Why Hosting Memory Making Events For Parents Will Grow Your Bottom Line
Hosting special annual events is a great way create a community atmosphere for your kiddos and their families. When your team and parents work together towards the same goals everyone wins. By offering opportunities for families to create meaningful memories you enable children to demonstrate their experiences, parents to meet and greet one another and your team to build stronger partnerships with parents. And the biggest benefit? The word of mouth marketing generated because you have just made life a little easier for these busy families.
The best part are all of those pictures they take. Because where do they go? Right to social media, texted to friends and family, emailed to distant relatives. The best word of mouth advertising any small business could ask for. And if it becomes an annual event, something that happens every year, parents start to plan for it. Have a special outfit, invite a friend to join, or brag to co-workers why they need to leave work early today. That bragging is all about you!
It isn’t about holidays or religion at all. It is about how you can organize special events and family celebrations that will inspire your team and your paying parents to be more excited about your Early Childhood business.
In today’s ECBME podcast we are going talk about three important factors when it comes to creating memory making opportunities for your families and your profit growth.
Build Your Cultural Competence
Make Celebrations Child-Centred
How Creating Memory Making Opportunities Will Increase Your Bottom Line
Build Your Cultural Competence
When you are culturally competent, you respect multiple ways of knowing, seeing and living, celebrate the benefits of diversity and have an ability to understand and honor differences. To foster your own cultural competence, work to identify opportunities and ways of respecting and celebrating different attitudes, beliefs and views of others. When exploring celebrations, this can be achieved by planning a range of celebrations that are relevant to the children, educators and the community in which the children’s service exists.
NAEYC believes that decisions about what holidays and special events to celebrate are best made together by team members, parents, and children. Your families and your team are more comfortable when both have expressed their views and understand how a decision has been reached.
Make Celebrations Child-Centred
The important thing for all to remember is that when planning holiday and special event activities, the rules of good practice continue to apply: Are the activities meaningful to the children? Are their needs and interests being met? Is the activity a valuable use of children's time?
Involve children when marking celebrations in the cultural calendar to enhance their sense of belonging in culture and community. Use creative centers to get them to make decorations for celebrations. Build agency in children during circle time and invite them to share which personal or family milestones they would like to celebrate, like getting a new pet, riding a bike, or a grandparent coming to visit. When planning celebrations, ensure that children have adequate resources and time to be able to celebrate effectively. Also, create an awareness of the celebration among other children as well as the community.
PBS shares some good tips to follow when celebrating special occasions and holidays in Early Childhood programs.
Ask why children should learn about this holiday or celebration.
Activities should be connected to specific children and families in your community.
Children should be encouraged to share feelings and information about the holidays or special events they celebrate.
Every group represented is honored (both children and team members).
Activities should demonstrate the fact that not everyone in the same ethnic group celebrates holidays and customs in the same way.
Demonstrate respect for everyone's customs.
Work together to plan strategies for children whose families' beliefs do not permit participation in certain holiday celebrations.
Focus is on meaningful ways to celebrate holidays, customs, and special events without spending money.
How Creating Memory-Making Opportunities Will Increase Your Bottom Line
Holding your own celebration or special event is like making your own news: you give prospective parents a reason to connect with your business and learn more about what sets you apart from the competition. Celebrations and special events provide time to meet with families and create relationships that will help nervous parents trust you and your team with their precious child.
We all know how busy our families are today. By having an annual plan around a specific event or celebration each month, you are creating opportunities for your families. Opportunities to not only bond and connect, but to take pictures and create meaningful memories that they will cherish for years to come.
There are other reasons why hosting celebrations and special events is such an important tool for attracting more families and increasing your enrollment:
Your business will work to bring the community together.
You demonstrate how your business can play a role in the support system of new parents.
You can share upcoming programs and features you offer in your Early Childhood business.
You can partner with complementary businesses to expand your marketing efforts and theirs around like minded opportunities.
Parents who have currently enrolled their children in your program may be willing to volunteer, which will then give them a reason to spread the word about your great program to their friends. Word-of-mouth advertising is far more effective than online listings and review sites.
Final Thoughts on Why Hosting Memory-Making Events For Parents Will Grow Your Bottom Line
When incorporated in a sensitive and respectful manner, celebrations can provide an opportunity for children to develop respect for diverse values and beliefs as they learn about practices which are different to their own.
When families feel connected to your Early Childhood business it becomes more of a home away from home. Encourage parents into the experience, they will be excited! They will see and feel how much time, energy, and love you and your team put in day in and day out.
They can also create memories for families that may not have happened otherwise due to the demands of today’s busy parents. When you create memory-making opportunities for your families, you are making their lives a little easier. And they will be so excited to tell everyone all about how your amazing Early Childhood business does just that.
Talking Points
Holding your own celebration or special event is like making your own news: you give prospective parents a reason to connect with your business and learn more about what sets you apart from the competition.
Celebrations and special events provide time to meet with families and create relationships that will help nervous parents trust you and your team with their precious child.
Resources
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