This document provides an overview and lessons for a course on childcare business innovations. The course covers branding, customer relationship management, employee relationship management, finances, and consultation. Each lesson includes definitions, explanations, and tips. The document also outlines course resources, goals, and questions for further discussion.

1. Top Five Things to Know
Childcare Business Innovations
presents:

2. Course contents
• Overview: Five Things to Know
• Lesson 1: Branding, know who you are and what you are selling
• Lesson 2: CRM, the basics of Customer Relationship Management
• Lesson 3: ERM, the basics of Employee Relationship Management
• Lesson 4: Finances, Understanding your financial health
• Lesson 5: Consultation, depend on those who have the knowledge you don’t

3. Course Resources:
Each course includes a list of suggested tasks.
These tasks are included in the training documents.
Resources are offered with every course from
Childcare Innovations. Below the training video
you will find a forum to ask any questions related
to this training module as well as any documents
we discuss.

4. Course goals
• Understand the idea of branding and know yours.
• Understand the importance of CRM
• Surrender your ego, ask for help when needed
• Be able to make key financial calculations to understand
your center’s financial health

5. Branding

6. What is Branding?
 The American Marketing Association
(AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term,
sign, symbol or design, or a combination
of them intended to identify the goods
and services of one seller or group of
sellers and to differentiate them from
those of other sellers.
 Therefore it makes sense to understand
that branding is not about getting your
target market to choose you over the
competition, but it is about getting your
prospects to see you as the only one that
provides a solution to their problem.
Text to be replaced on
three pages

7. Brand Objectives
Objectives that a good brand will
achieve include:
 Delivers the message clearly
 Confirms your credibility
 Connects your target prospects
emotionally
 Motivates parents
 Concretes parent loyalty
What is your brand?
See documents for help creating your brand. n three pages

8. Keys to Branding
The most important thing to understand
with branding is who your target market
is.
Have you evaluated your market?
Does your brand effectively work in
your market?
Does your brand highlight why you
are special?
Childcare Business Innovations offers services to assist with branding. Everything from
market evaluation to logo and brand design. Please see our additional services page.
Homework: Take a few minutes to think
about your center, your area, your current
customer. Now, write out a description of
who your ideal customer is, what they are
looking for. This will help you to determine
how to properly brand your center.

9. Questions?
For any questions regarding this
section please post in the forum
below.
Our experts here at Childcare
Business Innovations will respond
within twenty four hours.
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10. CRM, The Basics of Customer
Relationship Management

11. What is CRM?
 CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It
entails all aspects of interaction that a company has with its customer,
whether it is sales or service-related. While the phrase customer
relationship management is most commonly used to describe a
business-customer relationship.
 CRM is often thought of as a business strategy that enables businesses
to:
1. Understand the customer
2. Retain customers through better customer experience
3. Attract new customers
4. Win new clients
5. Increase profitably
6. Decrease customer management costs

12. Why is CRM so important in the
Childcare Industry?
1. Longevity of relationship and
continual revenue stream
2. Importance of the service we offer
and what is placed in our hands
3. PARENTS TALK!

13. One Web page included
within other pages

14. Questions?
For any questions regarding this
section please post in the forum
below.
Our experts here at Childcare
Business Innovations will respond
within twenty four hours.
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15. ERM, Employee Relationship Management

16. Employee Relationship Management
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result from a broken
hyperlink
What is ERM?
 Employee relationship management is a process that
companies use to effectively manage all interactions
with employees, ultimately to achieve the goals of the
organization. The administrator can play a critical role
in this process in measuring and monitoring those
relationships to determine whether objectives are being
met.

17. Why is ERM important?
The Childcare Industry is notorious for having high-turn
over rates with employees, low employee satisfaction, low
wages and often little respect.
Our employees are the most valuable asset we have. They
can either make us money
or lose us money.
As owners and
administrators we are
responsible for
building and
maintaining these
relationships.
Hyperlinks Report

19. ERM Tips
Be careful who you hire. It is much easier and less costly to get
the right person the first time.
Value your employees and treat them with respect. Understand
that they have lives, families and problems. They need to know
you care for them or they will not care for you.
Be observant! You should see when something is not right with
an employee.
Go out of the way for your best.
Hire based on the person and not the credentials.
Sometimes investing in an employee will benefit you
significantly in the long run. (pay, vacation, training, etc.)

20. Questions?
For any questions regarding this
section please post in the forum
below.
Our experts here at Childcare
Business Innovations will respond
within twenty four hours.
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21. Financials, Understanding Your Financial Health

22. Financial Health
What does it mean to be healthy?
 Financial health refers to the well-being of a business as measured by
adequate financial analysis.
 The first step of the strategic process is to determine your financial health.
Financial resources may be in better shape in some areas and less so in
others. An example is strong net worth, but weak cash flow. In
general, healthy performance in each area of interest leads to a healthy
business that is better able to withstand the changes in the economy and
business environment. The process of strategic and tactical financial
analysis is absolutely necessary and very unique in the childcare industry.
 We will help teach you to identify weak links and help prevent financial
disaster.

