Snow Day Leaving you Stranded?

Evening news announces "Snow is coming down and School is Closed tomorrow" and immediately the kids are jumping and cheering for joy as this means a day to stay home and play! However, for many working parents their reaction to this news is anything but exciting, knowing that the next several hours will be spent struggling to find last minute childcare for their kiddos. Worries no more: SeekingSitters can help!

SeekingSitters is able to help with last minute sitting help for unexpected emergencies which will allow mom or dad the ability to get to the office knowing that their children are at home with a prescreened and experienced Professional Babysitter. And one simple call to SeekingSitters is all it takes to request a sitter as SeekingSitters does all the work for you!

SeekingSitters can also help businesses by offering corporate accounts to their employees where companies have the option of paying for babysitting services in the event of an unexpected emergency. Check out Corporate account information to find out more about how the program can help your business.. Corporate Accounts

Footprints from your Team

I have thought a lot lately about how important the word TEAM is to me. And how much a Team effort really means to me. Whether it is the team of our family where we work together to make each day happen. Or the team we have in our business. Or the team effort of the latest project I have participated in. The strength of your team is what will help you succeed and specifically help you build your business. Building a good team has always been an every day part of our business.

It is rewarding looking around our office to see reflections of people in our team that have left their footprints throughout our business, those who have played a part in the growth of our business. Whether it is a new marketing material, system improvements or simply a new filing system, everyone that has worked for our company has impacted our business in one way our another. It is important to let those in your team express themselves and give ideas. Look for the strengths in those on your team and encourage them to bring their ideas to the table. You will be surprised if you allow creativity from the new blood in your business, their enthusiasm for implementing their ideas can help your business grow if you take a chance to listen.

When you are seeking out individuals for your team, make sure you find individuals that share the same desire for company growth that you have. It is never smart to feel as if you have learned it all or feel like you know everything you need to know about business so if you fill your team with creative minds, you will continually be challenged in your business. Keep the perspective that there is always something around the corner that is new to your thinking and can spark a concept, idea or path of your business. Keep your mind open to always learning new things.

So lean to your team and open up the opportunity for ideas and creativity and you will find it exciting the footprints that are left behind from those that have passed through your business.

How to get work done with the kids in tow!

As a small business owner I greatly appreciate the flexibility that I have to spend more time with my kids but some days it is a challenge to get work in-between play time. Make it easy and fun with these simple tips!

Leave the house prepared
On days that you might have your kids in tow, pack the car with coloring books, snacks and activities. A day in the car can be like a day long road trip for the kids so make it fun and exciting. Pack a “fun-pack” for the day with an activity to grab at each new hour, they are always wanting to know what is next and keeps them entertained.

Stay productive
The day can be productive even if you are unable to get into the office or in front of the computer. Complete some of the tasks that you have been putting off for ages. Organize the office, send out letters to new clients or complete filing. These are definitely tasks that kiddos can help with and they usually enjoy helping in the office.

Easy Appointments
Plan your easy appointments for days that you have your kiddos in tow. Try to stick to appointments where you can drop off materials, fliers or pick up supplies or other appointments easy to have the kids with you. If you have to sit down with a client don’t plan your meetings in an office setting, let your clients know that you have your kiddos in tow and find out if a visit outside would be appropriate. Arrive a few minutes early and set up your kiddos with activities, reading materials or coloring books. Watch your time and don’t let your children get restless.

Break it up
Have designated time for your kiddos when they allow time for you. Let your kids know them know that during appointments they need to wait patiently and then they can have the same amount of time for fun. It is easy to pop into a park for even 10 minutes at a time. Stay just long enough so that they can release some energy and even timing them makes it a challenge!

Easy Expectations
Know that these days are not going to go as perfectly as planned and do your best to be productive and have a good attitude. These experiences provide opportunities to teach your children about business, respect, self control and patience.

It can be a lot of fun if you leave the day prepared for fun! I have discovered early on the more creative you are the more fun it is for everyone!

Quick Snapshot, A Business Tip

If I would have known then what I know now....

These words ring true for so many moments in owning a business, and I have a Quick Snapshot to share.

