The amount of the deduction you can claim for these items is based on your Time-Space Percentage. This percentage is determined by how many hours you work in your home and how much space you are using in your home on a regular basis for your business. 



If you are closed for a month or two during the summer, this should not make any difference in your space percentage. In other words, if you are using a bedroom for naps on a daily basis for ten months of the year and not at all for two months, you would still count this room as being used on a regular basis throughout the year.



If you are closed from a week to several months during the summer, this will have an effect on your time percentage. The fewer hours you work, the lower your time percentage, and ultimately the lower your home business deductions will be.

To help reduce this impact, keep careful track of all the hours you work during the summer. Include in this accounting all the hours children are at your home. This may be more complicated to track if you have children attending part days, or on an irregular basis.

Also, be sure to record all hours you are spending on business activities when the children are not present, including hours spent on activity preparation, cleaning, meal preparation, and special projects such as painting the playroom, building outdoor equipment, and reorganizing your records.



Regardless of the impact of reduced income and lower home deductions, it is a good idea to take time off each year for yourself. Family child care providers work very hard and you deserve some days of rest. Enjoy!

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

Image credit: discovergold.wordpress.com

For more information about calculating your Time-Space Percentage, see my book Family Child Care Record Keeping Guide.

How to Track Hours When Children Aren’t Present

 

Most family child care providers keep relatively good records tracking the hours when children are in their care.

But few providers are keeping accurate records of their work when children are not present.

Want to reduce your taxes? Keep track of the hours you work when children are not present.

I can’t emphasize this enough. For years I’ve seen providers pay too much in taxes because they didn’t do this.

I’ve written about this before: “The Single Most Important Thing You Can Do to Reduce Your Taxes.”

Now I want to tell you exactly how to record the hours you work in your home when children are not present.

For most providers, tracking the hours children are in their home is relatively easy. You can fill out your Food Program monthly claim form, enter attendance records in your Minute Menu software, or collect sign in/out sheets from parents.

Keeping records of when you are working when children are not in your home is more difficult.

You can count all hours spent on activities that you wouldn’t be doing except for the fact that you are a family child care provider. This can include many things: cleaning, activity preparation, meal preparation, talking to parents on the phone, office work, time on the Internet looking for recipes, etc., cleaning toys, reading this blog (!), and so on.

I wrote an article identifying many of these hours: “What Hours Can You Count.”

You can’t count hours if you are away from home (shopping, training, etc.), even though you may be engaged in a business activity. Only include hours when you are physically at your home and children aren’t present. Don’t count hours spent on personal activities (mowing the lawn, taking out the garbage, making your own bed when children don’t sleep in it), etc.

Before you try to count hours, ask yourself this question: “If I wasn’t a family child care provider would I be doing this activity?” If the answer is “yes” then don’t count this time.

How to Keep Records of Hours Worked When Children Aren’t Present

You should keep careful records of these hours for at least two months each year. If you can do more than two months, do so.

Because tracking these hours is so important, I want to give a detailed example of exactly how to keep records showing these hours.

First you want to pick out the two months you will track these hours. Pick two months that are representative of the entire year. Maybe, one month in the summer and one month in the fall.

Then start marking on the calendar what the business activity is and the time of day you conduct it.

Continued

 

Estimated Taxes for Second Quarter Due June 17th

June 17th is the deadline for family child care providers to file your federal estimated tax payment for the second quarter of 2013. 

The second quarter includes the months of April and May. (Yes, the tax quarters for estimated taxes are not equal!)

The third quarter includes the months of June, July and August. The fourth quarter includes the months of September, October, November and December.

Most child care providers do not need to file estimated taxes (IRS Form 1040 ES Estimated Tax for Individuals). This is because their spouse usually has enough withheld in taxes to cover them. 

You are most likely need to file estimated taxes if you are single or you have a spouse who is unemployed or self-employed.

If you are not sure if you or your spouse has paid in enough taxes for the months of April and May, you should make a tax payment with this form. You goal is to have paid in at least 90% of the taxes you owe for this quarter to avoid paying a penalty. If you pay in too much you will get a refund.

How do you know how much you will owe in taxes? If you were in business in 2012 use last year as a guide. If this is your first year, use 20% of your gross income (parents fees plus Food Program income) for April and May as a conservative guess of how much you will owe. 

Lastly, check your records to see if you will owe any state income taxes. If so, make a state estimated tax payment by June 17th as well.

The deadline for the third quarter of estimated taxes is September 15th. The deadline for the fourth quarter is January 15, 2014.

Image credit: www.2020taxdebthelp.com

NAFCC Conference Early Bird Registration Deadline June 8th

This Saturday is the early bird registration discount deadline for the annual conference of the National Association for Family Child Care to be held in Scotsdale, Arizona July 18-20th.

