Re-Assessment of Sunshine childcare center based on critical evaluations
From the critical evaluations we received back from investors below is what we propose to change to our childcare centre.
Critical evaluation 18 of 25 stated that we should not have the “Team Execution” logo on our flyers which is a valuable suggestion. We didn’t initially make the connection between our team name and the day care centre.
A number of critical evaluations suggested that we need to cater for special needs children by means of care and education. This is obvious however we do recognise that additional planning and extra care needs to be taken to cater for these children. We need to ensure that we have staff constantly available who are specifically trained for the care of special needs children. We also need to consider planning and costing of any ramps, railing and any other structural requirements we may need to cater for these children adequately.
A number of critical evaluations expressed a concern to the limited market, some suggested that we also target and advertise at the hospital, recreation centre, ECU and TAFE Staff. This is a good suggestion that we will take into account for our promotional flyers, posters and business cards. Some critical evaluations were concerned that our services are only available to university students, we will also be open to the public. However our main priority and purpose for the business is to make life easier for studying and working parents.
Some critical evaluation was concerned about our revenue during the school holidays. We feel this is a serious matter and needs to be carefully planned for and assessed. We would like to overcome this problem by either closing through school holidays, limiting staff, or planning for limited numbers of children. We feel that by promoting to the hospital, rec centre and near-by working parents we feel we will be able to still make enough revenue during the school holiday period. Students often either work or continue studyies over the holiday periods, we could conduct surveys to obtain this information to help with our planning. For ECU, having the childcare facility open during the holidays may also encourage parents to take-on summer school and therefore finish their degrees quicker.
A number of critical evaluations suggested we use cooking and childcare education staff from the TAFE and the UNIVERSITY to cut costs. This would be valuable experience for these students. This is a great suggestion however, we would more than likely have these students on a work-experience, and non-paid basis as we would only have them helping out and not actually solely looking after the kids as this could be risky and damaging to our reputation. We could however provide jobs for the cooking staff.
We will be having fundraising activities throughout the year to make extra money for our organisation but also to use this as an opportunity for promotion and to attract new customers and community support. One of the critical evaluations suggested we could have the parents of our enrolled children sign a commitment for to volunteer for these fundraising activities, this is a good suggestion however this is something we would only consider doing of we had problems getting parents to help us out.
What we learnt:
- We should have explained exactly who our investors are being the banks, the government and the university.
- Some students did not know the meaning of Not-for-Profit.
- We could have explained further to students how the childcare rebates and incentives work as some misunderstood this as a revenue concern, however this is not the case.
The critical analysis from all class members was an extremely valuable learning experience and helped to develop our business plan and ideas in order to make our project stronger. Taking into account the suggestions, advice and constructive criticism of others is very important in project development and we believe we have effectively taken suggestions on board.
Critical evaluation 18 of 25 stated that we should not have the “Team Execution” logo on our flyers which is a valuable suggestion. We didn’t initially make the connection between our team name and the day care centre.
A number of critical evaluations suggested that we need to cater for special needs children by means of care and education. This is obvious however we do recognise that additional planning and extra care needs to be taken to cater for these children. We need to ensure that we have staff constantly available who are specifically trained for the care of special needs children. We also need to consider planning and costing of any ramps, railing and any other structural requirements we may need to cater for these children adequately.
A number of critical evaluations expressed a concern to the limited market, some suggested that we also target and advertise at the hospital, recreation centre, ECU and TAFE Staff. This is a good suggestion that we will take into account for our promotional flyers, posters and business cards. Some critical evaluations were concerned that our services are only available to university students, we will also be open to the public. However our main priority and purpose for the business is to make life easier for studying and working parents.
Some critical evaluation was concerned about our revenue during the school holidays. We feel this is a serious matter and needs to be carefully planned for and assessed. We would like to overcome this problem by either closing through school holidays, limiting staff, or planning for limited numbers of children. We feel that by promoting to the hospital, rec centre and near-by working parents we feel we will be able to still make enough revenue during the school holiday period. Students often either work or continue studyies over the holiday periods, we could conduct surveys to obtain this information to help with our planning. For ECU, having the childcare facility open during the holidays may also encourage parents to take-on summer school and therefore finish their degrees quicker.
A number of critical evaluations suggested we use cooking and childcare education staff from the TAFE and the UNIVERSITY to cut costs. This would be valuable experience for these students. This is a great suggestion however, we would more than likely have these students on a work-experience, and non-paid basis as we would only have them helping out and not actually solely looking after the kids as this could be risky and damaging to our reputation. We could however provide jobs for the cooking staff.
We will be having fundraising activities throughout the year to make extra money for our organisation but also to use this as an opportunity for promotion and to attract new customers and community support. One of the critical evaluations suggested we could have the parents of our enrolled children sign a commitment for to volunteer for these fundraising activities, this is a good suggestion however this is something we would only consider doing of we had problems getting parents to help us out.
What we learnt:
- We should have explained exactly who our investors are being the banks, the government and the university.
- Some students did not know the meaning of Not-for-Profit.
- We could have explained further to students how the childcare rebates and incentives work as some misunderstood this as a revenue concern, however this is not the case.
The critical analysis from all class members was an extremely valuable learning experience and helped to develop our business plan and ideas in order to make our project stronger. Taking into account the suggestions, advice and constructive criticism of others is very important in project development and we believe we have effectively taken suggestions on board.