[kotor]

yes I am also wondernig how do you screen the people wanting the baby sitter? how do you know they are not some rapist murderer that's looking for some teenaged girls.

[tshesse]

the way it sounds is it is for a tighter knit community

glad it's working for you, you should of named the site: pimpDaSitter

since you are basically a babysitter pimp

[joshw]

Wow. I just ran across this. I had the exact same idea for my community. I am hoping that you could answer a couple questions that were my biggest concerns:

How do you screen your sitters? Do you do background checks? I thought about requiring CPR certification. Do you?

How do you protect your sitters? Do you verify the address and identity of the people who hire them?

Are you on a pay honor system with your babysitters? If so, how effective is it?

Do you have any type of insurance for this?

Do you lease office space or just operate from home?

Thanks so much. I hope that this is going well for you.

[RandomBet]

Even with a disclaimer on your website...if claims of child abuse, neglect, etc. is even claimed, you could be in a lot of trouble. More importantly...since you're the one doing the background check...they could come after you directly!
The fact that you're doing a background check assumes some responsibility on your part, imo.

It sucks, because I think it's a really good idea. Protecting your butt is key here though...not to mention how bad you'd feel if something bad really did happen.

Hope I don't discourage you...I just want you to be careful here. :-)

[Bored]

Originally Posted by joshw

How do you screen your sitters? Do you do background checks? I thought about requiring CPR certification. Do you?

All my babysitters are good friends of mine. All of them, I know personally, and are good people. I don't go around advertising for babysitters to go on my website. I only put on people I know and are in my community. Because of this, I don't do any CPR certification.

Originally Posted by joshw

How do you protect your sitters? Do you verify the address and identity of the people who hire them?

All the people who hire my sitters are known by me or my parents. I know, it is hard for you to believe that, but my target customers are Israeli/Jewish parents. Where I live, it is a very tight community and everyone knows everyone somehow. If you would like to open a service like mine to the public, I would recommend having real background checks. There is a service like mine that is done with nannies that you should look at: www.spnannies.com

Originally Posted by joshw

Are you on a pay honor system with your babysitters? If so, how effective is it?

Yes I am, I thought of imposing legal action if they do not pay, but that is too much trouble. Like I said, all my sitters are good friends of mine, and so far the honor system is working very well. If you don't want to get into legal disputes, you should have the parents pay you directly and you distribute the wages to your sitters. Sort of like you being the manager and giving pay checks every 2 weeks.

Originally Posted by joshw

Do you have any type of insurance for this?

I don't have insurance for this, and I know it is a risk. I have a small contract with all my sitters that they are responsible for whatever damages they personally do. For example, if the one of my sitters accidently drops a baby resulting in a broken leg, it is not my problem.

Originally Posted by joshw

Do you lease office space or just operate from home?

I operate from home. The good thing about this business, is that there is no real seed capital (if thats what you call it). If you have a computer, internet, and connections, you'll be fine.


One thing you have to know is that babysitting is all about reviews and connections. You have to be well-known and trusted. In my community my name is practically synonymous with babysitting, lol. Most parents find about babysitters from other parents. With my reputation, a lot of parents are going to recommend me.

If you don't live in a community like mine, then you would need to invest more time/money on insurance and background checks.

Right now, I am doing pretty well. My demand for babysitters is exceeding my supply of them (contrary to what I expected), but getting more babysitters is not a problem.

Good luck.

[joshw]

thanks for the input!

[villarrealsj]

Bored, for once you're not analyzing! I knews you had some good ideas and remember that comment you said about greater minds thinking differently?

Well, just to prove my point, I thought about doing this about 3 years ago. In fact, I even had a website created. Unfortunately, I used a person that couldn't get the layout right. I ended up losing about $500 the first time and another $300 the next and that was just to get the site designed! Damn, I wish I knew html, php, etc.

To this day, I haven't been able to find someone to help me get this biz idea rolling, AT A LOW COST. Most people want thousands.... not going to happen.

BTW... I have a name... maybe we should talk offline...