Would you pay for a Mum's Day Out Service?

[annievdm]

I'm gathering information about whether or not this concept would take off as a business opportunity and would appreciate any feedback!

I have an idea of providing nannies to families to look after young children while their mum has a day to themselves.

The target group would be stay at home mothers from the wealthier suburbs who have many commitments. The nanny would work am to pm once a week while the parent got all the jobs done and caught up with friends. The child/children would be under school age.

The difference in the scenario is that it's more a wants basis rather than needs. The nannies would be student aged, fun loving sitters who help about with young children while the mum goes gallavanting. It would probably be a $25aud per hour sort of venture. (14 GBP)

What do you reckon?

Not sure. I'm in a middle class area and the SAHM with preschoolers I know all have their kids in nursery one day a week at least. Some before they even turn one. I would assume the even wealthier ones would have a regular par time nanny or use a nursery? The nursery could usually take kids on extra days too if they have capacity.

Oh just saw you are in in Oz

Some parents may want that, however demand would be up and down a lot I suspect.

You will need to look in to legal things, such as who is the employer, what insurance may be needed, taxation, plus you will need to avoid discrimination - so you could't say that all nannies would be student age (though at 65 my mum is a student still!)

Could you try it out by providing the service yourself, with possibly a friend or two, and see what demand there is and expand over time. Consider how you would expand, could it be a franchise?

I'm not sure TBH. I think there are lots of mums who would like that kind of thing in theory but even comfortable ones would find it hard to justify c. £140 to allow them to go off "gallivanting" for a day. Maybe once in a blue moon for a very special occasion but I imagine you need people to use the service more often than that? Also that kind of one off can often be covered by OH or friends/family. Plus as One says, nurseries/pre-schools already allow SAHMs a fair bit of time to themselves (for chores/a catch up with friends) if they want it. If it's to do jobs, employing a cleaner would be cheaper.

People for whom the money really is no object probably have permanent/regular help at home already?

Thanks for the feedback, I'm looking at all the flaws in the idea and you've provided me with some excellent things to explore if I actually want to do this! thanks guys

I think it could work in theory. I have a nanny for two afternoons a week but don't really need that much time, but the nanny agency has a minimum of 8 hours.

For a model you could look at babysitting agencies in the UK like sitters.co.uk. Basically when you hire/book someone, you pay them cash and then they pay the agency a fee. The amount the agency gets is quite small and their rates are really reasonable (around £7-8 per hour but it could have gone up). The people they hire are all qualified and experienced nurses, teachers, nannies etc looking for extra work. They do daytime and nighttime (babysitting) services.

The sitters would need to be qualified, and have all relevant insurances and experience.

Not young girls who are just enthusiastic.

You could put a spin on it by organising trips for mum too kinda like a package, for a spa day afternoon tea, a play, shopping trip.

Just having a sitter for cleaning (which can be done with children around) woukdnt be an option for me. Plus well off mums would have a cleaner anyway.

Good luck in your venture

I'm not sure, it would be very useful - but at the same time it wouldn't work for me because I couldn't leave my young kids for a whole day with someone they didn't know.

If it was a regular arrangement (like a nanny share) that would be better, but price a lot of people out - and compete more directly with nurseries.

No I wouldn't. £14 per hour is way too much. As a CM in UK I charge £3.50 per hour per child. I could barely justify £35 for a 10 hour day to myself.

At that price I'd expect a qualified nanny with experience, not a student aged babysitter. Even taking the price out of consideration I would want a qualified and experienced nanny to look after pre schoolers all day.

The price charged is a bit of a red herring as straight GBP to AUD conversions just don't work out, especially considering regional variations.

But I do agree you should be looking for experienced people and charging an average rate and not a premium.

Would you gaurantee the same nanny each time? I wouldn't want a string of different people coming in to my home caring for my children. I want someone who can build a relationship with them, get to know them and what they like, their routines etc.

unless the service was priced competitively I would find a cm who would offer a Similar service for less money (and she probably would have more experirience than a student too).

i kinda do this as a temp/emergency nanny and have several 'yummy mummies' who book me for a day and go to have hair cut/meet a friend for lunch/go shopping etc - some do every few weeks, others twice a year

think it will be hard to find enough nannies to cover lots of families, and sounds like you will be running an agency and 'hiring' the nannies out

as someone else said, why not do this yourself and see how much demand it is