Nursery software gives your childcare setting a professional helping hand to reach its full potential as a successful business. There are many options out there for you to research and consider when choosing the right nursery management software to help reduce admin stress, increase parental engagement, and boost occupancy in your early years setting.
So, how do you choose the right Blossom package for your business? In this article, we spoke with Rebecca Reeve, Senior Account Executive at Blossom, to explore the main priorities to consider when choosing your package, and discuss the ways you can make your Blossom package be the best new addition for you and your nursery team.
In this article, you will find
Who uses Blossom, and how do they benefit?
Blossom supports hundreds of types of childcare settings from charity-ran settings to large private groups, and everything in between. The benefits of using nursery software to help you set up, run and expand your childcare setting are plenty.
All our packages include features that are designed to support you in tasks like staying within ratio, managing fee payments, bookings and enquiries- all from your Blossom app. A more sustainable (in every meaning of the word) solution to manage your setting. Having come from the Early Years sector ourselves, we know what it takes to provide that outstanding service: for staff, for parents, and most importantly, for children.
What to look for when choosing the right Blossom package for your nursery setting
Your setting’s needs will be different from your neighbouring nurseries’; you may be further along in your parental engagement strategy or be concentrating on filling more spaces in your baby rooms, for example. It is important to choose a package that meets your current needs- and remember, you aren’t tied into any contracts and can alter your package at any time. We have collected 7 of the most common priorities our customers consider when choosing the right Blossom package for them to help you with your own decision.
7 priorities to guide you to the right nursery software package
1. Choose a package that meets your needs
We like to keep things uncomplicated at Blossom. So you have 4 packages to choose from: Essentials, Learning, Business, and Custom. Our Essentials package is the perfect support for smaller or starting nurseries. And our Business package helps settings to really zone in on their performance and profits thanks to features like automatic invoicing and enabling parents to pay fees via our Parent App.
And if you’re a group nursery, we can customise your package to include our Blossom Dashboard which gives you an overview of what’s happening at all your settings, on one screen. All our packages provide outstanding features, and at the end of the day, will be a game-changer for you and your team.
Remember that at Blossom we offer monthly rolling contracts with all of our packages. So we don’t lock you into fixed, inflexible contracts. We aim to help you customise your nursery software for your unique business. Another point to keep in mind is that when choosing a package initially you may opt to start smaller, and, as your nursery grows, expand your nursery software’s abilities too.
2. Find a package to fit your budget
When it comes to deciding how much you are able to spend on nursery software, it’s important to evaluate how much money (working hours for staff) your current processes cost. These numbers are just one part of the ‘costs’ that you and your team pay using your current methods.
Taking paperwork home to fill in off-the-clock, or getting frustrated over your current software provider’s lack of customer support is a draining and de-motivating cost for your team. So why not play around with our cost savings calculator to help you get an idea of how much nursery software can save you, and in turn, help you to work out how much you actually can afford to spend.
For most of our customers, determining your budget is also dependent on prioritised needs. Our different packages offer different types of support. So discuss with one of our UK-based customer support team members what your business currently needs, and we can help advise on a solution. Remember that more isn’t always the answer- and as your business grows, you can update your Blossom package at any time to provide more relevant support.
For example, a setting that wants to engage parents, reduce admin, and keep all child information personalised and safe might be better suited for our Essentials package, for £69 +VAT a month. Whereas another setting may be prioritising smoother and faster invoicing/ fee management for parents. And therefore, our Business package will be ideal for slightly more.
It’s important to highlight that, at Blossom, we are very open to offering discounted deals. We have zero hidden charges, and we make our packages simple with no fixed contracts, confusing add-ons, or large up-front costs.
Rebecca Reeve
Senior Account Executive at Blossom
3. Reduce the business admin strain
Your setting may have an existing method of tracking children’s learning and progress, and wants to focus on your nursery’s profitability and functionality. Blossom’s Business package includes all you need to manage invoicing, funding, enquiries, in-app payments for parents, and all things accounting. If you’re the type of nursery owner or manager that is hands-on and likes to get their hands dirty in the soil and glitter, this package will help you to tick off all of the operational tasks in a professional and effective way, freeing you up to do what you do best.
