Baby in the Arts -- An Inspiring Babysitting Service

Here's another entry in our Big Business Contest describing a company's personal struggle to grow, succeed, and thrive.

Judging of the entrants has begun, and 15 semi-finalists will be notified on Monday, May 5. Come back to vote on the finalists as they compete for the two final prizes -- specialized consulting from a business expert and a trip to Maui for business- and wealth-building seminars.

Our business is an agency that brings drama to babysitting by pairing artists of all mediums with urban families who desire more than just sitting from their childcare. We knew that there were many artists with childcare experience who were pursuing a career in their art field but needed to make flexible money on the side. As babysitters ourselves we saw that parents and kids loved the energy that an artist would bring into the home. We thought that this was a match made in heaven and in April 2006 the company was born. We ran for a year in NYC and then in April 2007 we opened our first branch in Chicago.

We have worked hard to make a name for ourselves and are proud of the excellent childcare we have provided thus far, but we feel like we have hit a plateau. Our growth plan as we see involves two parts. First we need to increase our technology so we can book and manage more clients and appointments. After we have the technology in place to support our growth we would launch a new marketing campaign.

We book over 100 babysitting appointments per week and manage over 100 babysitters. With numbers like this, and growing, logistics have become a nightmare. In this day and age of technology we are ashamed to admit that we have only a basic Access database and we keep all of our appointments on a paper calendar. Ideally our entire process would be web based. This would involve having an online reservation system, a time clock/calendar for sitters to log hours, and a reporting system to be used for accounting.

With our technology in place we would then begin our marketing campaign. The marketing step that we would implement with our company is starting small performance ensembles with our sitters i.e. a chamber choir and a small theatre troupe. These ensembles would perform children’s concerts and theatre productions. We would invite our current clients as well as advertise these events to city parents. Ultimately the goal would be to have parents come with their children to see the shows and then use us for all of their childcare needs. On the flip side this creates artistic opportunities for our artist-sitters who are just starting in their careers. We think this is a unique way to get our name out.

Our business was started as a company whose backbone is the arts. We passionately believe that a company can be both artistic and profitable and we keep this philosophy in mind with all that we do. We like to say our company is a win-win-win situation: It becomes a profitable company, artists have a fun and creative job, and children get exposure to the arts in the form of excellent childcare. Oh and let’s not forget the parents get a babysitter and a great night out too: win!