Last week during lunch with a business friend we were discussing tips on how to start a business with another colleague. We discussed suggestions about business formulation, legal ramifications, financial negotiations, and so on. But one very simple tip stuck out the most to me during our conversation that I wish someone would have told me during the initial start-up stages of our business - the simple suggestion of photo documenting your business and life during your business start-up stages.

During the start up of your business or entrepreneurial venture you are often caught with your head down in the papers and business formulation that you forget to take pictures and document those first moments of your business growth.

I realized this when I was asked last week to provide pictures from when we started for a CNN segment on which we were recently featured. I dug through boxes and boxes of old pictures (before the days that I stored EVERYTHING online) as well as dug through my online Shutterfly account trying to find a great picture that resembled us when we were getting started. I had hundreds of pictures of my children, family, dogs, vacations and so on, but no great pictures of the first days of our business growth. Days when David and I shared one home office and worked in our pajamas. Or pictures of our little ones napping in a nearby playpen while we quietly shuffled papers so as not to wake them. After weeks of digging I finally found three good shots for use, but none from those very first days.

So my one little piece of advice, if you are starting your business or developing your big idea - get out your digital camera and snap a picture....and be sure and print a copy too!

Nanny Cam: Are you using it for the right reasons?

Many years ago I saw a show on the Dr. Phil Show that featured a nanny caught on camera spanking a baby and then tossing the baby like it was a rag doll against the couch. Dr. Phil and the guests condemned the nanny for her wrongdoing and criticized the family for allowing the nanny to abuse their child and to subsequently become victims of child abuse inside their own home. The show highlighted the pain the family had gone through and how they have recovered since the terrible incident. But what the show failed to address was the significance of pre-screening (background screening) that could have been conducted on the nanny which probably could have helped to avoid this situation all together. This negligence in the failure to background-check the nanny was alarming to me.

At the time of the Dr. Phil Show I owned and operated an investigation company, Hide and Seek, so of course the first thing that I jumped to do was investigate this nanny. I knew that if the woman had been properly screened the family would have never hired the nanny in the first place.

Within 10 minutes of a very basic public records search online I was able to identify key factors about the woman (name provided on the Dr. Phil Show) which identified her as a risk for employment and totally unqualified to care for young children. If the family knew what I had found in a simple search, let alone what we could have found by digging deeper, they would have never hired her as their in-home child care provider.

So my question is, why would you put your children in that situation of “hire, then wait and see” if the nanny or sitter does harm? Why would you want to rely on the “nanny-cam” to catch the sitter or nanny in the act rather than pre-screen the candidate to eliminate the unqualified and untrustworthy? Why not identify the problems before you hire the individual to come into your home and watch your children? By identifying her personal character issues before the nanny comes to the home, through an in-depth background screen and interview process, you know that you are hiring a reliable, trustworthy and experienced Childcare Professional, who in some instances, may hold credentials supporting her expertise that are verifiable.

You can easily identify personal character evaluations by hiring a professional investigator to identify the background history, experience, character and trustworthiness of the individual. In conjunction with performing the background investigation, an in-person interview should be conducted with the Childcare Professional and references should be called and interrogated. It is important to call several references and ask key questions that will help you identify the experience and character of the sitter.

You also have to be careful that the screening you are performing has been conducted by an Investigation company that performs a hands-on investigation. If you are simply relying on online database providers you may miss important data that can only be obtained by having a trained data researcher evaluate the material found. So much of the information on the internet identified for employees is out of date, misreported and lacking in substance. A trained data research professional can identify the accurate documents, verify records in most recently lived states as well as check the data found against the data provided on the candidate’s application. This hands on screening is the most thorough way of performing a background investigation on a childcare provider.

I do feel that the “nanny-cam” can be a great tool for parents if used properly. Working parents can check in on a sitter or nanny during the day to find out what activities are going on at the house. Parents can even just utilize the “nanny-cam” to pop in virtually and say hi to the kids. There are some great two-way cameras available today and technology is available that allows you to check in from your Blackberry or Iphone. Some parents have utilized the “nanny-cam” as a great way to review the day when you return home so that you can get a feel of everyone’s mood and find out if the kids are listening to and obeying the sitter’s or nanny’s instructions.