23. Key Financial Terms
 Break-Even: the break-even point (BEP)
is the point at which cost or expenses and
revenue are equal: there is no net loss or
gain, and one has "broken even.“
 Fixed Costs: business costs, such as
rent, that are constant whatever the
quantity of goods or services produced.
 Variable Costs: Variable costs are those
costs that vary depending on a company's
production volume; they rise as
production increases and fall as
production decreases. Variable costs differ
from fixed costs such as
rent, advertising, insurance and office
supplies, which tend to remain the same
regardless of production output. Fixed
costs and variable costs comprise total
cost.
 P&L: A financial statement that
summarizes the revenues, costs and
expenses incurred during a specific period
of time - usually a fiscal quarter or year.
These records provide information that
shows the ability of a company to generate
profit by increasing revenue and reducing
costs. The P&L statement is also known as
a "statement of profit and loss", an
"income statement" or an "income and
expense statement".
 Balance Sheet: A financial statement that
summarizes a company's assets, liabilities
and shareholders' equity at a specific
point in time. These three balance sheet
segments give investors an idea as to what
the company owns and owes, as well as
the amount invested by the shareholders.
The balance sheet must follow the
following formula:
Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders' Equity

24. Key Financial Ratios
Site Settings and Add
Name and Value dialog
boxes
1. In the Site Settings dialog box,
click Add.
2. In the Name box, type the name
for the variable. This is an internal
name that will not be visible to
Web visitors.
3. In the Value box, type a value for
the variable. This is what Web
visitors will see.
 Return on Sales measures the percentage of after tax profits
per dollar of a company's annual sales. (Revenue–
Expenses=Profit, Profit divided by Revenue=Return on
Sales)
 Current Ratio shows the extent to which shortterm debt
obligations are covered by working capital assets. A
minimum 2:1 ratio indicates sound financial strength.
(Current Assets divided by Current Liabilities)
 Total Liabilities to Net Worth shows how company debt
relates to the equity position of owners or shareholders. The
higher this ratio, the less protection there is for creditors of
the business. ( Current liabilities x 100 ÷ Net worth)

25. Determine Your Break-Even
Site Settings and Add
Name and Value dialog
boxes
 Step 1: Establish your unit sales price. For a daycare business, a unit sales price
is the cost of one spot for one child for a given period of time, such as a
day, week or month.
 Step 2: Calculate your variable costs. Variable costs are the additional costs that
you incur for each child that enrolls in your daycare, such as the cost of
food, craft materials and, in some cases, insurance.
 Step 3: Subtract the variable costs from the unit sales price. This will give you
the contribution margin for your daycare business.
 Step 4: Divide your total fixed costs by the unit contribution margin to get the
break even point -- that is the total revenue that you will need to achieve in
order to break even. Your fixed costs are those that remain the same regardless
of the number of kids, such as property costs.
 Step 5: Divide the break even revenue by the unit sales price. This will give you
the break even point in units -- that is the number of daycare spots that you
need to fill in order to break even.

26. How to Monitor Your Finances
Dialog boxes used to
insert a variable
• UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF WORKING CAPITAL
• Review your financial statements as if your center’s life depended on it – no less than monthly.
• Prepare your annual budget and monitor it regularly.
• Prepare your monthly cash flow projections at the beginning of the year and update it frequently.
• You collect your center’s cash.
o Invoice parents promptly.
o Collect a deposit up front.
o Do not allow late payers to get too far behind.
o Give parents resources for help with their own budgeting and cash flow.
• You reduce your cash out.
o Review your payables at least twice a month.
o Cut expenses where it won’t hurt quality.
o Put off equipment purchases and optional expenses until later.
• You get approval for a line-of-credit from your bank before you need it.
• If the wolves are already at your door –
o Talk to your creditors as soon as you have a problem. They don’t like surprises.
o Talk to creditors and vendors to see if they will reduce your payments.
o Make small partial payments to all creditors.
o Be honest. Don’t promise more than you can actually pay.

27. Questions?
For any questions regarding this
section please post in the forum
below.
Our experts here at Childcare
Business Innovations will respond
within twenty four hours.
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28. Consultation, Depend on Those Who Know What
You Do Not.

29. Don’t Lose Money Due to Lack of
Knowledge
Often as human beings we can be over confident in our abilities.
Now without this there would not be those among us who achieve
greatness, but it also creates many causalities along the way.
I caution you with everything I have, do not try to complete tasks
that you do not have the knowledge to. You will lose money, hurt
your business and lose confidence.
The most important thing that you can do for your business is
what you do best. Capitalize on your strengths and outsource for
your weaknesses.
Do not get burned by what you do not know or do well.

30. See a complete list of our upcoming trainings on our
website, including:
Secrets to Marketing and Building Your Brand
Planning, Budgeting and Operations Costs
Giving the Perfect Tour, Know Your Customer
Finding and Retaining Master Teachers
Planning for Growth and Expansion
Taking Care of Yourself: Relax, Unwind,
Delegate

31. The Premier Network Just for Childcare Providers
Benefits of Joining
Opportunity to network with other childcare providers
Additional services from marketing and web design to
financial management
Answers to all of your childcare business questions right
away
Open forums on everything from management to marketing
Access to industry specific, business-centered trainings
Childcare business experts at your fingertips to help you
succeed
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Cost saving and sales growth knowledge and expertise

32. Additional Services
Childcare Business Innovations
Visit the Additional Services tab on
the membership site.
How to inquire about additional
services:
Tell us what you need and we will
deliver a custom quote just for you.
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Work with one of our successful
owners and business experts to
achieve your goals.
The experts here at Childcare Business
Innovations offer a wide variety of additional
services to assist you with your
business. These services include, but are not
limited to:
Business Plan Writing, Consultation and
Editing
Marketing Piece Design, Consultation and
Editing
Website Design, Consultation and Editing
Financial Review
Expansion Consultation
Individualized Training
Start Up Training
Operations Consultation
Center Review and Improvement Reports
Tour Training
Full Marketing Plan Design and Execution
and many more.
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33. Childcare Business Innovations
Teaching the Business of Childcare

34. Childcare Business Innovations
Teaching the Business of Childcare
We hope you will join today and take advantage of our
many benefits.
We appreciate your business.