What is Unique About Halloween in Family Child Care?

It's the one day of the year that potential clients are knocking on your door!

Halloween is a wonderful opportunity for you to promote your program. Parents with young children are walking down your street. Although the child knocking on your door may not need child care, parents of young children know other parents of young children. So, you want to use Halloween as an opportunity to spread positive word of mouth about your program.

Here’s what to do on Halloween:

• Put a sign outside your home that tells visitors that you are a child care provider and have openings: “Sally’s Day Care – Preschool Openings”

• Hold a party that evening for the children in your program

• Invite trick-or-treaters into your home to get their candy

• Have business flyers available for interested parents

• Put your business card in the children’s candy bag

Halloween is the perfect time to hold an open house. Invite neighbors to get a peek inside your home where they can see all the fun and educational stuff you have for children. If they talk to parents looking for child care they can tell them that they were inside your home and how great it looked.

The costs associated with your open house (party food, decorations, candy, your costume, sign, flyers, etc.) are 100% tax deductible as advertising! If you don’t tell parents that you are a child care provider nothing is tax deductible.

Great ideas: One provider taped crayons to her business card that she dropped in the children’s candy bag. Another provider taped a toothbrush to her business card! Finally, one provider gave fruit snacks with labels that listed her name and phone number. These last two ideas send a positive message that you care about children’s health.

What do you do on Halloween to promote your business?

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

Image credit: https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/a29589785/what-is-national-trick-or-treat-day-halloween/

For more information on other marketing ideas, see my book Family Child Care Marketing Guide.