The “nanny-cam” can be used to your advantage by letting your sitter or nanny know that you have a camera in the house; by doing so your sitter or nanny will likely be more conscientious on the job. You have an employee (the nanny or sitter) in your home so why is your child’s safety and security any less than the office, where “when the boss is away the employees will play” is an accepted scenario when use of security cameras prevail?

So my ultimate question is, why would a family spend hundreds on a “nanny-cam” but not a dime on a proper background investigation? My thought is that if you are going to invest money in the protection of your children while under the care of your in-home sitter or nanny, you should certainly pay for an in-depth background screening on the childcare worker but to be always there for your child, leave the “nanny-cam” to scan your child’s day and to allow you to be a part of his or her day.

To find out more information about background investigations, contact Hide and Seek USA Corp. at 918-524-3333, or about pre-screened Certified Sitters call SeekingSitters-Tulsa at 918-749-3588. Both companies operate nationally.

Background Investigation vs. Background Check

SeekingSitters performs a Background Investigation on every Contract Professional Sitter that is referred to the members of the service. A background investigation is much more thorough and accurate than a "Background Check." Read below to further understand the differences of SeekingSitters sitter screening process in contrast to other companies that simply provide an online "Background Check."

What standards can you expect in a “Background Check?” Is what is termed “Background Check” truly an “investigation” of a subject’s personal history? You will be surprised to know some facts about this misunderstood service that has become essential in providing personal character profiling on today’s job applicants.

When you read or hear that a company performs a “Background Check” on their contractors, employees or volunteer personnel , the consumer immediately feels a bit safer, a bit more at ease. But what you don’t know is that the information sold as a thorough background check can be grossly inadequate and inaccurate to the point of being outdated, missing, or just plain wrong! We come to trust the words “background checked” and assume that all background screening is performed professionally and thoroughly, perhaps in the manner of law enforcement agents – NOT SO!

Online information has helped investigators in a tremendous way over the past 20 years through the development of the internet, but this readily available information is only the preface of a true professional background investigation – the “hot off the press” data retrieval only scratches the surface of the individual’s lifelong behavior and does nothing to dig for the dirt! The availability of electronic information to the general public for the purpose of performing background checks has greatly raised the risks to employers for failure to perform due diligence in employment screening. Therefore, “Buyer Beware” when it comes to choosing a qualified, professional background investigator!

It is important for a consumer to understand that a company claiming to run a “background check” on someone could merely be retrieving online data and passing it on to you without any further verification of the information – this is not a background investigation! Such “background check” data retrieval providers merely scratch the surface of a person’s character profile history.

There have been cases of job applicants that have omitted criminal information on an application knowing that a standard "background check" will not identify this information due to incorrect filings or name misspellings. If the company you are utilizing is performing a true background investigation, this information will be found as a hand-on investigator will verify name accuracy as well as other detailed information.

In order to ensure that background information on a person is accurate and up to date, a professional background investigator must not only search all sources of public records readily available from information vendors, but also from the investigator’s own personal research and contact with the actual sources. Professional background investigators must know how to traverse through the maze of records repositories nationally and worldwide, and know exactly who-what-where their sources are in order to get the desired information on a subject.

There are tragic cases every day that example the lack of thorough background screening practices and it is not unusual in this era of online public records databases that background checks can be obtained anywhere for any price; therefore, the professionalism of a background screening company must be scrutinized. There is no such thing as “instant” results on a true background investigation, but it is true that “instant turnaround” or “same day results” are sold as background checks; a thorough personal character screening may take several days, or even several weeks, by a professional background investigation company, but it is well worth the wait when you can be assured that true due diligence has been performed on the subject.

