Many thanks and compliments…

Its always lovely to get positive feedback and I must say to have your day made two days in row! Wow!

Sms from Pam, placed with her family over 4 months ago, received yesterday:

Hi Bianca,

Just to let you know everything is still going great! I couldn’t have asked for a nicer family, they treat me well. P.S. I gave a lady your number, she is looking for a new au pair position, I told her you are the best agency around at the moment. Many thanks, PAM

and then another email I received this morning from a candidate, which put a big smile on my face:

I’ve been meaning to say this for a while now. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but your agency is fantastic! In the 8 or so months that I’ve been registered with 4 agency’s you are the only one who has been consistent, pro-active (active) in placing and finding work. I have heard once or twice from the others and received no work from them. I have heard from other Au pairs that their experience has been the same.
So, much appreciation and gratitude for your hard work and great service.

With thanks

Hayley

Then from a client, we recently received the following email with regards to a query she had:

Hi Bianca

You are the best!

Thank you for responding and for being so prompt.

Kind regards

Have a lovely weekend

Alicia

and from another client, earlier this month:

Hi there

As discussed , please keep on looking and it would be great if I could see people before the end of the week.  Its now super urgent , as Ihave now been home for almost a month and need to get back into work.

Thanks for the professional and efficient service

Regards

Helga

What a way to make my day! Sitters4U, placing you first! Thats our motto and we stick to it! Thank you for the compliments everyone.

New Website launched now…

I am ecstatic! Finally, months of work, sleepless nights and barely any social activity finally bears fruit…I am watching as I am typing this, our new website go live. Features include forms for every service, navigation that ensures you know where you are always, and some other wonderful features on our Content Management. Over 200 pages all neatly tucked into their individual spaces and all fully, easily navigable!

Like I said I am ecstatic. Check it out www.sitters4u.co.za

The cost of children…

I recieved this chain mail this morning and had to share… Enjoy:

The Price of Children

This is just too good not to pass on to all. Here is something absolutely positive for a change. I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It’s nice.

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with R1,681,470.00 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn’t even touch college tuition.

But R1,681,470.00 isn’t so bad if you break it down.. It translates into:
•    R93414.93 a year,
•    R7784.49 a month,
•    R1796.34 a week.
•    A mere R254.52 a day!
•    Just over R10.50 an hour.
Still, you might think the best financial advice is: don’t have children if you want to be ‘rich.’ Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your R1,681,470.00?
•    Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
•    Glimpses of God every day.
•    Giggles under the covers every night.
•    More love than your heart can hold.
•    Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
•    Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
•    A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
•    A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
•    Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.
For R1,681,470.00, you never have to grow up. You get to:

•    Finger-paint,
•    Carve pumpkins,
•    Play hide-and-seek,
•    Catch lightning bugs,
•    Never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:
•    Keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
•    Watch Saturday morning cartoons,
•    Go to Disney movies, and
•    Wish on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodlewreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother’s Day, and cards with backward letters for Father’s Day.

For a mere R254.52 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:
•    Retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
•    Taking the training wheels off a bike,
•    Removing a splinter,
•    Filling a paddling pool,
•    Coaxing a wad of gum out of hairs, and
•    Coaching a rugby team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat in history to witness the:
•    First step,
•    First word,
•    First bra,
•    First date,
•    First time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you’re lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match..

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!

Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren & great-grandchildren!!!!!!!

It’s the best investment you’ll ever make!!!!!!!!!

April….the month of many new things!

Change…Are you ready for it? I certainly am, whilst most people spent their Easter weekend away with family, my family went to Saldanha, visiting family and can you believe it, working. Whilst my daughter had lots to do, my partner and I packed in an incredible amount of time into Sitters4U’s new website? Why?  I have been so excited about our new launch and it looks like its finally here!We are about 6 hours work away!

Its got a new look and feel, its going to be extremely easy to navigate, all services are now accessible from the website, so a client need never download forms, fax or email a form, its now all accessible online.

To add to the current forms online, which include au pairs, babysitters and house sitters, New service forms previously only downloadable, include:

On the child care side we have Drivers, Tutors and Nannies;

Home care now includes online requests for Domestics.

and Frail care Services can now be requested online,  include: Nurses, Paramedics, Care givers, Companions, Medical Administration Staff, other medical services, Treat a Senior options and Home Management services which include everything from gardeners and electricians to plumbers and more.

To make it even more incredible we now have online staff applications for each and every service, obviously as a candidate you will still need to come and see us but at least it makes processing your applications alot easier, meaning faster processing of applications as well!

Okay but that’s not all I have up my sleeve! We have also just launched a new child care course in Cape Town for Nannies, domestics and Au pairs. As far as I know it also happens to be the most well priced course at a rate of only R 500 per person ( the next course up starts at R 1500)! Very exciting stuff, covering:

•    Basic Childcare
•    Etiquette in Employers homes
•    Communication between Employer and Employee
•    Communication between Child minder and Children
•    Safety
•    Health and Nutrition
•    Child Development, month to month
•    Age Appropriate activities from newborn to Preschool

and with ongoing support and a monthly newsletter, this course is well worth it!

So watch out for the new website, launching in the next few days! Looking forward to the new challenges, clients and staff we will be assisting.