Nannycare refers to the care taken for children at home by an external person. Nannies, babysitters, baby nurses, au pairs and so on are involved in providing nannycare. Selecting a nanny for their child is a very important task for parents. A nanny can be hired by the parents either on their own or by referring their friends and relatives. Using Internet can be another source of hiring a nanny. However, the most efficient way of finding a nanny is through nanny referral agencies.

Nanny referral agencies are the organizations which help people in finding a nanny based on their requirement. They provide the best solution, by matching the nannies with the needs of parents for childcare. With the growing importance for nanny care, a nanny referral agency can be considered as a successful and rewarding small business. The main responsibility of it is to provide qualified and correctly matched nannies to the families. For a person planning to start a nanny referral agency, there are few tips given below:

Tips for starting a nanny referral service:

•Before setting up a nanny referral agency, details about already existing and successful referral services should be researched. The information of those agencies can be known from their websites. This might be helpful in knowing the local competitors.

•Advices and suggestions can be taken from those who are already running the business. Local agencies which are local or near to the new agency do not help in providing the information. However, agencies situated at different places may be helpful in giving suggestions. Many business sources can also be checked for finding information.

•Chances of being a successful business owner can be improved by buying franchises. Purchase of a franchise can leverage the brand and a record can be tracked. So one needs to check if there is a requirement for buying a franchise.

•Screening of candidates, collection of the family needs and provision of matches can be done part-time from home. Students who are interested to start a nanny referral agency can do it from home after their studies.

•Advertisement, with a tinge of creativity added to it, is essential before starting a nanny-referral agency.

•Very minimal start-up expenses are enough for starting an agency. Advertisement investments are the only ones which have to be faced at the start of the agency.

•Families that have been recently relocated to the area of the agency can be checked. These people have chances of becoming potential clients.

•In order to recover the start-up costs within a month, a pool of nannies and families with an interest should be gathered.

•Interviewing skills, organizational skills and time management skills are most important for selecting a nanny. Hence, a competent and efficient staff should be selected.

•Background and credit checks have to be performed on nannies by a nanny referral agency. So it is important to decide the type of program for implementing the checks.

•A pretty and simple website can be created for the agency. Proper information regarding nannies and also the address of the agency should be included in it.

Nanny referral agencies can be done as a part-time or full-time work. It can also run through online means. Whatever the mode might be, it is good to follow some tips before starting an agency. Even if you are planning to start a small nanny referral agency, you need to properly plan and follow the above mentioned tips to succeed in your business.