What you can do to make sure you are getting the best background information possible from your background check supplier is to ask questions: How long have they been doing background screening? What specifically is their method of background investigation? Is a credit history analysis part of the background investigation? Is each assignment a personally operated hands-on project? Do their investigators have specific training in the areas of law or paralegal work, or are they trained research professionals? Do their investigators hold any credentials that are relevant to performing background investigations? Is your applicant’s investigation reviewed for accuracy and due diligence before it is sent to you? Are their investigators qualified to give personal character profile opinions if asked to do so? How often are the company’s sources of information updated?

After you have evaluated these questions accurately you can be assured that you are gathering the most accurate and up to date information on your job candidate and come to trust your background screening provider.

Joanne Whitney has been a licensed private investigator for over 30 years and founded Hide and Seek USA Corp, performing over 1,000 investigations nationwide for attorneys and corporations. Adrienne Kallweit is a licensed private investigator for over 10 years and founder of SeekingSitters, a national babysitting referral service that began in 2004. Through the extensive background investigation screening process developed by Hide and Seek, Adrienne and her husband David founded the on-demand babysitting referral service where every member and sitter are screened prior to acceptance into SeekingSitters, providing the safest babysitting service available. To find out more about background investigations, visit www.seekingsitters.com or www.hideandseekusa.com.

10 Parenting Tips

1. Get ready to work hard…without any instruction. Parenting is tough work. Whether you are a stay at home parent or juggling your family with a full time job, it is tough stuff. My job history only extends from meconium to elementary t-ball so I definitely do not yet have tenure in this parenting career. Every day I remind myself that it is hard work. Work that comes with little hugs and kisses as a paycheck. And what is better than that.

2. There are good days and bad days. My sister told me early on to hang on if you and the kids have a bad day because tomorrow will be better. And if tomorrow still stinks, hang on until the next day… because it will get better.

3. You can do anything with sleep. As a parent, you may think this is impossible but it is so important that you have enough sleep. You can do anything with rest and a clear head. Lean toward family, friends and babysitters to help allow you to get rest so you can recharge!

4. Be careful what you agree to. During the 400 questions asked by a typical toddler throughout a day you may find yourself unconsciously answering “yes” to things that you really have no idea what the question even was because you were actually daydreaming of a quiet moment alone. And then coming home to find your son dressed in last halloween’s batman costume and climbing on top of the car and finding out that you had agreed to strap your son to the roof of the car so he could be a flying superhero. (Of course the idea was quickly retracted but he definitely reminded me I had sad “YES!” to his grand idea.)

5. Seek out support. Have someone you can lean on to answer the tough questions, someone that has been there before. If only we had a child expert hotline to dial in the middle of a situation, like the movie Click where you can hit “pause” and call the emergency hotline. “Yeah, my 4 year old just sat in the 3 year old’s chair and then the 3 year old just pushed him out of the chair and now they are both lying on the floor screaming uncontrollably. I have tried to reason with them. Where do I go from here.” The perfect solution on the other end of the line as if they glanced into the room and determined the perfect outcome and within two words everyone is smiling and laughing again.

6. You are going to make mistakes. Parenting is definitely trial and error and you must have patience with yourself as you learn. I feel that the reason that memories really start to kick in around age 4, so that the parents have a trial and error period that the children don’t remember.

7. Keep good notes. Keep a journal next to your bed, one for each child and jot down notes about your kids, what they said for the day, what you were doing on a particular day. Don’t stress about how often you write in it, just grab it whenever you remember. You will forget the little things and it is so fun to look back and laugh. Tell them what they were like at 2, at 6 and at 16. They will love to hear the little stories when they are older.

8. Never miss your kid’s plays or performances – no matter how small. I almost missed my daughter’s play performance at the end of last year. No, I am not a horrible mother but it was 8th performance of the year and I just didn’t know how they were going to mix up twinkle twinkle little star a new way that would require me jump away from work. Of course at the last minute I grabbed my keys and ran out the door. It was the sweetest twinkle twinkle she ever sang.

9. Don’t judge. I have learned not to judge other parents for what they are or aren’t doing because they are likely trying their hardest and you don’t know their circumstances. You may find yourself judging a parent for something that you end up doing yourself. Have compassion for other parents and know that we are all in this journey together.

10. Tell your kids you love them, often. Kids can never hear this enough.