As the nursery manager, I particularly like how easy it is for me to track the invoicing- especially because we have to provide evidence for the local authority as we get funding. When they conduct audits, it’s so easy to pick up Blossom and be able to show them all the information instantly.
Joanne Anderson
Nursery Manager at Siblings Nursery
4. Tracking children’s progress and development
The children are the stars of the show; their progress and development are the reason you are here, choosing your nursery software package that will help you do just that. And in a faster, less stressful way. Observations are an essential part of your team’s day, but they can be time-consuming and detract from the time spent with the children (and we all know Ofsted look at the effective use of time vs recording evidence).
Consider the length of time and processes your staff are currently using to record and track all observations. Do they help them stay in line with the most recent statutory frameworks in a way that doesn’t cause them hassle? Our Learning package is the real deal for complete learning and development tracking of all your children.
5. Parental engagement and communication
Your setting is likely to be the child’s first learning environment away from home. Parents trust you and your team to care for their child as they would. You can help to reduce worries for your anxious parents and build positive parent relationships from day 1 through regular communication. Give them a window into their child’s day, with Blossom’s digital diary by sending a photo or video, or highlighting a Golden Moment. This is all available with our Essentials package.
Or you can take it a step further with the Business package which enables sending parents invoicing notifications, and allows them to pay fees instantly via Blossom’s Parent App with our BEPaid feature. Helping to get your fees paid on time. And you can enable parents to book ad-hoc additional slots at your setting via the ParentApp in a seconds. So you can reach your occupancy targets more easily- and without playing phone tag with parents.
With Blossom parents get observations and Golden Moments sent instantly to their phone. They can also see how it links to the curriculum, and they’re able to ask us a bit more on how they can get involved at home. Blossom really opened up our line of communication with parents.
6. Maintaining high levels of safety and safeguarding
Some nurseries can be worried about the security of data and information when moving to nursery software. In actual fact, your customer’s information is much safer online with Blossom than using paper copies. Blossom’s security team works with AWS (Amazon Web Services) actively protecting data and privacy at all times. All data is stored on secure servers and back-ups are made in real-time. And all of your passwords are encrypted to ensure protection over your data as well.
Plus important information is much more accessible too in an emergency. You can log in and click to see emergency contact numbers instantly, instead of, for example, running to the file storage room, flipping through papers to try and find it. You can also alter who is able to access the parent app to make sure the child’s information and images are always safe. Just to be extra cautious, our image-posting process has a 3-level reminder to avoid user error when posting individual and group photos with a child who has restricted permissions. These security protections are ensured with all of Blossom’s packages.
7. Occupancy rates and maximum profitability
Your nursery may be fit to bursting or want to know how to increase your occupancy. Regardless, having a tight handle on how many spaces you have daily allows your nursery to always stay at maximum profitability. Occupancy planning is an invaluable feature included in Blossom’s Business and Custom packages.
This feature assists with filling spaces, and helps to manage staffing ratios easily. Your parents can even book additional ad-hoc sessions via the ParentApp should you wish to enable this. It’s all within your control. Therefore, if managing occupancy and staff rotas is a priority for your setting, opt for either our Business or Custom package for the ideal choice.
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Why choose Blossom?
Working across tablets, iPad, laptops and desktops, Blossom packages can be accessed anywhere, helping your nursery to grow and reach its potential. Plus:
- No hidden charges: (All of our set-up, training and customer support is included- always).
- No lengthy contract: (Blossom is on a monthly rolling basis, allowing you to be flexible to meet the needs of your setting).
- Our software is created by Early Years practitioners, owners and managers for Early Years teams: (We know all of the pressures and challenges of working in a nursery and create features to help these).
- We strive for the best: (New features are continually being piloted, tested and released to make our customer’s daily life as easy as possible).
Your nursery setting is the very first step towards an exciting learning journey for both the children and parents. Make your administrative and communicative tasks as simple and effective as possible to help your childcare setting reach its full potential (and occupancy). Speak to one of our friendly team members today to book a quick demo at a time that suits you.
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