Advertising Your Babysitting Business!

Transcription

1 Advertising Your Babysitting Business! Advertising is a lot easier than some people think it is. One of the best ways to advertise is to make up a flyer. Use bright colors and a cool font, so that it will attract attention. Start out by mentioning your name, phone number, and any prior babysitting experiences you may have had. You should also include information about any babysitting classes that you may have taken. Red Cross babysitting classes, CPR classes or anything similar would be excellent to mention. Then roll up your flyers with the colorful side showing, and deliver to your soonto-be clients. Only deliver to people that you KNOW have kids. Don t deliver to total strangers. When you re delivering your flyers, ask one of your parents to go along with you. If they can t, then ask your brother, sister, or friend to go with you. Be sure that you don t go alone. Before you deliver a flyer to anyone, tell your parents exactly who you re delivering the flyers to, and where their houses are located. Don t enter the house of the people. Just hand the flyer to them, or put it in their mailbox or front door handle. If you want to hand the flyer to them face-to-face, be sure to hand it to one of the parents, not to one of the children. Then you can talk to the parents. Just say, "Hi! I m a babysitter. This flier has my information on it. Please keep me in mind the next time you need a babysitter." This is a basic diagram of a flyer: Hi! My name is (your name) and I m a babysitter. I ve taken CPR classes and the Safe Sitter babysitting course* (put this there if you have taken these classes).

2 I ve been babysitting for 3 years (or however many years you ve been babysitting. If you re just starting, then don t mention this) and have tons of experience! Please keep me in mind the next time you need a babysitter. (Put your phone number here.) *To find out when a Safe Sitter babysitting class is being held near you, visit Another great way to advertise is by business cards. You can make these with special business card paper available in office supply stores. You can design your card on a Publisher computer program. Add the same information that is suggested above for fliers. Another cool effect would be to include your picture on the business card. You can do this by scanning in a picture of yours and including it on the make-up of the business card. To make magnetic business cards, you can buy Baumgarten s Business Card Magnets at Office Depot for $6.29 for a pack of 25. This pack includes the adhesive to print on, and the magnets to attach the adhesive to. Magnetic business cards are a really good idea, since your babysitting clients can have your business card on their refrigerator at all times. You can include the business cards in your flyers. IMPORTANT SAFETY ADVICE! My main advice is to not post an ad in a place where anyone can see it. Ask one of your parents to come with you when you deliver the flyers. Don t deliver them by yourself. Tell your parents who you re delivering the flyers to and where their houses are located. When you re dropping off flyers, if you are invited in the house don t go in, not even just for a minute or just in the foyer. If they invite you in, just say "no thanks, I d better be going." When you get a babysitting job, even if you know the family pretty well, arrange a fifteen minute meeting

3 for a couple of days before your first babysitting job with that family. Ask one of your parents to go with you. This meeting will allow you and one of your parents to get to know the family a little bit, and for you to decide if the family is all right to sit for. If you don t feel comfortable babysitting for them, then don t. You should always go with your feelings. I hope that this information helps you get many babysitting jobs. Advertising Q s and A s! Q: I don t live near any children and my Mom s friends don t have children. How can I advertise? A: Try advertising in another neighborhood that has more children. Try asking your mother if she could drive you to another neighborhood on a Saturday, and then you could deliver flyers to houses in that neighborhood. Wherever you give flyers, be to tell your parents who you re giving the flyers to, and point out the houses where you re planning on dropping off flyers. Parents should always be kept in the loop. Business card magnets would be a good thing to include in the flier. My main advice is to not post an ad in a place where anyone can see it, like a store or in a newspaper. This is way too dangerous. When you get a babysitting job, even if you know the family pretty well, arrange a fifteen minute meeting for a couple of days before your first babysitting job with that family. Ask one of your parents to go with you. This meeting will allow you and one of your parents to get to know the family a little bit, and for you to decide if the family is all right to sit for. If you don t feel comfortable babysitting for them, then don t. You should always go with your feelings. Q: I really like children, and I really want to babysit, but I m shy. I can talk to adults and children, but I just feel shy sometimes. There s this one family I would really like to babysit, but I don t know how to drop off the flyer. How can I advertise if I feel shy? A: You can drop off a flyer without having to talk to the parents. You can make up a flyer, roll it up with the colorful side showing, and stick it in the handles of the front doors of people that you know have children. The reason that I normally advise babysitters to drop off flyers personally is because this allows the family to see your personality. If you want to advertise this way, just ring the family s doorbell, and when you hand your flyer to one of the parents say "Hi! My name is (your name) and I m a babysitter. This flyer has all of my information on it. Please keep me in mind the next time you need a babysitter." Say this with a smile and everything will go okay. If you don t feel comfortable doing this, than sticking the flyer in their doorknob is just as good. If you do hand flyers to the family, be sure to never give a

4 flyer to one of the children, since it may never reach a parent. If you re giving the flyer in person, give the flyer to one of the parents. Q: My friend and I are making up some flyers and we were wondering where we should post them and who we should give them to. We re also stuck as to what to put on the flyers. A: My advice is not to post ads in any public place, like stores or in newspapers, as it s unsafe to have people that are complete strangers calling you. Any weirdo could see the ad. It s a different thing to drop off flyers in your neighborhood to people that you know have children. Only give flyers to people in your neighborhood that have children, and you could ask your parents to give flyer to their friends and co-workers that have children. Whenever you get a job from someone that you don t know, ask if you can meet them a couple of days before that first job at their house for about fifteen minutes. This will allow you to decide if you really want to baby-sit the children, if the family s okay, and it will allow the children to at least be able to see what you look like, so they don t feel totally shy when you baby-sit for them. Be sure to bring one of your parents with you. It s very important that you bring a parent, and not a friend or sibling since an adult will be able to help you if it turns out the family is weird, and also they can let you know what they think after the meeting, which will help you decide whether or not to baby-sit for that family. If you don t feel comfortable babysitting for them, then don t. You should always go with your feelings. You should have one of these meetings with any family that you don t know too well, including friends or co-workers of your parents. If the children and the parents don t know you too well, this meeting will be a great opportunity for you to break the ice. I think that the magnetic business card idea is the best idea, as the parents will always have your number right on their refrigerator for easy access. Q: My friend and I are both 12. We delivered flyers about a month ago and we haven t heard from anyone. Is it because of our age or do people just not need babysitters right now? Is there a better way to advertise? A: You ve done a great advertising job! It s not because of your age that you haven t gotten calls but probably because they don t need babysitters right now. I wouldn t advise a different way of advertising, as your way is the safest way. Advertising in public places like stores or in newspapers is not a good thing at all, as it s too dangerous. You could try advertising in another neighborhood. Ask your parents if they would take you and your friend into another neighborhood some Saturday to advertise. Always let your parents and your friend s parents know who you re giving flyers to! Parents should always be kept in the loop. If you can t advertise in another neighborhood, my advice is just to be patient. After a few months, try sending out the fliers again.

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