See details.

I'll be presenting two pre-conference train-the-trainer seminars Thursday the 18th on: Successful Strategies for Marketing Your Business and Mastering Record Keeping and Taxes. For further information. 

These four hour seminars are for trainers and providers who want to get more in depth knowledge about the topic. A copy of my book, power point and handouts are included.

I will also be presenting three workshops during the conference on Friday: Making Record Keeping Work for You in 2013; How to Manage Your Money So You Can Retire, and Getting the Most From Your Insurance. 

The NAFCC conference will be held at the Fairmont Scotsdale Princess. For a copy of the conference schedule, click here.

I always enjoy this conference where hundreds of family child care providers from across the country come to learn and have fun.

If you are planning to attend this conference and are a reader of my blog, say "hi!"

Image credit: www.nafcc.org

Vistaprint Postcard Service Can Help Promote Your Business

There's a better way to reach potential customers for your family child care business than passing out flyers on your neighbor's front doorsteps.

Mail a promotional postcard to families who have young children and live near you. You can even target your postcard to families with children based on their ages.

Vistaprint is one company that offers such a service.

You can buy a list of mailing labels or they will mail out the postcard. Child care providers have used this service with success.

Here's how it works. Go to Vistaprint and choose the size of postcard, the design you want, and your message. Then you will be asked if you want to mail your postcards yourself or have Vistaprint mail them.

The next step is to identify the potential customers you want to reach. Choose "Residential Customers" and then decide whether you want to search for customers based on how close they live to you, your zip code or your county.

Next, select "Custom Options" and choose "Presence of Children" as well as "Children Age Ranges." You can then choose what ages of children you want to reach: less than one year old, one year old, two year old, etc.

You will told how many households meet your criteria and how much it will cost to send your postcards to them. I tried this out and found that there were 296 families with children under age three in my zip code area. It would cost $.73 per postcard, or $216 to have Vistaprint mail a postcard to them. You can choose how many postcardst to send. If I wanted to send only 100 postcards it would cost me $.79 per postcard, or $79.

These lists aren't perfect. Based on the experience of other family child care providers, the list may include families that don't have children, or don't have children of the age you are looking for. The lists are created by drawing from magazine subscriptions, customer credit card purchases, warranty card information and customer surveys.

There is an interesting discussion of the experiences of child care providers using this service on the Daycare.com forum.

Vistaprint is also used by many family child care providers for their business cards, signs, promotional items and other marketing products.

Image credit: www.vistaprint.com

For more ideas about how to market your business, see my Family Child Care Marketing Guide.

How to Address Landlord Opposition to Family Child Care Tenants

Family child care providers who rent their home or apartment may face unexpected barriers to operating their business.

Their lease may include restrictive language prohibiting businesses or their landlord may withhold permission needed for a provider to get her license.

Here's some ideas for how to address landlord opposition.

Identify the reason for the opposition

There can be many different reasons why a landlord might oppose family child care providers as tenants. It’s best to find out the one or more reasons upfront by asking the landlord, “What is the problem?” Oftentimes, when the issues are examined closely there really isn’t a problem. Explaining what family child care is and is not, can go a long way to resolving conflicts.

These are the objections I’ve heard and how to respond to them:

A.     Too many children

Sometimes landlords don’t understand the difference between a center and a family child care provider. They might imagine hoards of children roaming the hallways and entryways. Make it clear how many children you are or will be in your care.

Don’t cite the maximum number of children allowed under your license if you intend to care for fewer children. You may want to seek agreement with the landlord on a cap on how many children (other than your own) that could be in the apartment at one time.  In some situations, a provider who is caring for only a few children should be looked at like a large family. Landlords rent to large families all the time. If the landlord is concerned about damage to the apartment because of the number of children, he/she can impose a damage deposit to address this.

B.     Liability

The landlord may be worried about lawsuits against him/her arising out of more children on the premises. If you have business liability insurance, it’s usually a simple matter to add the landlord as an “additional insured” under the insurance policy. This will provide coverage for the landlord at little, or no cost to you. Landlords already have liability insurance to defend themselves against lawsuits. I think this concern is overblown. I don’t know of any lawsuits by parents against landlords when their child is injured in an apartment. If you don’t have business liability insurance you should get it. A provider who cares for only a few children and is not required to be licensed usually can’t get business liability insurance, yet landlords generally don’t object to such providers. 

