The Secret to Asking for your Paycheck in Home Daycare
This page may contain affiliate links. Learn More.
Do you ever have families “forget” to pay you? You need daycare payment to run your business. Use these tips when asking for your paycheck in home daycare. Part of running a home daycare that you need to know!
People ask me all the time HOW to ask for their paycheck. You spend plenty on start-up expenses and expenses to run your business. Begging for the money you earned is HARD! It’s humiliating. It can be awkward. It’s necessary. You have bills to pay and if you don’t earn income, you won’t be able to meet your obligations. Click here to see more about late daycare payments
Daycare payment
Running a home daycare is not an easy job. You have to be business and heart and most of us are more one than the other. The best way to get paid is to have payment policies in place. If you lay out your expectations ahead of time, you will run into less asking for your paycheck in home daycare.
There is no fool-proof way to avoid money talks. People just naturally tend to think daycare providers don’t need the money they are earning. I know that if your daycare parents don’t pay their electric bill, they get a cut-off notice.
Their daycare bill should not be any different. You work hard for your money and you earned it. Make sure to take up for yourself.
How to ask for payment
If you have trouble asking for your paycheck in person, call your clients on the phone, text them, write them a note and hand it to them. You do whatever it takes to get your point across in whatever way is doable for you.
You shouldn’t be embarrassed to ask for it, they should be embarrassed about forcing you to.
Tom Copeland is a world-class advocate for daycare providers. Click here to go to his website. Tom suggest you say things like,
“I need a check from you”
“Your bill is due” (or overdue)
“You owe for childcare this week”
Use whatever words are comfortable for you when asking for your paycheck. Anything is going to work better than not saying anything. You are worth standing up for.
You can do it. Get payment before care is provided. Asking for your paycheck is standing up for you and your family. You work hard for your daycare families and you deserve respect and payment for services rendered.
Another way you can collect daycare payment is to place a bulletin board in a highly visible place in the daycare. Then when payments are due, place the name of the person who owes money on the board. When payment is made, you can remove the names, so it’s obvious who still owes for their daycare services.
Daycare invoice
Whatever works to get paid, do it. This is not a hobby, it’s a job, you can’t be working for free. If your daycare clients do not pay their water bill, the water company does not allow them any more water. If your clients do not pay for daycare services, they should no longer receive them. Business is business. Run your business with your head, not your heart.
I know you want to help people and you are in daycare because you care about people and are a caretaker, but think about it this way. Are their family’s needs more important than your family’s? No, they aren’t.
Is it okay to let your kids go without so their kids can have things? We don’t think about it like that when we are trying to help someone, but you are allowing them to use YOUR earnings for things they want or need. That’s not okay. You work for your childcare income.
Do you have any great tips for asking for your paycheck? Check out more things daycare providers wish parents knew.
Obviously, if this continues to be a problem you can’t fix, you may have to terminate care. This is a last resort, but if you need to do it, here are some ideas on how to terminate daycare for a child.
For more tips to make running your home daycare easier, click here.
