Tom,
Glad you agree that daycares have changed. I have a fulltime client that does 85% of his business in this market. The other 15% is childrens birthday parties. He makes a nice living but works A LOT!

The daycare market is changing. My client makes a LOT over the summer but really has to hussle Sept.- May. Me? I'm glad I got out when I did.

All The Best!
John Cooper

Now be Nice John Cooper. This is twice you guys work ALOT to be in Day Care. So what is so bad about a good honest days pay?
I say "be nice" since you must have forgotten that people out there work HARD for little money day to day. Cleaning floors, cooking burgers, working at Wal-mart. They would only wish to work as LITTLE as your clients and get paid so much. Now you might make MORE than your clients and work less than when you were in Day Care, but facts be true that the work one might do a lot of in Day care is much less for the return than the average blue collar worker.
No sense in trying to imply that you got out of it since the money was not there for you.
Day Care might be the best upgrade for some. Rather than just working on the weekends they can get the week day shows as well and after that move up to the schools that pay more.

My two cents. Work hard and be rewarded. No free lunches in life.

Excuse me powermagic - I also work very hard for my bread and butter. I have a day job as a store manager and purchaser at a luxury 5 star hotel and I perform magic in the afternoons and evenings and weekends and holidays.
So I am both employed and self employed and as you know - the more you work in these two areas the more you make and the more you make the more you pay in taxes.
There is nothing wrong with an honest days work but I can certainly think of better ways of rolling my cash into better "tricks" than taxes.
It's a shame that some people think they have to work "harder" in order to make more rather than investing and learning how to physicaly work less and make more.
It can be done and people should be doing before spending rather than spending before doing.

As far as day care - I used to love that field - I worked 35 day cares at a rate of 5 days a week, 2 or 3 a day for two years.
I had an 8 show programme and it revolved around two concepts - cooking and magic.
I called it "magic in the kitchen" and would usualy tell a story and then do a trick like silk to egg. Then I would mix the egg with a cup of flour and it would "magicaly" turn into dough and then we would roll the dough and cut it through a pasta machine and then cook it and taste it.
The real magic was taking an egg and some flour and ending up with spaghetti.
Other simple ideas along these lines worked very well in promoting this series.
Unfortunately this only lasted 2 years here because we went into a resession (you know - where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer) and many of the day cares were loosing children and there budget didn't include much entertainment like this. I got myself a stable job at a hotel and continue to perform for other markets such as hotels, birthdays, schools, summerschools.

Enjoy and think rich,

Dani

I do many shows for schools and preschools. If you care to check out my website http://www.comicmagician.com and scroll down to shows for schools and preschools, you will discover a secret that could bring in a huge suplementary income for you!!

Great idea there Roger. Having an assortment of educational shows and theme shows allows you to work the same day cares multiple times in the same year. Nice idea and thoughts.

I miraculosuly booked 4 day cares each with multiple shows within 90 mins today all from one phone call. It seesm that this daycare is a larger chain and the lady thought our show was so pewrfect, that she faxed my information packet out to all the daycares in the chain in my area notifying them of me. I simply had to place the call and I had another booking within 5 mins. It worked out nicely and I am learning a lot about a market I have not done very much of.

Kyle

My source for daycare contacts is the Yellow Pages. Any good child care center will be listed there, and the white pages will give you a street address along with a ZIP code. I find postcard mailings, with a picture and a headline on one side and a very brief pitch and the address on the other, are both economical and effective. I have tried cold calling day cares, and while it is fast and can be effective, I hate receiving phone solicitations so much that I feel lousy doing it myself.

Daycares are great because when theyre parents come to pick them up you can habd out your buissness card.

Instead of handing out a business card, hand out coloring flyers or Magicians assistant certificates. This way yopu are giving the kids something they WANT to have and it is something they will show mom and dad when they get picked up. Not only that, but you will find that a parent will tend to place the colired flyer or the certificate on the fridge. Each time they go to the fridge, they are reminded of you, your contact info. and the good time their child had at the event. It is a great way to market yourself long after you have left the event.

Kyle

I bought a copy of Tom Boleware's book, "The Daycare Magician", and it has been very helpful. It answered many questions that I had about the child care market.

Regan

Thanks Regan, I appreciate that. Glad it helped, and anytime I can be of help, just let me know.

Thanks,
Tom

You're most welcome Tom, and thank you for the offer.

Regan

John Cooper,

Thank you for the history there.

KinderCare is the world's largest private daycare provider. It started in my hometown of Montgomery, Alabama in 1969.

In 1983 I returned to Montgomery from working on a PhD. at the University of Arkansas and did marketing consulting for them for several years. On fun days, I'd get to slip off and do a little magic at one of the 1200 centers. It was rewarding. It is quite different from the governmental daycare system. We actually referred to KinderCare as Learning Centers rather than daycare centers. The focus was entirely different. It was for the children of parents with careers instead of jobs. That really made for a great audience.

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

Regan,

I invested in Tom's book "The Daycare Magician" as well and it is excellent! The Stranger Danger safety show is well worth the price of the book itself. Tom's excellent advice, tips and experience make it all the better. It's one of the best sources of information on the subject I've discovered to date. Bravo Tom!

Hey Tim. Thanks for the nice words.

I have to give Glenn Hester (Police Magician) the credit for sharing the Stranger Danger program in the book,I Love it too and think it’s great.

Tom

PS. Nice website you have Tim

Check this out for inspiration! I do hundreds of daycares every year!
http://www.comicmagician.com/daycares_preschools_1.html

I will also say that I have Tom's Daycare book and it is a wonderful book filled and loaded with information to help you not only break into this market, but to do it the right way. Tom shows you from the angle of not only a magician but also from the persepective of a daycare owner and his information is simply wonderful.

Kyle

Hear, hear! Dave's materials are the best on the market bar none. Buy EVERY tape and DVD he offers concerning daycares--you'll be glad you did!

Rick

Tim and Tom, thanks for the kind words on the stranger danger program. I have enjoyed doing it for many, many years. The reaction I witness from the audience of adults and children are great. I have, over the years, heard from many parents that their children learned a lot from that program and have carried it into their adult life. Some kids, who are now adults, share the lessons with their own children. What a rewarding feeling this gives you.

Tom's book has been a great help to me doing daycare programs. Like the slogan says, Magicians Helping Magicians.

Glenn Hester

Glenn, I love the hat.

I also bought Tom's book recently; it's a great primer on the business end of working daycare.

As to the show itself, you can't beat Sammy Smith's books.

Thanks honus.
I agree, you can’t go wrong with Sammy’s stuff. Anything he has concerning kids I highly recommend. It’s really hard to talk about daycare shows and not think of Sammy Smith. A leader in the business for sure.

Tom