C.     Noise

More children may mean more noise during the day, but not at night (when this might be an issue). If this is raised as an issue you could agree to some common sense practices: asking parents to keep noise down when dropping off and picking up, closing windows, scheduling outside activities for time that are the least disruptive, etc. Noise usually only comes up if there have been previous complaints from neighbors about this. If so, you should try to negotiate directly with the neighbor to try to resolve the problem.  If there haven’t been complaints, you could suggest that the landlord monitor this issue for the next six months and try to address any issue that might arise during that time.

D. Legal barriers

Under most state laws, landlords can restrict family child care providers from operating in their apartment complex. Usually, such restrictions are found in the lease which might prohibit business use. Such restrictions are to ensure that the property can be enjoyed as a residence. While it’s reasonable to have lease restrictions that prohibit fast food operations, printing presses and other commercial activities, running a family child care home can be distinguished from all other businesses.

 

Providers are using the apartment as a family would. There are no real noise or other issues associated with typical businesses. There are probably other home-based businesses already operating in the apartment complex, so they shouldn’t single out family child care. Federally owned subsidized housing units (HUD) have, in the past, allowed family child care providers to operate even though there may be general restrictions against businesses. 

2) Identify the benefits of a family child care provider as a tenant

Having a family child care provider in the apartment complex is not a deterrent or “problem.” Rather it is a benefit to the landlord. Here are some examples of the benefits of having a family child care provider in an apartment building:

A.     A provider who is at home all day serves as an informal “neighborhood watch” in that she is around to see what is going on in the apartment complex. Other tenants who are gone during the day should feel more comfortable knowing that someone is there to watch out for strangers and keep an eye on things.

B.     A provider is licensed and therefore meets a number of health and safety standards. This means that the children in her apartment may be safer than a child in her own home. I would identify several of the specific health/safety standards to show why it’s unlikely that children will be at risk: first aid training, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, criminal back ground checks, licensing/fire inspections, etc.

C.     A family child care provider is likely to be a more stable tenant than most because she is self employed. She has created her own business and is committed to doing the work as shown by her becoming licensed.

D.    The apartment complex will attract prospective tenants who have families with young children. Most families prefer to use a child care provider who is close to their own home. Having a provider in the apartment complex is therefore an added benefit. If I was a landlord I’d advertise the fact that there is a family child care provider in the apartment complex! Providers who already care for families that live in the apartment complex should point this out as evidence that they are offering a benefit to other tenants.

Before you buy or lease a home or apartment, check to see if there are any deed restrictions or objections from the landlord.

If you are having problems with a landlord or deed restriction, feel free to contact me at tomcopeland@live.com or 651-280-5991. It's a free call.

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

Image credit: philadelphiaattorneylawyer.com

I discuss some of these issues more specifically in my book Family Child Care Legal & Insurance Guide, chapter 14.

Julie Wassom's Marketing Advice

Ideas on how to market your program can come from almost anywhere: another family child care provider, a book, an Internet article, looking at business signs while driving, and so on.

One source for a wealth of free marketing ideas can be found on the blog "Wassom's Marketing Wisdom."

Although Julie Wassom's articles are directed at child care center directors, many of her ideas can be used by family child care providers. As you read her articles, ignore the center language and focus on what makes sense for your program.

There's a lot to learn from her.

Here are a few of her most recent articles:

You Are What They See - You never get a second chance to make a first impression. In the first 60 seconds on a phone interview or first 5 minutes of an interview parents will form an impression of you that often is a lasting one. The articles discusses how to improve your telephone interviewing technique and make the appeareance of your home work for you.

Watch What You Say - Terms That Make Parents Wince and Wonder - Julie identifies words to avoid and what to use instead:

Avoid: day care  Use: child care, early childhood development - "What are you looking for in the child care experience you want for Ethan?"

Avoid: slot  Use: space, place - "I have only one space open in my program."

Avoid: fee, cost, price   Use: investment, tuition - "The tuition for my preschool program is...."

Avoid: discount  Use: savings - "For your second child, you will receive a 10% savings on tuition."

Avoid: caregiver   Use: teacher, educator - "As a teacher I take pride in making sure your child develops a love for learning."

Using Your Basic Competitive Advantages to Increase Enrollment - Julie describes how to identify the unique features of your program that make you stand apart from your competitors.

Pick and Choose

You should always be open to listening to new ideas about marketing. There is no fool proof way to promote your program. A marketing idea that works wonders for one program may not work for you. Even though every idea of Julie's may not apply to you, I think it's worth your time to listen to her.

Julie Wassom has been speaking and writing professional about child care marketing for the past twenty years. She runs The Julian Group, Inc. a Denver-based training and consulting firm.

Read Julie's blog or sign up to receive emails of Julie's latest blog articles on marketing.

Image credit: http://juliewassom.wordpress.com/

For more information about family child care marketing, see my book Family Child Care Marketing Guide.