Babysitting HELP?!?

How do you start a babysitting buisness??!! please help so i can get started as soon as possible!!!!!???????!!

• well my friend and i started babysitting my little cousin and we started to think about a babysitting buisness and we wanted to know how to first start babysitting??!!HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…

• Answer:

  First, call the YMCA or a local hospital and arrange to take a babysitting class. It will teach you how to do a some basic first aid and how to tell if something is a genuine emergency. Then you can tell potential clients that you have this certification. At the library you will find books about babysitting and child care you can read. You will also find books of activities for young children by age so you will have something fun and constructive to do with the kids beside plopping them down in front of the TV. Next check with other people who babysit and find out what the going rate is in your community. Assuming your families are okay with you babysitting, sit down and work out some guidelines. Whether or not you can babysit on a school night, how late you can stay at a babysitting job. Whether you have your own transporation or whether you will have to rely on your family or the client family for transportation. Whether you can babysit infants. Whether you can babysit for people you don't know, and so on. Using your computer or a copy store, print up some flyers offering your services. Start out giving them to friends and neighbors. If your family belongs to any kind of church or social group/club, pass them along there as well. At least until you are older, stick with people your family knows or friends of people your family knows. In the beginning, do not sit for more than one or two children until you get a little more experience. And if possible, start with kids over the age of four. (They will be potty trained and able to communicate well.) Expect to be asked for references. If your cousin is the only child you have sat for, ask his mother to be a reference along with another responsible adult--such as a teacher or neighbor. Work out with the families beforehand how much you charge, any of the conditions your own family has, (see list above,) what hours they want you to work and how many children will be in the home and their ages. If you get the job, make sure you have contact phone numbers for: the parent(s,) the place the parents are going, a nearby neighbor, poison control, the child's doctor's emergency number or that of a hospital emergency room. Also ask for the family rules and the child's routine. (Bedtime, snacks, stories, TV watching, etc. Wouldn't hurt to write this down in a notebook you carry, with a page per family. That way you don't get confused about different rules in different households. Too, it shows the parents that you are listening and being respondsible.) If you want to make a hit with the child, pack a small bag with story books, small toys, puppets, non-messy craft/art supplies, etc. age appropriate to the child. What you bring will be new to the child and therefore something fun to play with. The child will be glad to have you come again to see what else you have to play with which will make the parents more likely to hire you again. If the parents are happy with your services, leave them a couple of your flyers and ask them to pass you along to their friends.