Yard signs are vital for daycares. They provide general information, directions throughout the daycare parking lot, and even advertise enrollment sales.
These yard signs are important for new parents and guardians that are dropping their children, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren off at the daycare for the first time.
Here are 5 types of child care yard signs you should have at your daycare.
- General daycare information.
- Directional signs.
- Drop-off/pick-up area.
- Open house.
- Enrollment sale.
Before opening day, be sure that you have at least a general daycare information sign, directional signs, and a drop-off and pick-up area sign ready to display at the appropriate areas in your business parking lot.
You can get an open house sale a couple of weeks before the actual event. Get the enrollment sale sign about a week before you are about to host the sale.
1. General Daycare Information
General daycare information signs can be placed at the front of the daycare building and along the drop-off and pick-up line for parents and guardians to read during those times.
These signs should include:
- A playful background that catches people’s eyes.
- Your daycare’s name.
- Physical address.
- Business phone number.
- Daycare email.
- Daycare website.
- Any social media signs such as Facebook or Twitter to show that you have business pages on those websites.
Don’t forget to include a call-to-action at the bottom of the sign that encourages parents or guardians to sign up their children for the daycare. A call-to-action could be something like:
Call us today for enrollment information!
If you need child care, we will keep enrollment rates fair.
Our daycare is a family. Your child can be a part of our family, too!
Other than the information listed in the checklist above, try not to have anything else included on this sign. Too much information will crowd the sign and make it more difficult for parents and guardians to quickly scan the sign while in the pick-up or drop-off line.
If you want to talk about another event or sale at your daycare, purchase a separate yard sign or have a poster printed to display on your front windows.
2. Directional Signs
Especially if you have a large parking lot, you should have directional signs throughout the parking lot pointing to where the drop-off and pick-up area is located. Even if you have a small parking lot, directional signs are good to have to point newcomers to this area.
Place an arrow directional sign right at the entrance of your daycare’s driveway. Strategically place them throughout the parking lot where adults must turn to navigate the area.
You can take it a step further and place directional signs to get to the exit if the entrance and exit are not in the same area.
The directional yard signs are important to have to reassure that pick-up and drop-off traffic does not get out of hand if there are many adults at the daycare at the same time.
If you have a large daycare, maybe have a couple of daycare aides outside during drop-off and pick-up time to reinforce the directions to the drop-off and pick-up area if adults do not notice the signs are still having trouble finding the area.
3. Drop-Off/Pick-Up Area
Don’t forget to have a drop-off and pick-up area sign. Have a sign that says something like “Drop-off and Pick-up line begins here!” You want to be sure that all the adults dropping off children know where the line begins so that there is no confusion.
Be sure that the drop-off and pick-up area sign is larger than the directional yard signs so that it can stand out.
You can also word this sign in red lettering so that it catches everyone’s eyes during the scramble to drop off and pick up the children within the specified time.
If you have a large daycare, be sure that you and/or other designated individuals are standing outside near this sign to receive the children into the daycare and take them to their classrooms in the morning. Adults should be at that area during the end of the day pick-up time to be sure the children get to their parents or guardians safely.
4. Open House
To save money, have a general open house yard sign in your arsenal with a customizable date area. When you first open up your daycare, design your open house yard sign with the following information:
- “Open House” in large letters on the top of your sign.
- Name of your daycare.
- The phone number for parents to call to sign-up for the event.
- An area to customize the date for future open house events.
The date area can be customizable by using letter and number stickers that can be placed on then easily removed once the event is over. You could also have letter and number place cards to attach the date and time with velcro pieces.
Another option is to handwrite the date and time in bold lettering, laminate it, and then use velcro attachments to safely place it in the customizable date area of your open house sign.
Hosting an open house will:
- Give new families a chance to enroll their children in your daycare.
- Maintain high enrollment rates in your daycare, so that your facility can continue to profit
- when children transfer to public schools or /’ another daycare in a different town.
- Give local children throughout your community to learn and grow at an early age to advance
- their development before elementary school.
5. Enrollment Sale
Just like the open house event sign, the enrollment sale sign should also be customizable, so you can have one sign and just change out the promotion and date and time information.
You can run enrollment sales such as:
- 10% off enrollment costs for newly enrolled children.
- Get the first month of daycare free when you enroll your child.
- Have a holiday sale.
- 15% off enrollment in November and December (since fewer days daycare is open).
- Special percentage-off sale in August for National Kid’s Day on August 2nd and Son and
- Daughter Day on August 11th.
For the customizable sale area on the enrollment sale sign, maybe you can type out the sale heading, laminate it, and attach it with velcro to the sign. The typed out description in bold lettering will maintain the professionalism of the sign.
When hosting an enrollment sale, be sure to:
- Set a start date and an end date for the promotion.
- Place this information on the enrollment sale sign in the customizable area as well.
- Promote the event on all your social media sites.
- Pass out your monthly daycare newsletter in children’s folders or send it via email to parents and guardians.
- Include the enrollment sale in this newsletter, so currently enrolled families can let other families know about the sale.
- Place the enrollment sale information on the homepage of your website, so that’s the first piece of information new parents and guardians learn when visiting there.
If you are not sure what type of enrollment sale you should host, try some of the suggestions listed above or check out what types of enrollment
sales other daycares are currently running in your area.
Get Your Yard Signs Today!
Whether you have a local yard sign designer make signs for you, or if you use an online company such as Vistaprint, make sure to get all of your needed yard signs before opening day to be prepared for anything.
Yard signs are a supportive tool for outside your daycare to give information to parents and guardians during drop-off and pick-up times. To reinforce the daycare’s general information, be sure to pass out your daycare’s business cards every few months when sending home daycare newsletters. This would help if a different adult has to drop off a child at the daycare one day for whatever reason if a parent or guardian is unable to do so that morning.
Learn more ways to advertise HERE!
Related Questions
How do I find graphic designers who create yard signs?
Conduct a Google search that says “yard signs near me” or “graphic designers near me”. It would be best to support a small business graphic design company in your local community or a couple of towns away because it is best for small businesses to stick together.
Once you find a graphic designer to do your yard signs, stick with that company as you continue to stay in business with your daycare. On your front bulletin board, show your partnership with this graphic design company, so that parents and guardians can support that company as well with their own personal signage needs.
What if I do not want to host enrollment sales?
You are the business owner of your daycare. You can choose whether you want to run an enrollment sale or not. However, running an enrollment sale can be a great way to differentiate from other daycares in your area that may not run sales like that.
Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.
To learn more on how to start your own daycare checkout my startup course and documents here.
Meet Shawn Chun: Entrepreneur and Childcare Business Fan.
I’m a happy individual who happens to be an entrepreneur. I have owned several types of businesses in my life from a coffee shop to an import and export business to an online review business plus a few more and now I create online daycare business resources for those interested in starting new ventures. It’s demanding work but I love it. I do it for those passionate about their business and their goals. That’s why when I meet a childcare business owner, I see myself. I know how hard the struggle is to retain clients, find good employees and keep the business growing all while trying to stay competitive.
That’s why I created Daycare Business Boss: I want to help childcare business owners like you build a thriving business that brings you endless joy and supports your ideal lifestyle.