| When opening a daycare business, be careful to not | | | | ratings, or other proof of quality. All of the assurances |
| assume too much about your customers and your | | | | you offer can become useless if a customer does not |
| competition. Look closely at who they are and you | | | | feel the empathy and confidence of the salesperson |
| may be surprised about how your thinking about these | | | | they talk with. |
| definitions develops. | | | | Competition |
| Customers | | | | Everything that your potential customers might do to |
| In one sense, your customers are the children who | | | | care for their preschool age children rather than send |
| attend your daycare center. They are the people who | | | | them to your daycare can be considered competition. |
| you interact with on a daily basis and offer the | | | | This not only includes direct competition like other day |
| majority of your services. However, the parents of | | | | care centers, day care co-ops, preschools, and |
| these children are really your primary customers. They | | | | montessori schools, but also substitutes for day care |
| are the individuals who will make the decision of | | | | like babysitters or the decision for a parent to stay |
| whether to send their children to you and what to | | | | home with their child. At a certain price and level of |
| spend. | | | | comfort, even these parents may become interested |
| When looking at your customers, look at their specific | | | | in day care although they had previously written it off. |
| needs and values, and on what they base their | | | | Based on the revenue you will need to be successful |
| decision to buy. When it comes to such a personal | | | | and the size of the customer target market, look at |
| service as day care, customer decisions may be | | | | whether you need only compete for market share |
| based on emotional and intuitive elements as much as | | | | with the direct competition or if you will need to |
| or more than concrete items like price, customer | | | | convert customers who use these substitutes as well. |