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As with any business, networking is important to landing better jobs. Reach out to local moms' groups and offer your babysitting services for a small fee during group meetings and events. Moms can relax and participate, knowing that their children are safe in your care in the next room. Make cards or flyers with your contact information and hand them out to the moms after the meetings.
If you belong to a church, ask if you can volunteer in your church's daycare and offer babysitting services. This can help you network with parents to get babysitting jobs. Parents might feel more comfortable knowing that their babysitter is also a fellow member of their church. A bonus is that you can list your volunteer work on your college applications. -
Parents might be willing to pay more for a babysitter with first-aid or CPR training; such training will certainly better equip you to take care of children. Other training that may allow you to charge higher rates can include child development classes, sign language and child nutritional classes. These classes are available to adults and teenagers and can be found by contacting your local Red Cross chapter, hospital or community college. Some high schools also offer child development classes as electives.
Plan structured activities for the kids based on your skills; parents will appreciate that you're doing interactive learning activities. If you are a good storyteller, let parents know that you will have a storytime activity for their kids. Offer artistic activities and crafts if you are skillful in those areas (and with the parents' permission to use art supplies with their kids). You can even offer tutoring while babysitting by creating flash cards with letters, words and math problems appropriate for the ages of the children. -
Some parents will admit that they don't want to give the name of their babysitter to other parents because they don't want to lose their favorite babysitter. Offering an incentive to current babysitting customers might motivate them to refer you to other babysitting jobs. Some examples are to offer a discount to parents who give you a referral or to offer a "double date" discount to watch the children of two couples who are going out together.
Another incentive that can get you a better rate is to offer to come over before the appointed time to cook the kids' dinner and feed them so the parents can have more time to get ready for their night. Talk with the parents to create a dinner menu that they approve of and will allow you to cook unsupervised. Decide on the menu ahead of time so that the parents can make sure to have all of the necessary ingredients for the meal. Always clean up after every meal.
