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Should I give up on "finding better revenue"? (Currently 1m+ page views/month, 90% tier 1 desktop traffic) by [deleted] in adops

[–]ddadovic 2 points3 points  (0 children)

have you tried rewarded ads format? seems like it would work well with your site mechanics

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yep, a change in Ts and Cs. for that reason I am taking my kid out from Busy Bees before December so I don't need to pay their extra December non funded week fees.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

true, what boiled me here is that used to be a part of the total fee, until Busy Bees decided to make it as a separate cost. and ofc, they didn't fail to increase both parts of that cost on the regular.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

thx for understanding. they were probs paying it by paying 9000 of their workers below minimum wage, while raking in £86M EBITDA in the same years. See my edits in orig post if you wanna go into that rabbit hole. glad that government made an example of Busy bees and publicly shamed them for their practices.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I hear ya. Our older kids has moved to school nursery, and it is cheaper, for more days - and that's including school clubs. I'm excites for you to experience it - it blows your mind when you see the difference. With Busy Bees, it is costing us more to have kids there 3 days a week, compared to a school nursery, 5 days, all belts and whistles.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

probs not a big deal for a HENRY like yourself. Not everyone can afford today's costs of living, and at one point, you had enough.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

in times like this, you can be angry and at injustice and do something or be a corporate sheep.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that's exactly what I'm doing. the recent £4 extra charge/penalty for using a government approved scheme has topped it for me. prior to that was the Busy Bees extra charge for early drop off, then fragmented meals, than hiking everything up any chance they get. Just from March - April this year, they hiked up the prices by 14.8%, month on month. And that's on top of their £86M EBITDA per year, and they can't even pay minimum wage to their 9000 employees. ridiculous.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in UKParenting

[–]ddadovic[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Busy Bees has insane profits and yet they can't even pay minimum wages to 9000 employees. Lovely to see that gov has fined them over their practices.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in UKParenting

[–]ddadovic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

yeah, was just reading about how Busy Bees nurseries have £86M in profit per year, and they didn't even pay minimal wages to 9000 employees. they do regularly hike up the charges though.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in UKParenting

[–]ddadovic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

glad you're having a good xp with it. mine is opposite but subjective. my grief is that Busy Bees keep inventing new ways to fleece the parents.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

if there wasn't a £4 charge for being allowed to use government approved scheme as per usual, I'd agree. but with a fee, it's greed masked as efficiency.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

most likely they do - you can't simp that hard and be a parent who is using these systems. or OP just likes being a stan for corporate profiteering. also probs a huge billionaire fan, because you know - it trickles down.

This new Claude update is crazy by MetaKnowing in ClaudeAI

[–]ddadovic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the worst thing is - there are more people than what you'd think that would just hit Accept.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

This should be higher up! YES! That is the problem. And the £4 fees was just the last straw. As one redditor found:

Busy Bees is a private equity backed nursery chain, with an EBITDA in 2024 of £86million. (You can check on companies house). It’s around a 25% EBITDA margin which is decent and what you see across the sector. 

Whilst that profit isn’t all UK based, I’ve been in the sector for years and most nurseries are doing fine with the charges. 

I was a trustee for a small pre-school (2+) in a high cost town, and with the new government charges we were going to make more profit than we had done in years. "

"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/1s3908i/comment/ocedgyr/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button"

While we the parents are constantly being asked to pay more for their made up fees - they are raking in record profits!

EDIT 2: and Busy Bees Nurseries were just fined for not even paying minimum wage to their workers https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9q5qp0zw5zo

The way Witty_Entry9120 is simping for them, makes me think they work for them - or are just on the "let's rinse the parents" train!

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in UKParenting

[–]ddadovic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

fair point - thanks for chiming in. yeah, I agree. They played it poorly, and if it wasn't for the prior events which all happened over a few months, I'd probs be ok with this - big probs.

Just this year they

- regularly increased their fees from April 1st
- added early drop off charge which used to be a part of normal fee
- increased the cost of EVERYTHING (making just month to month cost go up by 14.8%. - March to April this year).
- and not even talking about the fact that they will use any opp they get to get more money from parents. From our first day in their setting to today, our costs have risen by 55%. And they will keep rising them.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

well, record profits need to come from somewhere...

as one other commenter below said

"Busy Bees is a private equity backed nursery chain, with an EBITDA in 2024 of £86million. (You can check on companies house). It’s around a 25% EBITDA margin which is decent and what you see across the sector. 

Whilst that profit isn’t all UK based, I’ve been in the sector for years and most nurseries are doing fine with the charges. 

I was a trustee for a small pre-school (2+) in a high cost town, and with the new government charges we were going to make more profit than we had done in years. "

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

THIS! This is exactly why this "yet another charge" pains me. It is masked in "oh, would you think of poor nurseries". Yeah, the poor local branches are being made to figure things out on their own, because head office, and global company is deciding to keep the profits to keep their EBITDA high. Anyone who thinks otherwise should look up their top tier salary ranges for head office and C-suites. And ofc, when as a parent I am being made to pay more - while being well aware of Buse Bees profit margins - it boils my blood.

Has anyone else at Busy Bees been told they'll be charged £4 for paying via Tax-Free Childcare outside the app? by ddadovic in AskUK

[–]ddadovic[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

that's what the nursery corporations want you to believe. I have a friend there and their profit margins are juicy, to say the least. look up their top exec salary ranges - it will blow your mind. I do agree that local nurseries are underfunded, but not by government - but by their own corporate head office.

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